Toyota Land Cruiser review

Pop your head out of your front door or peer out of the window and count all the SUVs around you. Now find a Toyota Land Cruiser. No joy? We didn’t think so.

Okay, so we know people like large SUVs. After all, they're practical and help you stand out from the crowd – or at least above it. The Land Cruiser literally towers over all of them and its apparent rarity helps it stand out the most.

Should you buy one, though? Well, it’s big, roomy and comes with three or five doors and five or seven seats. Toyota has a great reputation for reliability, too, and you will count plenty of Land Cruisers in the hostile desert regions of the world, so it should prove to be a tough, go-anywhere off-roader.

It’s also far more rugged than most modern large SUVs (it has a similar construction to the Ssangyong Rexton). That's an important factor for anyone who needs genuine off-road ability, as we found when the Land Cruiser dominated all its rivals and was crowned our overall champion in the What Car? 4x4 mega test.

Does all that compromise the on-road driving experience, and should you choose one over some of the newer SUV designs you might be considering? After all, there is the wilderness-conquering Land Rover Defender to think about, as well as more luxurious options such as the BMW X5 and Land Rover Discovery, and less expensive models, including the Skoda Kodiaq.

Keep reading over the next few pages of this Toyota Land Cruiser review and we’ll give you all the answers, as well as telling you what it's like for fuel economy and safety, how well pampered your passengers will be and much more.

When you've decided which model is right for you, you could save thousands of pounds on your chosen make and model by using the free What Car? New Car Deals service. It helps you seek out the best prices without any haggling and features some excellent new large SUV deals.

The Toyota Land Cruiser gets a relatively large 201bhp 2.8-litre diesel engine so you might expect it to be quite sprightly, but sadly it’s not. If you go for the manual, the 0-62mph time is a lengthy 11.2sec, while the automatic takes 9.9sec.

While that makes the automatic swifter than the equivalent Ssangyong Rexton, the entry-level D200 Land Rover Defender is just as quick, and has more low-rev grunt than the Land Cruiser, giving it a sense of effortlessness off the line the Land Cruiser can’t match. There are also a number of cheaper seven-seat large SUVs – the Skoda Kodiaq and Land Rover Discovery Sport D200, for example – that are easier to get up to motorway speeds.

Once you’re at 70mph, the Land Cruiser will sit there quite happily, but the automatic gearbox tends to hunt between gears when you ask for a bit more power. The manual has a long action but is precise and has an easy-to-modulate clutch.

The Land Cruiser generates a lot of noise and vibration. That's mostly from its four-cylinder engine, which you need to rev to get this big, heavy vehicle rolling (the six-cylinder in the Defender is as smooth as melted butter in comparison). Wind noise can be a bit of an issue at speed due to the huge door mirrors, but tyre noise is well contained.

The Land Cruiser’s handling feels miles behind newer, nimbler large SUVs. If you drive the BMW X5, Discovery Sport or Kodiaq, you’ll be impressed by those cars dynamics, whereas the Land Cruiser drives like the SUVs of old.

The slow-witted steering lacks feel, and there’s lots of body lean, even in top-spec Invincible form, which has active anti-roll bars designed to keep it more upright through bends. It could also do with more grip, as the tyres squeal for mercy when you try to drive at anything more than a moderate pace down a twisting country road.

Although the Land Cruiser has an old-school body-on-frame construction, its suspension is at least fairly modern, and is slightly more forgiving now than it has been in the past. It doesn’t come close to the low and high-speed comfort of a Kodiaq or long-wheelbase 110 Defender, but it’s far more compliant than the jarring ride of a Rexton.

Range-topping Invincible models come with adjustable rear air suspension, which helps keep the car level when it's loaded up or is towing something. It’s nowhere near as flexible as the full air suspension system found on a Defender, which can raise and lower the whole vehicle. While the Land Cruiser has a water wading depth of 700mm, the Defender manages 900mm. 

You still get full-time four-wheel drive, and low and high-range gear ratios on all versions, so it can get to places many SUVs can’t. A rear differential lock is standard on Invincible models for extra traction in tricky conditions. The Land Cruiser has a towing capacity of 3000kg, which is a lot more than most SUVs, but a Defender can lug around even more at 3500kg.

When you sit in the Toyota Land Cruiser’s driving seat, the first thing you notice is the soft, squishy cushioning that’s rather like a favourite armchair. That’s great – until you drive into a corner and the lack of side support leaves you gripping the steering wheel to hold yourself in place.

Entry-level Active models get a manually adjustable steering column and driver’s seat, including height adjustment and lumbar support, while they're electrically adjustable if you choose the Invincible trim. In either case, the amount of movement offered lets you get comfortable and there’s good visibility out of the large windows and relatively slim pillars.

