What about something like a GX460? A little more refined than a 4Runner and has the smooth 4.6L V8 6spd.
I've owned my 2013 LC for a few months now and just recently sold my 2016 4Runner. I think if you only have room for one vehicle than the LC makes more sense. However if I had enough disposable income and garage space I would have kept the 4Runner. There are plenty of things I miss about it and I probably should have kept it around as the off-road toy. I do like simplicity of the 4Runner. The manual HVAC controls are so much easier to use than having to use the infotainment in the LC. The interior storage is better. A place to put my cellphone and the cup holders are actually functionally for coffee cups and 32oz nalgenes. That sounds trivial but consider that you have to buy an aftermarket 3D printed plastic to have functional cup holders in the LC. The 2nd row and cargo area are more functional to use than the LC. I don't have a side folding 3rd row to deal with that eats up space and the seats fold forward and into the floor that creates a flat space for hauling items. The LC has a less functional cargo area since the the 2nd row seats sorta tumble forward. Off-road wise the benefits are the rear locker, clearance, less plastic, size, and fantastic aftermarket support for pretty much anything. The downsides are obvious and have already been discussed.
I'll say this though, I paid $35.2k for my 4Runner new in 2016. It took me on a lot of trails all over UT and CO. All the trails I've seen posted on the LCDC7 thread I did in my 4Runner with aplomb, it didn't require a $85k vehicle. Plus many more forest road trails and was my primary vehicle going to ski resorts in UT, CO, ID, WY, and MT. Never had a single failure, problem or anything such as a hiccup after 107k miles. My 2013 LC needed a new radiator at 69k. I've had two 5th gen 4Runners and have been on the t4r forums for the last 7 years or so. Several high mileage 220K+ vehicles and I have not heard of a single common failure point on these 5th gens. They're rock solid, durable and I can see them being 300k-400k mile vehicles easily. I get it, this is a LC centric forum and so it's easy to take a crap on the 4Runner for all its faults. They're extremely capable, reliable, and for $35k it was a hell of a value.
Plus if you want to compare it to a Bronco or Wrangler, while it might not be as capable off-road it tows 5,000lbs, has a payload of 1200-1500lbs, and has much larger cargo volume.
Not sure where i read from, but i remember that LC CRAWL can run continuously for 15?? minutes? Don’t quote me tho…it was a long time ago that I read that when LC was introduced in 2008?
