- Toyota introduced again the Land Cruiser, type of
- The Land Cruiser’s coarse, low cost, unrefined, and poorly packaged
- America deserves the true Land Cruiser, often called the 300 Collection
Fanatics bemoaned the loss of life of the Toyota Land Cruiser in 2021. We then rejoiced upon its return in 2024.
Disappointment has ensued for a lot of, although not all, which have ridden this rollercoaster of feelings.
Throughout our all-too-brief first encounter with the brand new Toyota Land Cruiser in 2024 it was clear the icon tried to pivot to retro allure. Dwelling with the Land Cruiser has confirmed that the retro allure solely goes to date, and it’s dissatisfied all the editorial workforce.
Listed here are the professionals and cons of the 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser after spending time dwelling with each the bottom 1958 trim and dearer, and barely nicer, Land Cruiser trims.
Spoiler: This merely doesn’t really feel just like the Land Cruiser all of us knew, liked, and missed. Is its completely different method one thing higher, at the very least in some respects? We reasoned via what you get within the Land Cruiser, now, and got here up with the next execs and cons.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser 1958
Professional: The Land Cruiser appears like a Land Cruiser
Simply not the one you’re considering of. The Land Cruiser appears like its namesake. The sq. upright profile, quick overhangs, and flared steel all communicate the Land Cruiser language. However the 200-Collection has some throwback queues to its design with a nod to the J80 of the ‘90s with its entrance and rear ends.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958
The brand new 300 Collection, which is the actual Land Cruiser the remainder of the world will get, is a real evolution of the outgoing 200 Collection. The brand new Land Cruiser America obtained is named a Land Cruiser Prado to the remainder of the world. The 1958’s spherical headlights and Land Cruiser mannequin’s horizontal chiclet LED headlights are throwbacks to the 1960’s 40 Collection and 1980’s 60 Collection, respectively. Respectfully, nobody at present shopping for these items goes to understand that as a result of they weren’t born but. Identical goes for the vertical taillights harkening again to the FJ60s. Is all of it Land Cruiser design elements bin from all of the eras mashed into one? You betcha. It appears retro. It appears like a Land Cruiser. Nobody below 40 goes to know that. Nevertheless it does appear to be a Land Cruiser, simply not the one we wished and the remainder of the world will get.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser 1958
Con: Land Cruiser looks like low cost tin can
The Land Cruiser was a flagship for Toyota. Because the Nineties-eras J80 the Land Cruiser’s had broad, overstuffed seats, plush door coverings, and good soft-touch dashboards. It could not have felt like a financial institution vault shutting like a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, however it certain as heck didn’t really feel low cost (and it wasn’t). The newest Land Cruiser fails on all these fronts. Open the door, shut the door, and it looks like this factor is a tin can with skinny steel. It’s additional confirmed with the skinny sheetmetal on the hood flexing and bending within the wind on the freeway, which might induce an LOL second if it weren’t so unhappy.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958
Whereas we love the bottom 1958’s throwback tweed-like seat upholstery, it feels fully misplaced in a $56,700 SUV. This isn’t a $35k Wrangler. The 1958’s inside has shiny, low cost, arduous plastics all over the place from the door panels to the dashboard masking. If you happen to contact it, it’s low cost plastic. The higher Land Cruiser trim—sure, that’s truly the higher trim degree’s title, making it the Land Cruiser Land Cruiser—has a nicer inside for $61,470 with a soft-touch dashboard, some heart console and door panel soft-touch supplies, and leather-based upholstery. Nevertheless it all feels skinny with arduous plastic felt beneath on the panels, and the delicate leather-based seat upholstery doesn’t really feel sturdy or up for journey. The Land Cruiser Land Cruiser I examined was $73,344 of yikes thanks largely to the $4,600 Premium Bundle that added a JBL sound system, reminiscence for the leather-trimmed driver’s seat, a heads-up show, and energy entrance seats. There was additionally a $1,440 roof rack that created a ton of wind noise on prime of the wind noise that comes screaming off the facet mirrors at something greater than 40 mph. Not less than the costly Land Cruiser Land Cruiser will get a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster and 12.3-inch touchscreen for the cash quite than the 1958 mannequin’s 7.0-inch cluster and eight.0-inch touchscreen.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
Professional: Land Cruiser has sufficient off-road worthy {hardware}
Each Land Cruiser comes commonplace with full-time four-wheel drive with a 2-speed switch case, heart and rear locking differentials, and Toyota’s Multi-Terrain Choose system, with off-road modes out there in each 4Hi and 4Lo. There’s additionally a crawl management system, which is like off-road cruise management. It’s extra refined than Toyota’s earlier system that clunked and thunked. The practically $60k base 1958 mannequin can’t be optioned with the electronically managed disconnecting sway bar, however it’s out there on the Land Cruiser Land Cruiser mannequin for $1,250. Sadly, the outgoing Land Cruiser’s trick KDSS (hydraulically managed disconnecting sway bar system) isn’t even an choice. It’s simply gone.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser 1958
