[Alberta's Child]

I wasn't thrilled with the 4Runner, either. It may have excelled in a lot of ways, but I had two basic complaints about it:

1. It seemed too heavy for the powertrain (at the time, I believe the largest engine offered on it was a small V-6).

2. I never liked the idea of building an SUV on a pickup truck chassis. Not enough leg room inside (especially in the back seat).

[Spktyr]

Until recently, most SUVs were built on pickup frames. It adds great strength and allows them to go offroad and not break. (Note that the FJ Cruiser, a Toyota unibody, is having body cracking problems when used offroad.)

That said, lack of legroom is not a function of whether it’s unibody or body-on-frame but of interior design. Case in point is my 90 Nissan Pathfinder - tons of room in the front; my 7’ tall basketball player friend fit inside just fine. Rear legroom is OK - if the front seaters aren’t basketball players and don’t have the seat back all the way. They did fix that later with the next generation of Pathfinder and XTerra.