First Look: Toyota Land Cruiser | New Defender Rival

Ever see a new car and think, “Oh, yeah, they’re gonna sell a billion of these”. Meet the new Toyota Land Cruiser – a rugged midsize SUV with rough-and-tumble intentions that’s coming to Europe and America – yay!

The Land Cruiser certainly looks the business, appearing to have been designed only using right angles. The standard 18-inch wheels and knobby tires give this thing real presence, and the optional 20-inch alloys look great, too. The uptick in the body sides and contrasting white roof are clutch styling choices, and you know, this thing gives off major retro FJ Cruiser vibes. Nice work.

But what else do you need to know? Join TG’s Tom Ford for a full deep-dive into Toyota’s new, retro-modern Land Cruiser.

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:42 Design
02:32 Stats and Specs
04:20 Interior
05:14 Gadgets
07:12 Conclusion

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Land Rover Defender or inos Grenadier Nah if you want a proper 4×4 with a touch of luxury then there’s a new King in town and it’s this the Toyota Land Cruiser 250 and it’s had the kind of retro restyle that seems all the rage except in this case there’s a pleasing lack of

Debate it feels immediately right it needs to the land Cruiser has been around since 1958 and has spawned more than 10 Generations so there’s plenty of inspiration so let’s have a look super boxy surfacing loads of straight edges short overhangs it’s got a proper sense of purpose do you remember the FJ

Cruiser of about 2006 well this is like its more serious grumpier older brother I I mean just look at this face it looks like a kind of happy Transformer which it actually is because Toyota’s decided in their wisdom to offer it with two completely different front ends now the

Base models which are called Land Cruiser 1958 in a nod to the Old Land Cruisers and the first 3,000 first edition models like this one all come with the round headlights but from the Middle grades up you get rectangular headlights which look even more grumpy and that’s probably the only time I can

Think of how having a car that you get two completely different front ends depending on the model I’m not sure which one I prefer the look of so let me know in the comments which you prefer and I’ll do some sort of unscientific poll still when you start looking around

There are blocky muscles all over the shop these kind of Bonnet turrets on top here then the slab sides even the wheel arches which are notorious for being round have straight lines in them and the back is as solid looking as you might hope basically where the last

Generation Land Cruisers had had gone a bit Blobby this brings back senu into the design and it looks absolutely brilliant it screams No Nonsense exactly what a Land Cruiser is all about the project chief designer yoshito Watanabe said that the theme was back to Origins with new values and reliable Timeless

And professional and I can totally see how that works here in fact the only car that looks more like a Land Cruiser is Toyota’s own refresh of the 70 series that’s going to be available in Japan which leaves me only little bit conflicted anyway on with the new one

The other thing to note about the new Land Cruiser 250 is that it is also not quite as big as you might think I mean don’t get me wrong this isn’t a super mini I’m not saying it’s a small car but it’s actually 7 and 1 half in shorter

Narrower and lower than the outgoing us model so this isn’t new car bloat you also start with 18-in wheels on the standard model which is a common fitment for off-road tires should you want them right up to 20 in if you’re more sort of of Road SL style based but the good news

Is Lan Cruiser 250 is a global car and it will be on sale in the UK so what’s the hardware like well there’s permanent 4×4 obviously but where the USA gets a 326 brake horsepower 465 lb foot Hybrid drivetrain with a 2.4 L turbocharged 4-cylinder and a 1.9 KW battery pack the

UK will get a 2.8 L diesel 4 from the hux meaning 24 break and just over 400b feet of torque at least initially a hybrid should follow later there are other engines available in other markets but they’re all less powerful and all Europe bound Land Cruisers get an 8-speed Auto apart from

One base engine version which makes do with a six-speed self shifter there are the usual kinds of terrain modes that make easy work of whatever you’re driving on through or over and the towing ability of a small hgv yes your eldest Crusader Caravan will no longer be a problem

Oh and there’s remote disconnect of the anti-roll bars so you can get a bit more wheel travel when you’re off-roading without too much compromise on the way to the shops now this is all as it should be for a reborn Land Cruiser the thing I like about the interior is that you get the same sense of kind of solidity and strength as you do from the external styling so there’s like everything’s really big and chunk and it’s got these big horizontal lines that make you feel like it’s all very

Solid nice wheel here with some big chunky buttons on it for most of the functions which is all very nice there’s a digital display up front Just Between the steering wheel seems really placed nicely and as part of that binnacle you get a really big touchcreen now it’s

Slightly smaller in the more base models but we don’t get them in the UK and then in this center console it just feels really it’s quite a masculine interior you get this big fist of a kind kind of gear selector and then lots and lots of big physical buttons that all have a

Really nice kind of proddy feel to them this is all the HVAC so the air conditioning and stuff like that and then you’ve got wireless charging cup holders all the usual stuff but you’ll notice all the different buttons there’s a rotary control here which allows you to select modes like the sport normal

And Eco and they’re the drive modes for onroad and then when you’re off-road you can have all the usual traction AIDS so there’s one for deep snow mud sand dirt an automatic again it’s all big chunky buttons so down here you can switch between high and low ratios for the

Gearbox and you can flick in and out of the diff lock so this has got a rear diff lock you can just press that button and it’s a big button so if you were wearing gloves or something like that you just prod it and it’ll all work and

Then in here you’ve actually got a cool box which is Handy if you’re somewhere hot but one of the things that I’m really impressed with is the design makes it feel solid and that’s really exciting and also it’s got a really weirdly low belt line so it feels like

There’s lots of glass here and you can see what’s around you because the window comes only about up to my elbow height and also even though the bonnet’s quite big it’s got a low Dash so it feels like this car is going to be really easy to

Place on the road as for Quality I mean it feels really nice this is a first edition car so it’s got all the bells and whistles and it feels nice if not absolutely stunning I would have liked maybe a Tweed interior something that you could brush down but that’s just a

Small point I think this is really exciting and it’s definitely a little bit more luxurious than your usual Land Cruiser this isn’t your stripped out 40 series even though it’s a bit shorter than Land Cruisers that have gone before it’s got a longer wheelbase so it does

Feel big you can get five or seven seat options and there’s plenty of room for rear seat passengers or a big dog and joy of Joys there’s a split tailgate complete with this C camera for the rear mirror if you’ve got the rear full of stuff then there’s the electric hatch

Which goes vertical handy when it’s raining but that means no rear mounted spare that’s migrated under the boot floor at the moment we’re looking at the first Land Cruisers hitting the UK in 2024 and even though nobody’s confirmed any pricing as yet I reckon the base models will start at about

45,000 rising to about 65 Grand Plus for these first editions with all the kit but that makes it properly competitive if you want a luxury 4×4 that can handle more than a bit of rough and tumble if you need it to but even more than that

This is a design that honors the Land Cruiser badge but brings it bang up to date the king is dead long live the king