2010 Toyota 4Runner Trail Test Drive: Is This the Last 4X4?

GM bailed on its mid-size, body-on-frame SUVs last year. There is no Dodge Durango for 2010. The body-on-frame Ford Explorer is doomed. Rumor is that Nissan is even thinking of killing the Xterra. The traditional mid-size SUV may have been the definitive vehicle of the 1990s, but it's an endangered species now. Whistling right past the SUV graveyard is the new, fifth-generation, 2010 Toyota 4Runner. Park the new one next to a 2009 4Runner and they look similar. But every body panel is different and it's a more capable machine than ever before. It's not a wannabe SUV or a crossover done up in rugged duds. The new 4Runner is a full-frame rock crawler. It may still be called 4Runner, but it's not a forerunner of anything now. It's a survivor—maybe the last of its kind.