In January 2021, shortly after Toyota decided to stop sending its go-anywhere Land Cruiser to America for the first time in 63 years, the company’s U.S. clientele spoke with their checkbooks, driving the outgoing model’s sales to their second-highest level in 10 years.
So it wasn’t shocking when the Japanese juggernaut announced last year that the Land Cruiser would, after a three-year hiatus, be returning to the U.S. Only this time, Toyota broke its decades-long habit of making the rugged S.U.V. larger, more luxurious, and more expensive ($87,030 and up, by 2021) with each successive model. The new Land Cruiser is smaller, cheaper, and more fuel-efficient.
Land Cruiser fans from Sag Harbor to Aspen to Malibu—not to mention those who will actually make use of the S.U.V.’s serious off-road capabilities—will be wondering how it stacks up. Hoping to provide curious readers with answers, AIR MAIL arranged to drive the new truck. The two questions: How is it? And was it worth the wait?
On the bright side: the new Land Cruiser is dramatically less expensive than previous models, if still not cheap. The base model, called the 1958, starts at $57,400. Never missing a trick, Toyota allows buyers to run that sticker all the way up to $76,345 for the range-topping First Edition, chock-full of all the electronics, high-end audio, and leather seating one could desire—but not the more handsome round headlights of the 1958, meant to recall the Ur–Land Cruiser.
A dip into the history books reveals that the very first Land Cruiser—called the Toyota Jeep BJ—broke cover in 1951, built at the request of none other than the U.S. military, then occupying Japan, with the idea that locally sourced trucks might be useful in the unfolding Korean War. The model never saw combat, however, and Americans didn’t see a Land Cruiser on their own soil until 1958, when Toyota sold a single civilian Land Cruiser 20 Series. Replaced by the FJ-40 Series in 1960, it quickly became the best-selling Toyota in America from 1961 through 1965.
Small and rugged, the Land Cruiser made for a trusty alternative to the day’s best-known S.U.V.’s, spartan two-doors such as the Jeep CJ, the International Scout, and the Land Rover. In this humble configuration, it soldiered on with upgrades including a four-speed transmission and a six-cylinder engine but kept the same basic, no-frills outline alive through 1983.
By 1967, the market for a more capacious, highway-suitable Land Cruiser was identified, and the four-door 55 Series Land Cruiser was launched. From then on, all hell broke loose as America’s expanding appetite for large S.U.V.’s gave way to a whole new genus: the semi-luxury and, with time, full-boat luxury off-roader.
With its straight-line design, the new Land Cruiser looks less fussy and substantially more fit for its stated purpose than the bulbous apparition the model had become. Fractionally higher and barely shorter than before, but with 800 fewer pounds to haul around, the new truck has an instant head start in the handling department, though there’s no mistaking it for small. Third-row seating—an enemy of light weight and cargo capacity—is no longer an option and won’t be missed by those who use these trucks for something other than school and mall runs. Toyota’s larger Sequoia continues to sate brand loyalists with unshakable third-row demands.
Also significant is what’s under the Land Cruiser’s hood, where a turbocharged, four-cylinder engine now resides, and under its cargo floor, where you’ll find a battery that energizes the hybrid power train’s 48-horsepower electric motor. At a combined horsepower of 326, the new Land Cruiser is down 55 horsepower from the old model’s rumbling V-8, but it musters 64 pound-feet of additional torque and can tow 6,000 pounds—surely adequate for most purposes.
Performance is brisk enough, with 60 m.p.h. from rest achieved in 6.4 seconds. Best of all, the new Land Cruiser returns an E.P.A.-rated 23 m.p.g. overall, and on some highway runs, we saw just north of 30 m.p.g.; both figures fairly crush the 2021 model’s 14-m.p.g. average. The hybrid drivetrain goes a long way in addressing one of our main complaints with the old V-8: its thirst for gas.
The new Land Cruiser has good off-road capabilities, though we personally don’t spend much time in the mud. Antediluvian in its body-on-frame construction, no crime in the off-roading world, the Land Cruiser otherwise inhabits the modern end of the tech ballpark, coming with full-time four-wheel drive and locking center and rear differentials. Meanwhile, 8.7 inches of ground clearance and short overhangs minimize the odds of grounding the vehicle on challenging terrain.
Less seasoned adventurers will appreciate low-speed Crawl Control, which assumes the operation of the throttle and braking when the vehicle is off-road so that the driver can focus on steering. Downhill Assist limits speed while descending steep grades, and an optional Multi-Terrain Select system allows the operator to specify the off-road condition—mud, rocks, or sand—for maximum traction.
So back to those opening questions. How is it? As an off-road vehicle—and even as a daily driver—the Land Cruiser is easily the best of Toyota’s big ones and worth the wait. It’s still not as satisfying for on-road use as most passenger cars, or even its twee yet burly competitor, the Land Rover Defender, which though similarly capable off-road drives as smoothly as a Jaguar sedan. Then again, history suggests the Toyota will beat any Land Rover for reliability.
Some drivers might feel that the new Land Cruiser’s positioning as a luxury truck is betrayed by a hybrid engine and cheap interior plastics. Yet for many it will absolutely do the trick.
On the other hand, if you rarely go off-road, or if you’re waiting for an even smaller, more agile Land Cruiser, like the original, you may wish to continue holding your powder.
Jamie Kitman is a car columnist at AIR MAIL
