Upwards, Downwards: The Prices of Two Very Different Toyotas Head in Opposite Directions for 2019

It’ll be a sad day when Toyota parts ways with the 4Runner SUV, but at the present moment there’s no plan to strike the long-running, body-on-frame model from the lineup. You will, however, pay more to get behind the wheel of the 2019 4Runner’s ballsiest variant.

At the extreme opposite end of the size scale, Toyota wants to make it cheaper to bring home a Toyota that’s actually a Mazda.

Let’s start out with the 4Runner — or more specifically, the 4Runner TRD Pro. Toyota’s burly, family-friendly off-roader sees a significant price jump for 2019, indicative of extra equipment added to the trim for the coming model year.

According to order guides seen by CarsDirect, the 2019 4Runner TRD Pro stickers for $47,460 after a destination fee, or $3,340 more than the 2018 model. Elsewhere in the 4Runner range, prices only climb by $100. For that added dough, buyers see added capability. Toyota gave its TRD Pro models upgraded kit for 2019, with the 4Runner riding an inch higher and boasting improved suspension components. (Read a full run-down here.)

The 4Runner remains a very important product for Toyota, selling 12,444 examples in the U.S. in July alone. As one of the last “true” SUVs, the model, despite growing increasingly long in the tooth, saw its volume grow this year. Sales rose 26 percent in July, year over year, while volume over the first seven months of 2018 climbing 5.3 percent.

The diminutive Yaris Sedan, known until this coming model year as the Yaris iA (except in Canada, where it was always the Yaris Sedan), is a rebadged and mildly reworked Mazda 2 once sold under the Scion banner. It’s a complex lineage. For 2019, Toyota decided to grace the little car with a design refresh so mild, it’s almost identical to the 2018 model. (Some might say it is.)

Pricing most certainly is not the same as 2018, as the base Yaris L Sedan drops $500, stickering for $15,370 after destination. That makes it the cheapest Toyota in the stable. Toss in an automatic transmission for another $1,100 should you find manuals confusing and scary. Why the price drop? Well, the value proposition is an age-old thing, but those buyers stand to see last year’s standard alloys replaced with 15-inch steelies. Moving up a grand in price nets you an LE, which returns the alloys and adds other niceties like smart key and push-button ignition.

Higher up the trim and content ladder (there’s now a ladder — unlike before), the top-flight XLE model commands a price of $19,470, or just $150 less than the base Corolla L. You’d have to be a big Mazda fan to spring for the smaller car in this comparo.

[Images: Toyota]