4Runner's Wisconsin origins

Back in the eary 80's, a dealer named Jack Safro called up fellow Wisconsin manufacturer, Winnebego,, and told them he had a ton of these pickups. Is there any way that you could put a top and seats in it? They said, "we're winnebego, thats what we do."

So Safro started to send a bunch of Toyota pickups to Winnebego, and they put a top on it and some seats in the back. Over time, Toyota japan was starting to notice the sales of these Trekkers. A certain Akio Toyoda was so curious, he made a trip to just outside of Milwaukee to see the creation that Safro and Winnebego had created. Safro was selling 30 of these a year, and Toyoda was intrigued. His trip ended back in Tokyo with him demanding that a vehicle of this stature is made.

The Toyota Trekker aka Toyota 4Runner was born!


While the Chicken Tax may have been a factor, the 4Runner traces its roots to a Toyota dealer in Wisconsin named Jack Safro. As Donut Media tells it, in 1980 Safro thought the hot-selling Toyota Hilux pickup truck would be even more beloved in the snowy Midwest if it had a rear fiberglass canopy and a few extra seats. So Safro got the OK from Toyota to reach out to Winnebago, and violà: the Toyota Trekker was born. All 1500 Trekkers built were sold, and Toyota took notice. Less than four years later, the 4Runner hit the market.

The 1984–87 4Runner received a 2.4-liter 22RE inline four-cylinder engine that generated 105 horsepower.

22re is a built proof engine. Will run all day long. Sure it lacks power, but it makes up for it in reliability. One of the best motors Toyota ever made.

All 4Runners have been built in Japan at Toyota's plant in Tahara, Aichi, or at the Hino Motors (a Toyota subsidiary) plant in Hamura.


As of 2021, the 4Runner is sold in Bahamas, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, the United States and Venezuela.

 

But for stormy weather during the winter of 1966-'67, Jack Safro might never have gone into the business of selling Toyota cars.

"It was between Christmas and New Year's, and it was snowing and snowing - unbelievable - and, in the car business, when it snows you might as well lock the door," he later recalled.

A vacation in California seemed to be a good idea, and it was there he spotted two little old ladies driving past his rental car.

"They were in a little boxy, square car, and I had no idea what kind it was," Safro said in a 1978 interview. "Then, that night in the hotel, it seemed every other commercial was on that car. It was a Toyota."

Then a used car dealer, Safro was soon convinced that he needed to sell that car.

"The first year, we sold 42 cars, which made us the largest dealership in the Midwest," he said. Safro kept expanding his business and product lines to the current five locations in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties.

Back when he had to run his used car operation on a shoestring, Safro even did his Toyota research on the cheap. He called a California telephone operator, asking her if she had heard of a Toyota automobile.

"Everyone has," came the answer.

A scouting call to a Toyota dealer brought praise for the new Japanese car.

"I asked for the service manager, and I asked, 'Hey, how are the cars?' " Safro said. "He said, 'They're excellent. We have a heck of a time getting them back for the thousand-mile checkup.' "

That was good enough for Safro. He "chased the heck" out of a distributor, winning a franchise and his first allotment of seven red Coronas.

His family believes that Safro began learning about taking care of customers while growing up at a resort on the Brule River near Superior. There, he and a brother and sister were raised by family friends after troubles during the Great Depression.

Strong work ethic
At 16, he made his way to Door County to pick cherries and then came to Milwaukee where his father lived. Homework at Custer High School was something that he did during the school day.

"He went and worked a second-shift job, recapping tires, eight hours a day," said his son, John O. Safro.

That led to other auto jobs and a gas station on W. Burleigh St. in Wauwatosa. In 1962, he began a used-car business complete with a one-car showroom, calling it Jack Safro's Pewaukee Motors.

The business moved to Brookfield in 1970, this time as Jack Safro Toyota.

Part of the inspiration for the business came from his own experience trying to buy a car.

"He went to purchase a new Chevrolet, and he was dirty from his auto work," John said. "They wouldn't even talk to him. He had the cash in hand, he was ready to pay cash, and they wouldn't even talk to him."

Safro figured he could do a lot better.

"Jack was still working the floor, taking care of customers in the '80s," said Jim Tessmer, vice president of the Jack Safro Group. "His whole M.O. was customer service, better than any other dealer I've seen. He tried to instill in us, you treat a customer like a guest in your home."

One car - the very first Toyota Corona he sold in 1967 - proved a particularly satisfying sale. Its owner brought it back in trade on another Toyota. The next owner brought it back as a trade-in, too.

That time it didn't get off the lot.

"We still have it," John said.

Safro opened Jack Safro Ford-Lincoln-Mercury in Oconomowoc in 1987. Lexus of Brookfield opened in 1989, followed by Lexus North Shore in 2001 and Infiniti North Shore in 2005.

The dealerships now have more than 375 full- and part-time employees, and sold about 4,500 new cars and another 3,000 used cars in 2007.

"We were one of the first eight Lexus dealers in the country," John said.

In his earlier days, Safro also drove modified cars and midget cars at area tracks.

"He'd make more money racing than he did for a week of work, if the car came back in one piece," John said.

Safro also got his pilot's license and founded Select Aviation based at Crites Field in Waukesha.

 

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