Closer Competitors Than You Would Expect

If you want a capable off-road SUV right off the showroom floor, your choices are about as good as they’ve ever been. It’s getting better, too, with the introduction of the fully redesigned 2025 Toyota 4Runner. Toyota will offer a couple different levels and flavors of off-road equipment, with the top-tier option being the TRD Pro. We were naturally curious how it compares with perhaps the most fierce option in the segment, the Ford Bronco Raptor.

Ford

Ford is one of America’s oldest automakers and one of the oldest in the world, popularized for being the first to effectively mass produce the automobile under Henry Ford with the Ford Model T. In over 120 years, Ford has become a sales leader in a variety of segments, with popular nameplates like the Ford F-150, Transit, and Mustang.

Founded

June 16, 1903

Founder

Henry Ford

Headquarters

Dearborn, Michigan, USA

Owned By

Publicly Traded

Current CEO

Jim Farley

This isn’t a perfectly fair fight, since the Raptor is seriously expensive by comparison, and it provides equipment to match. But what it does illustrate, is that you can still get a remarkable amount of SUV for quite a bit less, which is where the 4Runner comes in. Let’s dive into the details.

Powertrain: Two Very Different Paths To Loads Of Torque

* city/highway/combined as per EPA

It’s very interesting how, despite using very different powertrains, the Ford and Toyota come to closer output than you might expect. Ford gets there by having more turbochargers, more displacement and more cylinders. It gets Ford more power, but Toyota manages more torque by combining its four-cylinder engine with an electric motor. The motor alone makes 48 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque.

The Toyota also has advantages in fuel economy and towing, particularly the former, getting 53% better economy than the Ford. If you’re towing, the Toyota is again the way to go, though. It’s worth noting, however, that the Bronco Raptor has the best towing capacity within the Bronco lineup: The next best is just 3,500 pounds.

Also worth noting is a very useful feature of the Bronco’s four-wheel-drive system. It can actually engage all four wheels automatically. On the 4Runner, you’ll have to manually select and de-select four-wheel-drive. In snowy or rainy conditions that can go back and forth from pavement to slippery coatings, the automatic engagement is handy.

Off-Road Features And Capability: What You’re Really Paying For

You’re buying one of these SUV variants for one reason: you plan on doing some fairly serious off-roading on a regular basis. Either that, or you want other people to think you will. Regardless, there are various specifications and equipment for both that are important, and provide some major distinctions. We’ll start off with the most basic stats: angles, clearances and tire sizes.

There’s a pretty clear winner here in the Bronco Raptor: It has better ground clearance, and can clear larger obstacles. The bigger BFGoodrich KO2 tires will be a boon just about anywhere, and Ford even sells wheels that can have beadlocks attached to let you really drop air pressures for tricky situations. It really only has one Achilles’ heel, and that’s the width. The Raptor is wide enough that it requires the additional marker lights also seen on vehicles such as the F-150 Raptor, Hummer EV and Ram TRX and RHO. This can present a challenge if you’re off-roading in places with thick trees and rocks where every inch counts. Though broadly speaking, just on these numbers, the Raptor is a big winner.

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Looking at other off-road equipment, the Raptor also goes beyond the Toyota, but not by nearly the margins one might expect. Setting it apart are heavily upgraded axles all along the driveline, even adding beefier ring gears in the differentials. It also has both front and rear locking differentials to the 4Runner’s rear locker. Ford’s trick Trail Turn Assist, which can lock up a rear wheel to help the broad Bronco get around tight turns, and the one-pedal off-road mode are also unique to the Ford.

Then things start to even out. Both SUVs feature disconnecting sway bars to increase wheel articulation. They both have off-road cruise control, hill descent control, off-road camera angles and multiple terrain modes. Skid plates are on the menu for both, though the Ford one-ups the Toyota’s aluminum plates under the nose, transfer case and fuel tank by going to steel across the entire underside. It’s a similar situation with shocks, as both get upgraded internal-bypass Fox shocks. The Toyota’s are manually adjustable, while the Ford’s are continuously adjusted automatically.

Styling, Comfort And Convenience Features: What You’ll Use Daily

While the off-road features are the big draw of these SUVs, the truth is that they’ll be on paved public roads most of the time. So the usual slate of features, as well as how the SUVs look, still matter. As far as looks, the Bronco stands out significantly more, thanks to those enormous tires and the fender flares that have to cover them. It also packs steel bumpers, the front of which has some Rigid Industries fog lights, and a unique hood, grille and federally mandated marker lights. The Toyota still brings some visual aggression, though, with its own complement of auxiliary lighting including a light bar and Rigid fog lights. The grille features retro Toyota badging, plus it gets a unique front bumper and a set of fender flares.

As for features, the Toyota offers just a bit more than the Bronco. It has a larger infotainment screen at 14 inches diagonal to the Bronco’s 12, and it has 14 speakers to the Bronco’s 10. Both front seats are power-adjustable in the Toyota and add ventilation in addition to heat. The Ford’s seats only have manual adjustment and heat. The Ford does have the unique feature of a removable roof, but for those seeking a more quiet and refined cabin experience, the fixed roof and sunroof of the 4Runner are likely more appealing. Otherwise, the two SUVs are quite similarly equipped with dual-zone automatic climate control, wireless phone charging, heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, lane-keep assist and automatic headlights.

Price And Winner: It’s All Down To Your Preference And Pocketbook

What separates these two SUVs more than anything else, though, is pricing. The 4Runner TRD Pro isn’t cheap with an MSRP of $66,900, or $68,350 when adding the $1,450 destination charge. But that’s not far off many other off-roaders this size. The Bronco Raptor on the other hand, is eye-wateringly expensive. It starts with an MSRP of $90,035, and after adding the $1,895 destination charge, it comes to $92,625. That’s a little less than a $25,000 price gulf.

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The Bronco certainly offers the most off-road capability of these two vehicles. It’s also the most impressive-looking, and it earns X-factor points for its removable top. But if you opt for the 4Runner, you have enough money left over to buy an entire second car if you wanted to. Either that, or you have more than $20,000 that you can use to pay for fuel, off-road accessories and upgrades, or whatever else you might want. You get all that along with still impressive off-road capability that will probably be more than enough for most buyers. There’s absolutely a case for someone with great means to get the Raptor as one of the meanest off-roaders on the market, but of these two flagship dirt-ready SUVs, the Toyota makes the most sense to us.

We should mention that there’s a version of the Bronco that generally makes much more sense than the Raptor: the Badlands with the Sasquatch Package. The package adds 35-inch tires that match the 4Runner TRD Pro, along with a suspension lift and upgraded Bilstein shocks. It gets a shorter 4.7:1 final drive ratio than the 4.46:1 standard one, plus an electronic-locking rear differential. It also features the 2.7-liter V6 that makes 330 hp and 415 lb-ft of torque, again in range of the 4Runner. In four-door form (two-door is also available) like the 4Runner and Raptor, the Badlands Sasquatch starts at $58,070, and the $1,895 destination charge brings it to $59,965, a big discount over the TRD Pro, which is already far cheaper than the Raptor. That even leaves room for options such as the $2,825 Lux Package (adaptive cruise, a 360-degree camera, and a 12-speaker sound system), the $1,695 hard top, $775 modular front bumper and $2,355 Hoss 3.0 Fox internal bypass shocks. That brings it to an MSRP of $65,710 and a grand total with destination of $67,615, still just under the cost of the TRD Pro. In a way, this is the real winner of the comparison.

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Sources: Ford, Toyota, EPA.