Respect to you all Gurus in the House. I need informed advised to make a choice between these two vehicles above, my considerations are Reliability, economy and comfort for a family. It is important also for the car to stand the test of time at good maintenance culture. Your advise will be greatly appreciated. THANKS.

they are pretty much siblings, the 4runner is on pick-up truck chassis, it comes with 1GR-FE V6 4.0L engine especially on N280s(5th generation starts late 2009 till present) but N210s (4th gen) which stops in 2009, you also have the 2UZ-FE engine, the highlander however is crossover SUV platform (K platform) it parades a 3.5L 2GR-FE engine majorly in that model year, it boasts of a third row so if you have a fairly large family, the highlander might be a better bet.

the 4runner comes across as more rugged, it's definitely an off-road, but it comes only in 2 rows. On maintenance they're almost @ par, fuel economy seems to favour highlander, except you're considering I4 in both models(2TR in 4runner 2.7L & 1AR in highlander also 2.7L)

i don't really like the design of the 1GR, if you have a timing issue, the whole engine has to be brought out, that's a minus from me

femicousim:
they are pretty much siblings, the 4runner is on pick-up truck chassis, it comes with 1GR-FE V6 4.0L engine especially on N280s(5th generation starts late 2009 till present) but N210s (4th gen) which stops in 2009, you also have the 2UZ-FE engine, the highlander however is crossover SUV platform (K platform) it parades a 3.5L 2GR-FE engine majorly in that model year, it boasts of a third row so if you have a fairly large family, the highlander might be a better bet.
the 4runner comes across as more rugged, it's definitely an off-road, but it comes only in 2 rows. On maintenance they're almost @ par, fuel economy seems to favour highlander, except you're considering I4 in both models(2TR in 4runner 2.7L & 1AR in highlander also 2.7L)
i don't really like the design of the 1GR, if you have a timing issue, the whole engine has to be brought out, that's a minus from me

Thank you so much Sir for the insight, but you seem to favour the Highlander on technical grounds. But i was wondering the probability/frequency of having a timing problem regarding the 4runner. One more thing Sir, on a scale of 1 to 10, how will you rate The 4runner vs The Highlander. Best Regards.

romano1:

Thank you so much Sir for the insight, but you seem to favour the Highlander on technical grounds. But i was wondering the probability/frequency of having a timing problem regarding the 4runner. One more thing Sir, on a scale of 1 to 10, how will you rate The 4runner vs The Highlander. Best Regards.

you are welcome sir, funny enough, i prefer the 4runner because of my bias for boxy, rugged & ugly looking SUVs, BUT i was basing my response on your enquiry about fuel, comfort, family etc.

on the timing of the 4runner, i've only worked on 1 with a timing issue, and it's NOT enough to conclude that they usually have timing problems, i was just saying that i do not like the design of the engine because of the trouble of unmounting engine, when working on the timing