2020 Toyota Land Cruiser review: The old guard still has it

Toyota’s Land Cruiser has remained mostly unchanged in the US considering the fact that the two hundred-collection was released again in 2007. That form of longevity in the automotive field is uncommon and for most automobiles, it would be a death sentence. But for the Land Cruiser, which is just how the homeowners like it and the 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser Heritage Edition is it’s possible the greatest expression of that if-it-ain’t-broke-never-deal with-it loyalty.

All of the Land Cruiser’s bones are old, from its body-on-body building to its big, normally aspirated V8. While Toyota’s 3UR-FB engine is not what any individual would contact the photograph of effectiveness, it really is got other qualities that make it the perfect gasoline engine for the Land Cruiser.

To start, the 5.7-liter twin-overhead-cam V8 generates affordable amounts of electrical power and torque — 381 horsepower and 401 pound-toes — so the Land Cruiser will not come to feel gradual or ponderous on the street. That in and of itself is an accomplishment when you take into account the Cruiser’s around six,000-pound curb bodyweight. It can be also a pretty clean-functioning V8, which adds to the Land Cruiser’s overpowering emotion of solidity.

2020 Toyota Land Cruiser Heritage Edition: Likely out on a high adventure observe

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Regrettably, the engine drinks gas like OPEC sponsors it, in spite of Toyota upgrading the transmission to an 8-velocity device in 2016. Really don’t assume to do improved than 17 miles for each gallon on the highway and 13 mpg in town, or even fewer if you keep the Heritage Edition’s roof rack.

The Land Cruiser’s total-time four-wheel-push method also eats into its gas economic system figures, but yet again, the tradeoff is well worth it. Not only does the major SUV come to feel properly pleasurable, that method also helps make the Land Cruiser pretty much godlike in the dust. This Toyota will get you incredibly far into the wilderness before you even have to have to take into account partaking minimal range or turning on the differential lock. Element of that has to do with the Cruiser’s off-street geometry. It can be got an solution angle of 32 levels, which is two levels improved than the Mercedes-Benz G-Course. The departure angle is 24 levels (the Cruiser has a major butt) and the breakover angle is 21 levels. Not poor for a total-sizing SUV, correct?

The Land Cruiser’s suspension is pretty comfortable, which is not astonishing contemplating the model’s off-street mandate, but it really is also incredibly good on-street. It has no problem smoothing out even the worst of Los Angeles’ notoriously poor roadways and it can do so without emotion wallowy or disconnected. It can be nevertheless a pretty tall and pretty significant SUV, so it really is not precisely what I might contact sporty, but even if you hardly ever acquire it into the dust (which would be a crime), you would not uncover oneself regretting your acquire.

The Land Cruiser’s brakes are rather significant pieces of kit, which is good because they do the job tricky for a residing halting a thing as significant as the Land Cruiser is not effortless. They also engage in a portion in two significant pieces of off-street tech: Crawl Manage and Hill-Descent Manage. These the two mainly act as a form of off-street cruise handle, permitting the car or truck to take care of itself on steep declines by pulsing the brakes as nicely as maintaining velocity on level ground and on hill ascents. The sounds the method helps make although heading downhill is horrific, but the over-all outcome is epic and usually takes a major bite out of the off-roading discovering curve.

The Land Cruiser is cozy, as well. There is nothing at all even remotely approaching the term “most recent and best” inside of the Land Cruiser, but anything feels correct at residence. The seats and steering wheel are wrapped in incredibly supple leather-based and all of the other finishes that you contact come to feel great. The gauge cluster is old-school as well, but I hardly ever identified myself seeking a digital sprint, it would just come to feel bizarre in an SUV like this.

The seating position is great and provides a commanding check out down the Land Cruiser’s enormous hood, while at close to six-toes, 4-inches tall and with a great deal of that height in my torso, I would appreciate it if the driver’s seat dropped another inch or two. This is not just a Land Cruiser challenge possibly I uncover this is the scenario in most Toyotas. My Heritage Edition tester lacks functioning boards, so shorter drivers could have to have to invest in some or get a functioning start to hop inside of this thing.

