– Glen Helen, CA
Toyota has been making Land Cruisers continuously since 1951. What started as essentially a post-war knock-off of the Willys Jeep eventually became a luxury off-roader that essentially built Toyota’s reputation for legendary build quality and reliability. The last Land Cruiser that we got in the US left our shores in 2021. Now there’s a new one this year, and one of the big unknowns that the 2024 Land Cruiser will have to deal with is whether it can live up to its predecessor’s legend.
The last Land Cruiser we got in the US was the long-lived and stratospherically priced (for something with a Toyota badge) J200. It was a huge body-on-frame SUV with a big, lazy, and under-stressed V8 engine. It was designed to last forever and felt like it was carved out of a big block of Japanese steel. When Toyota killed the 200-Series Land Cruiser in the US in 2021, we thought that would be the end of the Land Cruiser in America. Thankfully, we were wrong.
Much like the old 200-Series, the 2024 Land Cruiser (aka J250) gets body-on-frame construction, full-time four-wheel drive, Toyota’s epic Crawl Control feature, chunky styling, and for the first time, electric power steering. It also ditches half of the 200-Series’ cylinders, with a 2.4-liter turbocharged hybrid inline-four called the T24A-FTS that produces a very healthy 276 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque.
Now that we’ve got the nuts and bolts out of the way, what is it like to drive? As to the Cruiser’s on-road manners, I couldn’t tell you. Toyota has me driving it off-road only on a course set up to showcase the Land Cruiser’s dirt chops to Toyota dealers from around the country. This is less than ideal for a few reasons, but I can still glean a few insights from my experience.
First, the 250-Series has lost none of its predecessor’s go-anywhere ability. Interestingly, while the J250 looks and feels smaller than the old 200-Series, they’re almost identical in size, right down to the 112.2-inch wheelbase. All the Toyota off-road tech is here. As I mentioned before, Crawl Control is still amazing. You can feel it thinking as you go up or down steep grades to determine the ideal torque split and braking application. It’s like an off-road cheat code.
This also goes for Toyota’s terrain modes that adjust traction control and torque split for different surface conditions. Sand mode, for example, biases torque to the front wheels to help the vehicle pull itself through deeper sand. There’s a little of this on the test track and you can feel the vehicle working, clawing itself through without wheelspin, instability, or other drama. Though the soft sand seemed only to be a few inches deep, I suspect that the positive results would only be more dramatic were it deeper.
On higher trims of Land Cruiser, Toyota’s sway bar disconnect system makes a return, too. This is another favorite of mine and makes the off-road driving experience smoother and more comfortable by leaps and bounds. It’s most noticeable on obstacles requiring significant suspension articulation. The 1958 trim level (the Land Cruiser’s retro-named base model) doesn’t get this feature, but that shouldn’t be a deal breaker, particularly for the customers for whom the 1958 is intended (read: overlanders).
A massive change is in the way the engine and gearbox respond to throttle inputs. The old 3UZ 5.7-liter V8 never seemed in much of a hurry to get the Land Cruiser moving, but with the new turbocharged hybrid engine, that sensation is gone. This SUV feels much more modern and much more willing to get out of its own way.
As has been the case since the 80-Series Cruisers from the 1990s, the 2024 Land Cruiser has full-time four-wheel drive with a selectable low range in the transfer case. The low range selection allows you to access features like crawl control, and is most useful for slowly picking your way through difficult obstacles where controlling speed and multiplying torque is more important than high-speed driving. High range is used for driving around every day and is the setting the car defaults to on startup, but truth be told, you likely won’t need to drop to low gear outside of serious rock crawling or deep mud and snow.
Of the two trims that I’m driving – 1958 and Limited – I think I prefer the 1958 for its hard-wearing cloth interior, no-nonsense black plastic cladding, and handsome-AF round headlights, though the tiny eight-inch infotainment screen is a bummer. The Limited is much more well-equipped (appropriate for its $6,350 price premium), and I suspect this is the one most people will buy, but I like the blank canvas aspect of the 1958, which starts at $57,345, including destination fees. The Limited goes for $63,695.
So, the Land Cruiser being capable off-piste is no surprise. Toyota isn’t stupid, and it wouldn’t try and sell one that wasn’t. What is kind of a surprise is the decision to sell the J250 Land Cruiser at all, given its similarity to the forthcoming 2025 4Runner.
Not only does the 4Runner share its platform, engine, and transmission, but it also has a very similar interior, and it’s likely going to be cheaper than the Land Cruiser 1958’s $55,000-plus starting price. Sure, the 4Runner’s styling is a little more aggressive and less restrained than the Cruiser’s and you will be able to operate the 4Runner in two-wheel drive, but aside from that, there’s not a lot of difference between the two models.
For example, the Land Cruiser offers approach, breakover, and departure angles of 31 degrees, 25 degrees, and 22 degrees, respectively. The 4Runner features up to a 32-degree approach angle and 24-degree departure angle. The Land Cruiser has 8.7 inches of ground clearance which is actually down from the 200-Series by nearly a quarter of an inch. Toyota hasn’t listed ground clearance for the 2025 4Runner but the 2024 TRD Pro model offers 9.6 inches of clearance and we’d expect the new one to do at least as well.
The Land Cruiser’s interior is quite comfortable with 36.1 inches of headroom for the front seats and 35.3 inches for the rear seats. Legroom is also decent at 33 inches front and 26.7 inches rear. The Land Cruiser doesn’t offer a third-row seating option, for the first time since 1990. The luggage area is somewhat compromised with a higher load floor than I’d like, due to the hybrid system’s battery placement. Despite the high liftover, cargo volume is acceptable at 37.5 cubic feet. Toyota hasn’t released interior measurements for the 4Runner, but because they share a platform and because the interiors look incredibly similar, we’d suspect that their dimensions will be broadly similar as well.
All that speculation aside, while the new Land Cruiser doesn’t necessarily feel as solid or as unflappable as the old one, I doubt most people who buy one will care. They want the name and the styling, and they’re getting a much higher overall level of sophistication, comfort, and technology for less money. In many ways, the new Land Cruiser feels like the world’s nicest 4Runner, which will certainly appeal to a decent chunk of buyers in today’s car market. Hell, it definitely appeals to me.
Base Price: $57,345
As-Tested Price: $57,345
Engine: Turbocharged 2.4-Liter Inline-Four Hybrid
Output: 326 Horsepower / 465 Pound-Feet
Transmission: Eight-Speed Automatic
Drive: Full-Time Four-Wheel
EPA Fuel Economy: 22 City / 25 Highway / 23 Combined
Weight: 5,037 Pounds
Seating: 5
Cargo Capacity: 37.5 / N/A Cubic Feet
Max Towing: 6,000 Pounds
Ground Clearance: 8.0 Inches