We can’t be quite so enthusiastic about the lay-out of the switches, which appear to have been scattered across the dashboard with little thought about how easily they can be found or deciphered while you're driving.

It’s a similar story with the infotainment system. Yes, the 9.0 touchscreen is placed high up, which is helpful, but the icons are small and the menus confusing. The system is not the most responsive to commands, either, but it does at least now include Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity, so you can bypass the Toyota system altogether.

We’re not impressed by the quality of the materials in the Land Cruiser, either. No doubt they're robust enough for a trek across a desert, but the same can be said of a Land Rover Defender – and that car's hose-down rubberised flooring and wipe-down materials still give off a premium feel.

The plastics (and wood in the top spec) look cheap, and a number of the switches sound hollow when pressed. This is particularly disappointing for a premium-priced SUV when cheaper alternatives such as the Skoda Kodiaq and Ssangyong Rexton are far plusher inside.

We've given the Toyota Land Cruiser a bit of a drubbing in some areas – and for good reason – but we can be more upbeat here. There’s plenty of space on offer, with good head and leg room in the front, while the wide interior provides plenty of shoulder room.

Storage options aren’t bad, either, with cupholders, a large glovebox and door bins, plus a deep cubby under the sliding centre armrest. On Invincible models, the cubby is refrigerated, so you can keep your drinks chilled.

The three-door models make getting in and out trickier for rear-seat passengers, so if you regularly carry people in the back we’d suggest going for the five-door version. There’s a generous amount of space for three tall adults to sit abreast, helped by a wider rear bench than in most of the Land Cruiser’s rivals. A flat rear floor also makes life easier for the middle occupant, because there’s no central tunnel that reduces foot space and for them to clamber over.

Seven seats are available as an option on five-door Active models. The third row will accommodate two tall adults in relative comfort, whereas many rivals, including the 5+2 equipped Land Rover Defender, will only accommodate teenagers. Access to the rearmost row is quite easy because of the wide rear door openings and a simpler folding mechanism than the Ssangyong Rexton.

There’s a good amount of seating flexibility. The second-row seats fold flat in a 40/20/40 arrangement (60/40 on five-seat Active models), leaving a long, wide and flat extended load bay. In five-seat mode – that is, with the first and second row in use – boot space is still enough to fit in two or three large suitcases with ease. When the two third-row seats are being used, luggage space is negligible, but the same is true for the Skoda Kodiaq.

The Land Cruiser's side-opening rear tailgate is a pain. It requires lots of space behind the car to open fully. The boot floor is high up, so be prepared for some huffing and puffing as you load heavy objects. You can swing open the rear window, though, which is handy if you can’t open the full tailgate.

You can expect healthy discounts on the Land Cruiser from Toyota dealers but, even so, it remains a pricey cash buy alongside rivals such as the Skoda Kodiaq. It’s not much better if you’re buying on finance, with relatively uncompetitive monthly PCP payments against most large SUVs, including the significantly cheaper Ssangyong Rexton.

It’s not all bad news because the Land Cruiser has some of the best resale values in the business, and compared with similarly-sized rivals such as the Land Rover Discovery, it doesn’t look quite so unappealing in that respect.

It’s not cheap for company car drivers, though. That’s because the Land Cruiser’s high CO2 emissions push up company car tax relative to the multitude of cleaner SUVs available. Claimed average fuel consumption is way off that of its best rivals, at a mere 31mpg for the automatic, and a mere 29.4mpg for the manual.

You will at least have peace of mind with the Land Cruiser – Toyota finished an excellent joint fifth out of the 30 manufacturers rated in the 2021 What Car? Reliability Survey.

Entry-level Active models offer the best value for money, coming with 17in alloy wheels, climate control, cruise control, power-folding door mirrors, a DAB radio, Bluetooth, keyless entry, rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera.

Top-of-the-range Invincible trim gives you 19in wheels, electrically adjustable and heated leather seats, LED headlights, front and rear parking sensors, sat-nav, privacy glass and automatic lights and wipers, adaptive air suspension and extra off-road driving aids. It’s still hard to justify over a more reasonably priced Active model.

The Land Cruiser hasn’t been crash tested by Euro NCAP and automatic emergency braking (AEB) is only standard on Invincible cars (along with adaptive cruise control, road sign assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert and lane departure alert). AEB is not even available as an optional extra on Active models.

Security experts Thatcham Research found that the Land Cruiser presented a robust defence against thieves, awarding it a maximum five stars for resisting theft and four stars for resisting being broken into.

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