All year, the Toyota 4Runner SUV has been crushing dealer sales targets as much as it has been crushing rocks. Sales of the iconic off-roader are nearly double last year, and it has seemed unstoppable. Unstoppable, that is, until the last two months.
The first signs of weakness have just appeared, but we know where they might be pointing.
4Runner Is Having A Banner Year
2025 Toyota 4Runner Trailhunter front 3/4 angle in Everest greenToyota
Toyota’s 4Runner is a staple for off-roaders, surfers, and anyone who wants to showcase that style while being able to afford the body-on-frame SUV. It’s also the one for buyers who want a rear window that can roll down into the hatch.
In 2026, sales have been on a tear. At the end of June, sales were up 141%, and Toyota had moved more than 72,000 versus 30,000 in the first half of 2025.
Then, the cracks. In July, Toyota saw sales drop 8.4% from 14,582 to 13,375. The drop wasn’t quite so large in August, but it wasn’t exactly a return to the first half of the year. The August figures show Toyota sold 13,314 copies of the 4Runner, down 0.8% (about 109 units) compared with August 2025. Now, the gain over 2025 is shrinking, though if it’s only 71% for the year, Toyota will still likely be very happy.
That’s especially true if 4Runner manages to crash the battle between the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler. Ford hasn’t announced August sales yet, and updated Jeep numbers won’t arrive until October. But last we checked, 4Runner was getting mighty close. Just 5,000 units separated Bronco and 4Runner in July, and Bronco sales were trending downward.
What Happened To 4Runner In 2024 And 2025?
2025 Toyota 4Runner Trailhunter exterior rear2025 Toyota 4Runner Trailhunter
Toyota is likely to be happy about the figures regardless, but to understand why requires us to flip back to some older sales charts. It’s not that the 4Runner has necessarily been doing better this year; it’s more that the SUV is finally returning to form.
With 98,991 units out the door in the first eight months of the year, the 4Runner has already outsold what it managed in the entire year in 2024 and 2025. The 13,000-unit figure is what Toyota used to sell every month. It only managed to get back to the five figures in the final months of 2025, and that momentum has continued.
Even better for Toyota, the 4Runner isn’t hitting the figures by stealing sales from other Toyota models. Sales of the Sequoia are up 15% this year. Sales of the Land Cruiser are down for the year, but were up 35% in August to hit 4,052 and 23,582 on the year.
The 4Runner has been up and down for Toyota over the years. Through the early 2010s, it sold around 50,000 units a year, not exactly an impressive amount. That shot up starting in 2014, and the 4Runner saw a peak of 144,696 sales in 2021. If the SUV’s sales pace continues, this year could be its best in two decades, which is as far back as we can find records.
Lexus’s twin to the 4Runner, the swankier GX, is not seeing the same success. Last month, Lexus sold just 2,705, 19% fewer than the same month a year ago. That version of the SUV is down 20% on the year, currently totaling 20,505 vehicles delivered.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
2025 Toyota 4Runner group front 3/4 angle in green, tan, grayToyota
2024 and 2025 saw low sales of the brand-new sixth-generation 4Runner, and reports jumped to the turbo-four allegedly making it unpopular with customers. In reality, Toyota launched the sixth-generation 4Runner in early 2024, but the start of sales was pushed back from mid-year until the end of 2024, which hurt that year’s sales.
It’s likely that ramping up production is the reason sales didn’t pick up until the middle of 2025, but the 4Runner is still on a tear the likes of which Toyota has never seen. Proof that the newest 4Runner is the most popular yet, at least with the people Toyota cares about.
How close will this off-road battle get? It will be very interesting to see how things stack up when automakers announce their third quarter sales in early October.
