What they said when the Toyota Land Cruiser was new… (Dec 9 2002)
WHEN the UN weapons inspectors returned to Iraq, one television correspondent announced to viewers across the globe that they arrived in a convoy of Land Cruisers.
It may have sounded inconsequential but the choice of words is telling.
Not Toyota Land Cruisers, nor four-by-fours, just Land Cruisers - and that sums up the reputation of this mighty four wheel drive.
In the fifty years since the first Land Cruiser was produced it has carved out a niche in a worldwide market that is the envy of off-road manufacturers.
The Land Cruiser has become a brand within a brand and only the Range Rover can lay claim to a similar accolade.
The others in this league remain the generic Jeeps, Mitsubishis and the rest of the Land Rover fraternity.
Now four million Land Cruisers down the line, Toyota is about to release the seventh generation of its big off-roader.
On sale as of January 2 and with prices ranging from £23,995 to £36,795, the latest Land Cruiser will set new standards in a segment where comfort and more than a bit of luxury is poised to become more important than the ability to tackle the worst terrain on the planet.
Combining the best of those qualities, the new Land Cruisers are set to wipe the floor with the benchmark model in this class, the Land Rover Discovery.
And so it should, for the Toyota is a car for 2003 and the Discovery, despite another facelift only a few months ago, is now a teenager.
With its styling influenced by Toyota's European design centre in the South of France, the Land Cruiser has more than a passing resemblence to the funky looking RAV4 - but that means it has lost some of the macho image of its immediate predecessor, the Land Cruiser Colorado.
However it is still obviously big and chunky and looks the part for the great outdoors. It will be available either as a three or five door and the bigger version can become an eight seater thanks to a foldaway rear seat.
Inside the emphasis is on space and comfort and Toyota claims there is 40 per cent more room than in the Colorado. It certainly feels much more airy in the cabin and the instrumentation shares a few features with Toyota's luxury SUV, the Lexus RX300.
Although there will be four trim levels - unimaginatively called LC2, LC3, LC4 and LC5 - Toyota is placing significant emphasis on diesel engines. In fact 98 per cent of the 2,500 Land Cruisers that will be coming to the UK next year will be oil burners, which means just 50 petrol versions - using an all-new four litre V6 and due to go on sale in March - will be available.
That reflects not only the current popularity of diesel power but also the quality of the engines - and Toyota's latest generation D-4D diesels are up with the best.
The Land Cruiser uses a 3.0 litre 161bhp D-4D engine which is a nice, torquey beast and ideal for both on and off-road conditions. It is significantly more powerful than that in the Discovery and gives the Toyota a 0 to 60mph acceleration time of less than 13 seconds which is 25 per cent better than the time it takes the Land Rover.
Fuel consumption of around 30mpg on average is similar to the Discovery and in terms of exhaust emissions the Land Cruiser is cleaner at 250g/km (253 for the five door) - although that offers little in terms of tax benefit.
On and off the road it demonstrates plenty of muscle. Not surprisingly the manual versions have more bite than the automatics and the shorter wheelbase three door models deliver a sharper drive, but neither rock and roll around corners as their predecessors did.
Instead it is a most accommodating ride on which Toyota has capitalised to give the Land Cruiser incredible all terrain performance.
Toyota's version of hill descent control - which it calls downhill assist control - has been fitted to the new Land Cruiser and it is highly effective.
That is backed up with a plethora of other electronic devices to aid stability and traction and a world first in the form of HAC.
It stands for Hill start Assist Control and works by braking all four wheels if they start to slip when pulling away on a slope, allowing the driver to stop any slide and move ahead smoothly by increasing power. However it can be used only in conjunction with automatic transmission and its availablilty will be restricted to upper range models.
Height adjustable electronic air suspension is also available on the top five door Land Cruisers, but for some reason Toyota has decided to fit it only at the rear.
Despite that, a run along one of the deeply rutted stages used in the Paris-Dakar rally did not seem to bother the Land Cruiser at all during the recent launch event for the car.
In fact it performed magnificently and at the moment this is the ultimate among sub-£40,000 off-roaders.
But this is a hotly competitive sector of the market. A new Discovery, a facelifted Mitsubishi Shogun and an all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee are all on the way - and things could be very different once they have joined the fray.
Words: Chris Russon
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