Objectively improved in every imaginable metric, the new Land Cruiser left me cold.
2024 Toyota Land Cruiser review by The Road Beat
Words and pictures: Mitchell Weitzman
With so much weight on its shoulders, the new Land Cruiser is almost destined to be a disappointment. Serving a long tenure as Toyota's flagship vehicle in the United States (the ultra-luxury Century limo in Japan is the true flagship, the vehicle of choice for politicians and yakuza), this new edition has gone down-market to appeal to an increasingly mainstream audience. And it's here where the Land Cruiser makes its first mistake, because despite the striking and pupil-grabbing retro exterior, there is nothing special about this new Land Cruiser.
To be fair, there was never anything special about the outgoing Land Cruiser, which, as recently as a couple years ago, was selling brand new for nearly $90,000 and had the basic interior of a pumped-up 4Runner (in other words, the interior sucked for the money). At that price, the vehicle offered was quite frankly was a gargantuan ripoff. But, it was at least hilariously and legendarily durable, known to run and run with the only limitation to your destination being the human behind the wheel, which greatly depends on their ego and potential dumb ideas. For example, if you were stuck in the middle of the Sahara Desert, a Land Cruiser might be the most desirable car in the world in that moment for how trustworthy and capable enough one is. Apart from the toughness, the rest of the former Land Cruiser was a grossly overpriced turkey, so in that respect, the new Land Cruiser doesn't have much to do in order to improve.
Let's let the past die, though, because this new Land Cruiser has nothing related to the old model in anything but name. However, this Land Cruiser is more of a Land Cruiser than its American-market forebears for the fact this new one is based on the Land Cruiser Prado (what previously has been sold in rest-of-world markets), which itself is derived from the smaller 4Runner platform. Shrunken down to a more approachable footprint, swap out the venerable V8 for a modern turbocharged four-cylinder with hybrid assist, add neo-vintage styling, and we have the new Land Cruiser. And wow is that styling rather wonderful.
Wonderful doesn't last long, though, because despite the internet's pretentious hype for this vehicle, I did not gel with my tester. Even with a vast array of clever off-road technological wizardry and drive modes to conquer your intended terrain, it's a fact that most Land Cruisers will never leave the pavement, except for maybe a dirt or gravel parking lot/driveway. A dominating detriment includes the supposedly clever hybrid powertrain. Downsizing is supposed to be all the rage, at least as the manufacturers will make you believe you, but this tiny little four-cylinder averaged, wait for it, under 18 MPG during my week of daily driving on a variety of roads. 18?? That's actually laughable, because while the window sticker displays a combined 25, don't believe that fantasy for even a second. To put into perspective how terrible that economy figure really is, the last Sequoia I tested, which is a vastly larger SUV with an accordingly vastly larger twin-turbo V6 hybrid, averaged the exact same MPG.
Where performance is concerned, it never feels quick either despite the 326 combined horsepower and whopping 465 pounds of torque, only translating to a steady 0-60 MPH time of 7.5 seconds. Land Cruisers aren't about speed, but I would have hoped for more poke in passing situations upon seeing the silly i-FORCE MAX engine badge emblazoned on the back, though it's perfectly serviceable around town and in normal driving and accelerating, as any new car of the last ten years has also been. The engine is luckily mostly smooth and without the crass coarseness of previous Toyota four-cylinders, but this new hybrid setup is severely disappointing because of the wretched fuel mileage. Like, what is the point of a hybrid four-cylinder if it drinks this much fuel?. Oh, and on the outside, it's loud at idle, with lots of clicks and clacks that sound like your new car has an exhaust leak or noisy lifters.
This mid-range model has a nice interior for a Toyota, but not for a $70,000 vehicle. The soft materials on the doors and seats in a rich brown color can fool you into thinking it's nicer than it is, but the seats are also quite flat and unaccommodating for longer drives, and there are lots of cheap feeling and oddly placed controls. The row of buttons for the air conditioning can creak and you can see the whole arrangement bend and move if you aren't gentle on them. Further, the volume knob is placed in a position where a passenger cannot reach it, and such that the steering wheel even blocks it from driver's view. Did they forget about putting a volume knob and just slabbed it on somewhere? It looks like such an afterthought. Forgoing the usual rugged build quality, the doors don't open and close with the same bank-vault security that the old Land Cruiser demonstrated, with these new items sounding hollow and tinny, the sign of a vehicle's cheaper construction. And with a hybrid setup impeding space in the rear, the floor of the cargo area arrears is high, limiting volume and your storage capabilities. Road noise from below is low, but don't discount the rushing wind noise, with those large mirrors likely attributing to the vortex that hits the boxy windshield and side windows. Driving with the windows down above 40 MPH is also ruined by the mirrors, with wind volumes reaching too high for my own comfort at even moderate speeds.
