We review the Toyota Land Cruiser from price to economy and all its features
IT’S the Toy soldier that refuses to get knocked over.
Switch on the news and you’re likely to find this Toyota Land Cruiser in battlegrounds — the favourite wheels of terrorists, army generals and revolutionaries.
Tough Toyota ... the Land Cruiser in Scotland
It’s undoubtedly the car of the Arab spring. When the going gets tough, the Toy gets going.
Top Gear famously dropped the Hilux pick-up from a tower block demolition — and it survived. Well, the Land Cruiser is the Hilux’s comfortable brother.
Seeing as I almost pass out at the sight of blood from a paper cut, I didn’t fancy testing in its natural habitat of a war zone. So I settled for the next best thing — Knockhill’s notorious inner-circuit 4x4 course. It’s so rough it makes ploughed fields look like you could play snooker on them.
The Land Rover might be the ultimate 4x4 in the UK but to the rest of the world the Land Cruiser is the off-road king with SIX MILLION sold after just over 60 years.
While the new Discovery and Range Rover have become far more sophisticated, the Land Cruiser remains a more crude alternative.
The V8 flagship model has been given a new 2012 model to incorporate a vital new engine and a host of technological upgrades.
The Land Cruiser’s 4.5litre turbodiesel has been revised to comply with Euro 5 standards. A diesel particulate filter has been fitted, allowing the exhaust silencer to be reduced to improve fuel efficiency, noise and vibration.
The Toyota Land Cruiser V8 has been given a range of upgrades, including engine revisions, improved looks, and technology to enhance its off-road capabilities.
Multi-terrain Select modifies the throttle, brakes and traction control to suit a variety of off-road situations. Four cameras work with MTS to show the front, rear and sides of the car to highlight blind spots and avoid hidden obstacles. Guidelines showing the predicted path of the tyres and length and width lines assist the driver to judge distances.
The 2012 car has revised headlamps with LED daytime running lights, chrome side mouldings and new rear lights. The front bumper has a sharply-trimmed lower section to avoid compromising off-road approach angles.
Despite an improvement in refinement, it’s still gruff.
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This remains a 4x4 for farmers not footballers. Nonetheless, I really liked the rough and ready yet sturdy ability. This is not a smooth-riding or fine-handling car, but neither is it bad to drive.
Toyota have built it for its off-road ability. The more extreme the hazards and terrain, the more the Land Cruiser seemed to enjoy it. It has learnt its trade at the school of hard knocks — it coped easily with Knockhill. And you get an amazingly comfy ride in leather seats.
Although the Land Cruiser lacks the sophistication of a Range Rover, it has a range of technological aids that allow it to tackle just about anything. It feels unbreakable. The suspension system minimises body roll and the all-wheel-drive keeps you moving when things get tough.
But my favourite was Crawl Control that keeps the engine and the brakes working at slow speed in severe off-road conditions — particularly good on big slippery descents.
The driving position is first class and all-round visibility is exceptional. The reclining middle-row seats offer excellent head and legroom and fold flat.
More impressive are third-row seats that emerge from the boot floor at the press of a button. There’s reasonable boot space. Toyota have thought about how to fit people into the Land Cruiser and also how they will use it. It has huge stowage areas and a massive cooler between the seats.
Unfortunately it’s an expensive car to run. Fuel consumption and emissions are improved over the previous model but it still only returns around 35mpg.
The 2012 Land Cruiser is on sale now at £62,285. That might be expensive to buy and run and it’s a tad sluggish but this Land Cruiser doesn’t pretend to be anything but a genuine off-roader.
Now over 60 years old, Toyota’s soldier simply keeps marching on.