Back in the early 2000s, the Tacoma was still a small—ish pickup you could buy new for cheap. Base models with no options started just under $12,000. If you wanted a cheap, fun to drive pickup, Toyota had you covered. Four years before the sports car fighting Tacoma X-Runner hit the scene, the Tacoma S-Runner carried the sporty truck flag for the brand.
Based on the Tacoma Xtra Cab, the S-Runner 4X2, it was like a factory tuner job. Outside, it came with a monochrome paint job in either red or black, five-spoke wheels, and more aggressive body work. Inside it was standard Tacoma fare, and aside from the white faced gauges, there wasn’t much else that was sporty.
But, this wasn’t just a sporty looking appearance package. Toyota made an effort to make the S-Runner a fun little pickup. The suspension saw the most modifications. Overall, it was dropped by an inch and performance tuned Tokico shocks were thrown on along with front and rear anti-sway bars and higher rate springs. The steering effort was also increased. This was capped off by stickier Bridgestone Potenza RE910 tires on 16-inch wheels.
Under the hood, power came from a 3.4-liter 190 horsepower V6. This was paired with a five-speed manual transmission and a performance tuned exhaust. It was enough to hustle the S-Runner to 60 mph in just under eight seconds, which for the time wasn’t bad. Even if you didn’t drive it like a sports car, you could still use it as a truck as it was rated to tow 3,500 pounds. Even better was the price. The S-Runner started at just $17,905. If you wanted one at the time you probably had to search for it. It’s said Toyota only made 200 a month. Just 1,700 were made in 2001. And according to owner forums from the time, poor marketing led to slow sales, which eventually led to dealers only having them as special order only before it was dropped.
Its demise wouldn’t be mourned long though. In 2005, Toyota introduced the follow up to the S-Runner, the X-Runner, a truck that could hold its own against a Nissan Z. The S-Runner was ahead of its time though. Some may call the performance light, but for the price you really can’t complain.
