Toyota is one of the best-selling automakers in the world, and the main reason why that’s the case is that Toyota makes a lot of great cars. One of the best cars that the Japanese auto giant makes is the 4Runner, but despite its quality, its sales numbers have been slacking in 2022. In fact, the Toyota 4Runner is currently set to have its worst year in terms of sales since 2016, and here’s a look at why that may be happening.

Here’s how badly the Toyota 4Runner is selling in 2022

According to GoodCarBadCar, after starting the year off strong with the highest January sales ever, sales of the 4Runner quickly dropped month-to-month. Disaster really struck in June, however, as Toyota only sold roughly 7,500 units of the 4Runner that month. That’s compared to 9,300 units in June 2021, which means that, compared to last year, Toyota sold almost 2,000 fewer 4Runners in June 2022. 

This collapse in sales continued in July 2022, as the Japanese automaker only sold about 7,600 units of the SUV. That’s compared to 11,600 units sold in July 2021, which means that Toyota sold 4,000 fewer 4Runners in July 2022 compared to the year prior. 4Runner sales rebounded to 10,000 units in August, but that’s still trailing behind last year’s sales. It’s the same story for the rest of 2022. 

Data isn’t available for December 2022 yet, but it’s unlikely that Toyota will be able to sell enough 4Runners to prevent it from having the worst year since 2016. From January to November 2022, Toyota’s only sold 113,732 units of the 4Runner.

The SUV’s worst year since 2016, when it only sold 128,296 units. Toyota will have to sell roughly 15,000 units in December in order to make up that deficit, which seems unlikely at the moment.

There are a couple of reasons why the Toyota 4Runner may be selling poorly

One of the biggest reasons why the 4Runner has been selling so poorly isn’t entirely Toyota’s fault. Like many other automakers, Toyota’s been hit by the supply chain crisis, and that’s led to some cuts in production. That means that Toyota is making fewer cars, but car shoppers still want and need to buy new cars. 

As such, there’s been an imbalance of supply and demand, and dealerships have raised prices on what cars are available on the lot. Thanks to those higher prices, some shoppers have been turned off from buying a new car. As a result of those factors and more, there simply aren’t going to be that many 4Runner sales, especially compared to prior years.

This may be an anomaly, but it may also be a sign of things to come

The supply chain crisis isn’t going to last forever, and eventually, automakers will be able to produce enough cars to meet demand, and that should also lower new car prices. When that does happen, 4Runner sales are likely going to return to what they used to be, but this isn’t actually a guarantee. The 4Runner is a very old car, and Toyota hasn’t given it a major update since the 2009 model year. 

In fact, the Toyota SUV is still using the same 4.0-liter V6 engine that it received back in the 2009 model year. While the engine is reliable, it’s not very efficient.

The 4Runner only gets about 17 mpg combined, and that’s one of the worst fuel economies in the segment. It’s possible that the 4Runner’s decline in sales has to do with the fact that shoppers wanted an efficient SUV, but realized that the 4Runner isn’t that type of vehicle.