2024 Toyota Land Cruiser Review // Idiot Proof

Yes, that's me, you're probably wondering how I got us into this situation. Well, why don't we rewind a little bit and I'll tell you the story you're watching. Throttle House. I'm Thomas, I'm James and today. Let's go on a mini adventure in the Accelerator House with the new Toyota Land Cruiser. We are going to build highways. We are going to make secondary roads. Let's make sand dunes. And we're going to camp a little. Camp I don't know why I let him talk me into these things anyway, we'll start here on the gentle, rolling sun-kissed shores of Coronado and then our plan is to head east from San Diego through the mountains and into from the desert to the Algodon sand dunes, which look like someone took a piece of the Middle East and dropped it in California.

Not even scientists know for sure how the dunes got there, so consider us researchers with the new Toyota Land Cruiser as our vessel. I was more excited about this trip than any other in recent memory because for some reason lately I've become totally obsessed with Toyota Land Cruisers. I spent some time in Costa Rica and in addition to touring around in a state-of-the-art Land Cruiser Proto, I fell in love. I love the endless variety of old and new Land Cruisers everywhere, and it has become clear to me how prolific, enduring, and important the Land Cruiser is to the world, to the point that I'm thinking about buying a vintage one this year .

However, that means my expectations for this new Land Cruiser are very, very high and considering it's priced close to the same as its six-cylinder Lexus counterpart and is supposed to be priced higher than the new 4Runner, let's see if it has its place in everyone. right, I want to talk about this first because some people might say that this is not a real Land Cruiser. Oh, what is that? Because technically it's a 250 series Land Cruiser prao and the prao is like the rest of the world, it's like a lightweight Land Cruiser. You can still get the 300 series Land Cruiser in different markets.

In fact, you can still get it here. It's called Lexus LX. Yes, because in my head, LX was to Land Cruiser like GX was to 4Runner. and now that we know that the new 4Runner is like the same platform as the GX and Land Cruiser, it's all very confusing. Those are triplets. Basically, they are triplets. Basically, so come the trim levels, we'll talk about that later, but the thing. I don't think so, I don't think it matters, this is still a Land Cruiser. Land Cruisers are Land Cruisers, they could be called many different things and if you really want to be pedantic, the 70 series Land Cruiser still exists, we don't.

I don't understand what a crazy off-road body with a solid framed axle and leaf springs. It's been the same since the '70s. Basically, you can still buy that thing called a Land Cruiser, so this is a Land Cruiser, which is a Land Cruiser, everything is a Land Cruiser, so let it go. I get this straight, Toyota's lineup is all Crown, yes, or all Land Cruiser, yes, and except that Land Cruiser actually means Corona, now that we know what this is. First impressions, we've covered a few miles, well you just put your foot on the ground. and it propelled us forward with the new I force Max engine, so this is our first attempt with this engine, this is a 2.4L 4 cylinder hybrid hybrid, that's the important thing.

Yes, and this is what is the only engine option for this car and in the The 4Runner it won't be a hybrid and then this engine and like the Tacoma, there's the regular four-cylinder and then there's the Max. They sold me a little. I force the Max engine to be like that, like a powerful and exciting Baja style. Which is because the numbers are almost the same as the V6 and the GX, yes, but it's not really that, no, it just makes you move forward with a bit of four cylinder noise, yes, there is nothing, It's not a monster.

I don't need my Land Cruiser to be exciting and sound cool. I just need it to get me to a place and back reliably and with good fuel efficiency forever, yeah, which we won't get, no, we won't get it, it's not very, you have a very large object stuck to the hood so we can go camping yeah it's a good b word it's ruining everyone's day it's like a good keyword it has value right away although this is a very comfortable car to drive down the road Yeah I'm not going to let you ruin my mood because the car is running well, you know, you think the GX is this more refined, beautiful and quieter and I remember you did a knockoff of the Bronco in the GX, oh you.

I want to hear my impression of a Bronco on the road, list, it's a Bronco all the way, this is not like that, no, it's very similar to the GX, very good, in fact, I would say it even drives a little better, I think in In reality it could still be that way. It's got some body movements in the frame, but it's a little bit lighter, significantly lighter, yeah, okay, let's move on to the best tourist attraction in the entire country. I'm very excited, it was a long drive into the dunes and none of the towns along the way had much to offer, but James managed to find on Google a highly

review

ed unique geological formation mysteriously called a patch of

land

, I honestly don't know what I was expecting , Yeah.

What did the

review

say? He said it was heavily reviewed. He was there. Nothing for hundreds of miles other than this I thought there would be a historical marker or well this person says amazing, artistic and beautiful. I met my husband here. Well, this piece of

land

saved me from 420 zombies with nothing but rocks. Wow, this. A piece of dirt gave me CPR, that makes sense. This piece of land saved me from being attacked by a shark. I mean, well that's true, if there aren't sharks there you're safe from sharks, they sure are good options for exercising Sprint back and forth or something anyway, do you want lunch, yeah, yeah, leave a review, yes, yes, let's leave a review, what do you think? five stars five stars five stars 100% yes, before we left we opted to use a patch of dirt Large exercise area to work up an appetite, which was easily satiated by a rather quirky and authentic local Mexican restaurant whose decorations were as endearing as the food It was good, even the bathrooms were charming, but before long we were back on the road and quickly saw the last one.

