I’ve never owned an off-road capable vehicle, and don’t want to have a car payment so I’ve been driving a Prius for the last 15 years, and saving my money up to buy a vehicle that can get me to trailheads, and hard to reach campsites where I live in the western US.  I happened to have reached my savings goal right at the same time that Toyota is coming out with these new 2025 4Runners, and the Trailhunter edition seems to check most of the boxes for what I’d like and fits in my budget.  My problem now is from what I’ve been reading, it’s nearly impossible to get one.  Any advice for how I can maximize my chances?

So far I’ve talked to my local dealer who said they couldn’t really help me, but would I like to buy some other vehicle?  A dealer in the next town over said they’d put me on the wait list, but that I’d have to “buy whatever they got in, which likely won’t be the Trailhunter”.  I’d rather not get in line to buy a random build that I don’t want, and they said they might not get me anything at all since there are others in line ahead of me, who have been in line since it was announced last Spring.  I also talked to a car buying service who works with a network of dealers.  They seemed more optimistic, but haven’t given me anything concrete yet.  Since I don’t buy cars very often, I don’t know the tricks of the trade.  Is it really this difficult?

Also, when a new vehicle comes out like this, how hard it is it to buy after market items?  I’d like to set it up to sleep in the back, and adding a winch would be nice as well, but I’m not sure if it’ll be hard to buy those kinds of add-ons for a new vehicle that just came out.

2025 Trailhunter - how to get one?