Adding to the disappointment on the inside, the air conditioning was curiously weak for a brand new car (even during a 30 minute drive at night with ambient temperatures comfortably in the 80s), and the front seat warmers were basically not even there. In light of it being summer, there was a particularly cool couple of evenings where a friend turned the seat warmer on the highest setting and proclaimed they couldn't feel it. I tried it myself and only could detect the faintest warmth from below. On another drive on a warmer afternoon, I turned the seat warmer on for my friend without them realizing it. Upon arrival 15 minutes later, I asked if they knew the seat warmer was on and they had no idea. So, weaker air conditioning (something I've noticed in a couple other new Toyotas), and probably the worst/weakest seat warmers I've ever tried.
What else? The gauge cluster cannot be seen by passengers during daytime, as if it has a privacy filter on it like you see on smartphones. The cluster is also the typical new-Toyota-mess of excessive icons and with menus that are difficult to learn and scroll through (all the safety setting have to be adjusted here and cannot be done through the main center display - dumb). And this particular Land Cruiser had a malfunctioning automatic day/night setting for the main screen. Like all other new cars (and you can set this on phones and computers), the display is supposed to change from bright white day mode to a nighttime and eye-friendly dark mode on its own when the sun sets. I had this setting marked on, and with the correct time and zone automatically set, and it never worked once, blinding me upon starting the car at night with its piercing white screen at max brightness. Toyotas in the past will momentarily flash white before changing to dark (which it still shouldn't do), but this one never changed automatically as designed (I checked the settings multiple times, yes). The solution was manually changing it to a permanent dark mode during my testing.
This makes it all the more disappointing when you consider the Land Cruiser does drive quite nice and better than I would have expected. The steering is accurate and makes controlling this rolling box easy on the road, and the handling isn't half-bad either when you throw it into corners, with some semblance of balance being demonstrated. That's all relative of course, because grip levels from the tires are low, but this is easily a more capable car in corners than any previous 4Runner or Land Cruiser when you turn the steering wheel. Ride quality is well-judged over a variety of road surfaces, too, not ever demonstrating the over-stiffened jiggly-ness of past Toyota SUVs and trucks.
I didn't get a chance to take it on any challenging terrain to test the quotable departure angles and suspension articulation, but all that technical goodness and terrain controls can't make up for a ground clearance of only 8.7 inches. That's less than a current 4Runner, significantly less than a Tacoma TRD Off-Road pickup, and not even an inch more than an everyday Highlander. So without lifting one or fitting bigger tires, you're going to have to be very mindful about off-roading a Land Cruiser to ensure you're not scraping or bottoming out. In real world use and application, not amount of articulation can make up for the fact that the Land Cruiser won't be able to clear unassuming rocks and other obstacles. And it really begs the question of what's all the point of this technology and fancy suspension if you're limited by modest clearance? For a vehicle that is a centerpiece pride of the Overlanding community, the new Land Cruiser might disappoint fresh out of the showroom and also betrays its pared-down simple approach of being back-to-its-roots or more of an off-roader for everyone. The true off-roaders might best be served with a 4Runner TRD Pro for less money. Will the Land Cruiser will be good off-road? Sure. But is it that good? It's not going to do anything better (it'll actually be worse) than less expensive SUVs, but at least it'll do what it can in some degree of comfort and with electronic ease from all the controls inside.
I really wanted to like the new Land Cruiser because of how much eyeball it possesses, drawing looks for many and garnering highly positive comments from friends. But the engine lacks sorely, the interior could be better still, and the off-roading ability will be less than other current (and less expensive) Toyotas. It comes across then mostly as a fashion statement piece, and that will likely be the reason for many buying them. And that's fine; Looks are that important to some, and most Mercedes G-Wagons never see a drop of dirt. For me, though, it's less that I didn't like the Land Cruiser and more that I was disappointed. I hoped for more, I wanted to believe the hype, but the Kool Aid doesn't taste that good in reality. By aiming the Land Cruiser as mainstream and approachable, the appeal has decreased as well, and so has the desirability. At least the past Land Cruiser was a rare and unique offering produced in low volumes, making it somewhat special, but this new edition is just another Toyota now.
For a more 'proper' Land Cruiser experience, you should consider the Lexus GX instead, which looks the same, has a more luxurious interior, and ditches that four-cylinder tragedy for a twin-turbo V6. The review for that model will come hopefully soon.
2024 Toyota Land Cruiser
As-tested price: $70,029
Pros: Excellent exterior styling; Electronic off-road tools
Cons: Thirsty four-cylinder; Expensive; Limited by ground clearance
2024 Toyota Land Cruiser review and photos by Mitchell Weitzman and The Road Beat.