The rear seats are also properly great. There is plenty of area, even for total-sizing grownups. Sitting down driving the driver’s seat is totally great, even with it established to my regular seating position. The rear seats in the Land Cruiser are also fairly effortless to fold up, adding to the presently sizable cargo house in the again. That cargo location is a moreover when it will come time to haul things, but I might appreciate to see a lot more standard cargo nets or grocery bag hooks to keep things from rolling close to.

One of the highlights of the Land Cruiser is its split tailgate. Significantly like the Land Rover Variety Rover, the Cruiser offers you the choice to open up only the leading 50 {fb741301fcc9e6a089210a2d6dd4da375f6d1577f4d7524c5633222b81dec1ca} of the rear (which is driven, a semi-recent enhancement) or fold down the strong little tailgate. It can be a great put to sit and cling out and I wish a lot more SUVs had this. The Heritage Edition is only readily available with two rows of seating, but the standard Land Cruiser can be had with a pair of facet-folding, 3rd-row seats. The cargo dimensions are eighty two.eight cubic-toes driving the first row irrespective of design. If you choose for the Heritage Edition, there is certainly 53.5 cubic-toes of house driving the second row, shrinking to forty one.4 in the standard design with the folding chairs and just 16.one cubic-toes driving reported 3rd row.

When it will come to infotainment, it really is tricky to contact Toyota a leader in any regard. The company’s systems frequently come to feel outdated even in automobiles with considerably newer architecture than the Land Cruiser. So, other than for display screen sizing — which is regular at nine inches — and that truth that it really is a touchscreen, things are really dismal. Apple CarPlay or Android Vehicle? Nope. But hey, it does have a decent-sounding JBL stereo method and features Qi wireless charging, but individuals never precisely bridge the hole with other top quality SUVs.

Protection tech is also not precisely bleeding-edge, but there is certainly plenty of it and it all will work nicely. Toyota’s Protection Perception driver help suite is standard and involves lane-departure warning, pre-collision braking with pedestrian detection, automatic high beams and adaptive cruise handle. In truth, anything on the Land Cruiser Heritage Edition is standard. There are no choices, which is handy offered the hefty price tag.

Speaking of which, the 2020 Land Cruiser Heritage Edition — which involves bronze wheels, a Yakima roof rack that wouldn’t in good shape in my parking composition and distinctive badging — retails for $89,070 such as $one,325 for place and which is before you add extras like rubber flooring mats ($215) and the like. If you choose for the a bit fewer-high-priced standard Land Cruiser ($86,740), you get the choice of adding a rear-seat leisure method for an further $two,220. You also get other color choices past the Heritage Edition’s black or white.

I comprehend that shelling out $ninety,000 for an SUV that will not even have CarPlay is form of a great deal to question, particularly when you take into account the luxurious and convenience capabilities that you can get on the off-street-able Variety Rover, which starts just beneath $ninety one,000. But this is the thing: For most consumers, the Land Cruiser is a lengthy-term acquire and with the model’s heritage of proven reliability, you know you happen to be not probably to have to pour a great deal of dollars into it (nicely, apart from gas) through its lifestyle. That will not even get started to get into the issue of applied auto values, which skew heavily in favor of the Land Cruiser.

Furthermore, what else out there genuinely competes with the Land Cruiser? The Mercedes-Benz G550 is at least as able off-street, but it has a starting up price $forty,000 bigger than the Cruiser and which is before adding choices. The Nissan Armada is also major, old and employs body-on-body architecture, but it lacks the Land Cruiser’s off-street chops. There’s even competitiveness from in the Toyota family in the variety of the Lexus LX 570, which fees around the very same and appears to be like two times as hideous. The LX’s standard adaptive air suspension is a great element and can’t be had on the Cruiser, but the off-street geometry is not as good, so it really is a wash.

The Land Cruiser is not for every person and revenue surely replicate that, which is ultimately the explanation why Toyota is discontinuing the SUV soon. But in the meantime, there is certainly nothing at all else fairly like it and for that explanation alone, if you happen to be contemplating choosing a person up, I can’t visualize you will regret that alternative.