Altogether, the {hardware} is, as the youngsters say, legit, and aggressive with different off-roaders. It’ll get the place the Land Cruiser is attempting to go, except for the truth that no Land Cruiser is accessible from the manufacturing unit with all-terrain tires—a hilarious and peculiar oversight that claims loads. The truth that entrance, rear differential, and transmission metal skid plates are all elective is each regarding and speaks volumes. There’s additionally no entrance locker to be seen wherever on an choices sheet.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
Con: Land Cruiser doesn’t really feel easy, cosplays effectivity
Goodbye, V-8. Each Land Cruiser is a hybrid with a 2.4-liter turbo-4 paired with an electrical 48-hp electrical motor sandwiched within the 8-speed computerized transmission. Energy output is rated at 326 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque for the mixed system. Land Cruisers are supposed, and traditionally, conquer the land effortlessly. This one doesn’t and received’t. It’ll get the place you’re going, most likely, however it feels strained, sounds and feels coarse, and is unrefined. One would possibly even describe the powertrain as a bunch of hamsters spinning a wheel beneath the engine. Although, you may hear the turbo go whoosh, which is type of enjoyable. The transmission’s a gem with fast, clear shifts. However the engine seems like it could be at residence in a third-world nation, not a flagship. The buttery clean V-8? It’s missed. From 0-30 mph the Land Cruiser feels faster than it ought to due to the electrical help, however then issues fall off sharply from there and aerodynamics begin kicking in with the brick-like profile. EPA gas financial system scores of twenty-two mpg metropolis, 25 freeway, and 23 mixed are markedly higher than the outgoing mannequin’s 13/17/14. Nevertheless it’s unrealistic to see these scores of the newer mannequin translating to the true world. In a number of weeks of testing a number of Land Cruisers over the course of a whole bunch of miles I noticed a mean of 18-19 mpg in combined suburban driving. Notably higher than the 12 mpg the outgoing Land Cruiser averaged? Yup. Environment friendly? Not likely.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
Professional: Land Cruiser sticks to the script with buttons, knobs, toggles
Whereas the Land Cruiser looks like an enormous step backwards in some ways there’s one factor Toyota didn’t overlook: Straightforward-to-use controls are king whereas each driving and going off-road. To that time the Land Cruiser wins with giant knobs, buttons for all important off-road controls, toggles and buttons for local weather controls, and an actual quantity knob. If the touchscreen failed you’ll lose your tunes, however making it residence wouldn’t be an issue.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser
Con: Land Cruiser packaging ought to make engineers weep
The packaging of the Land Cruiser is borderline embarrassing. Someplace, someplace, an engineer should cry softly over the specs and design they have been handed to work round. The hybrid’s battery pack sits within the cargo space. This forces a triple liftover level forcing cargo to be lifted over the bumper, cargo space lip, after which the battery pack shelf. Fold the second row and it’s not a flat load ground. My 11-year outdated sitting behind my 5-foot-10 body famous the second row got here up quick on legroom. The receiver, which is barely rated to tow 6,000 kilos, has a plastic cowl that requires both a screwdriver or key to take away push pins, then a second plastic encompass, and that’s all to disclose the business’s solely receiver (i.e. solely Toyota and Lexus merchandise) that incorporates a double-wall and air-gapped design. That requires a hitch pin that’s 4.0-inch lengthy, which isn’t widespread. Toyota’s engineering workforce has mentioned that the design is for energy, however nobody else within the business does this.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser 1958
Time has marched on, and seemingly the Land Cruiser’s attempting to return to a land earlier than it grew to become a stealth wealth image. The worth has been rolled again 20 years, however the 2005 Land Cruiser, often called J100, was a a lot nicer automobile than as we speak’s Land Cruiser. This newest mannequin will cruise the land, however it doesn’t really feel just like the Land Cruiser all of us knew and liked. I need to adore it; I type of prefer it; however I do know what it might be. The remainder of the world will get the true Land Cruiser (300 Collection), and there’s seemingly little to no motive it may’t exist in America for $65,000 to $70,000. The Land Cruiser we acquired nearly looks like a money seize. Toyota mentioned it could carry again the Land Cruiser, and it did. However simply because it wears the badge doesn’t imply it’ll meet your expectations. Disappointment would possibly ensue.
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2025 Land Cruiser Land Cruiser
Base worth: $56,700 together with $1,450 vacation spot cost
Value as examined: $73,344
Powertrain: 326-hp 2.4-liter turbo-4 hybrid, 8-speed computerized, 4WD
EPA gas financial system: 22/25/23 mpg
The hits: Appears like a Land Cruiser; off-road {hardware}, buttons, knobs, and toggle switches
The misses: Feels low cost; coarse powertrain; not cruising something effortlessly; compromised packaging; not the Land Cruiser you bear in mind