A bit of civilization disappeared very soon, dunes appeared on the horizon, stretching as far as the eye could see in all directions, there must have been thousands of grains of sand there, but before leaving for the desert, we stopped to prepare the land. Cruiser, okay, desert time is a lady's swimsuit, yeah, you said you save money, I didn't know you were going to steal someone's curtains, this cost $7, this was eight, I'll win, okay, like this which unfortunately the Land Cruiser at this time does not. They don't come with the most aggressive all-terrain tires, so we'll hope for the best, but we're lowering the pressures, we'll try for around 25 psi and see how it goes.

I'm going to lower the pressures in all the crew cars. Also, but I will say that sandy noons seem a little more intimidating than I thought they were going to be and so far the only vehicles we've seen driving on them are purpose-built off-road things that people tow. Here, so yes, our plan is to cross the entirety of the imperial sand dunes to the end. Let's see how it goes. We were going to quickly find out how overambitious that plan was because the further you go into the dunes, the more intense they are. Get like AR Racus but without the colossal sandworms or the actor that looks like this shoe for some reason, okay, here we go, we've vented the pressures a little bit in sand mode, we're in sand mode, okay, and the goal It's not Baja here, no.

This is get, get, get, don't get stuck, you shouldn't use a tire please, and come back, please don't make us roll shiny side up. Those are the rules for the daytime arena mode, which can now be used at four high levels. Basically a sophisticated traction control setup that allows you to slip and divert power when necessary, so that, along with locking the rear differential or disconnecting the front stabilizer bar when necessary, meant that the new Land Cruiser was making this business landing off easy, oh, it's soft, so we. We've barged before in the Bronco Raptor, but this is on the ground because there's a tent on the roof.

Look, I'm glad you understand the distinction and you and you pick a place and you just go, you pick a place and you go. par land parkour is parkour parkour for cars for cars exactly call yes fastest point from A to B is exactly what is more more speed do it yes there it's out of boy okay, we'll slow down because there might be a cliff which is the phrase of the day to slow down because there might be a cliff as we go deeper, we start to feel that wildness, that isolation that only a desert can give you and here, considering its ability to crush a 3 hour road trip to Earth.

Cruiser made light work of the sand it was home to and the dunes its playground of wonders, however, the ease ended quickly. Driving in Sand Dunes is a very challenging discipline, not only are the dunes completely unpredictable and random in their shape, but it is also very difficult to see. What comes next, especially since the Land Cruiser's front camera annoyingly disappears once the parking lot speed is exceeded. Plus, the softness of the sand and the ability to roll are very real. A low center of gravity is key, which is why buggies are a thing and yes, for all its wonderful headroom, the Land Cruiser doesn't have that, especially since we've added to its height a heavy tent, okay, more power, more power, more power, up and up, up and up, yeah guys, no, no, look.

Edge, okay, just get up here and stop for a second, get here and stop, okay, we needed to rethink a little bit these dunes are rated double black diamond and there just wasn't a way to get through in the Land Cruiser safely, so about 5 In minutes, yes, you're going to admit we've bitten off more than we can shoot, no, we're going to take an alternate route, this is a notom Magic Carpet Land Cruiser, it might look like a boy, okay, hand hard left. down you're going to give it some gas and we're going to head in that direction having lost sight of our crew, we looked for a route out of this giant bowl of sand and then we stopped to take a quick breather and see what R House he's made it and he's made a mistake because we're kind of cowboys, we don't do the traditional throws, we make our own path and that's not cool right now, yeah the path involves sand cliffs which you can't.

You'll see until you're there, but it's a good time to talk about the fact that right now this is the most aggressive tire you can buy on a Toyota Land Cruiser and it's not that aggressive when you compare it to things like 35 tires. . 37 tires on a Bronco are like all-terrain off-road, they're fine, they're fine anyway, we're going to skirt around the crazy Dune there and we're going to cross the desert that way. you see where there are some bushes, yeah the bushes are a happier place for this right now, okay we don't have the uh why didn't you give it, okay well let's do it, we start on a slightly different route skirting near the edge of the biggest dunes keeps your enemies close and all, and as much as Thomas credits what I can only assume is a Spirit Halloween Indiana Jones costume, the Land Cruiser was being an absolute workhorse and We began to cover a great distance. "We're going down, it was great, honestly, it's doing an extremely good job, even with these tires, we haven't felt close to getting stuck once, no, and you end up taking pride in the car, yeah, yeah, exactly landing." As we were abroad, the day progressed and although we had been driving for hours and the sun was beginning to set, we hadn't even broken the back of the Imperial Sand Dunes, they were huge, there was no chance we could reach the rest of the day.

On such a defeated day we found camp, which meant locating some element of shelter from the relentless winds that we noticed were getting stronger as the day progressed. Okay, this isn't very windy. By the way, that's not very similar. I was just about to say that it's not a very safe slamming sound, it doesn't sound very good, it's just a little bit, okay, I mean, a little bit of Solace from the wind, yeah, it's not that much Solace, but it'll do. well, well, this is rooftop tent time, rooftop tent time, rooftop tent time, I have no idea how this tent stands.

I have never done it before. I'm kind of thankful that it's on the roof right now because there are a lot of holes that look like scorpion-sized holes, yeah, a very scorpion area, this snake, yeah, or a desert bear, that's one thing, can I? would you help? No, I was going to stand there looking at me, scorpions, I was going to see how you made that corner. I was going to handle theWe inflated the tires, made sure there was no other damage present, somehow found it frozen in the desert, one of the most undeserved ice poles Thomas has ever experienced, and then drove away from the sand and into the mountains.

As we gained altitude, the weather continued to worsen until it was almost freezing, but the Land Cruiser took it all in stride, there was not a hint of any damage to the suspension and followed Arrow straight down the road, even the coolant managed to leave it. from being a coolant leak and the temperature remained stable, the Land Cruiser did that Land Cruiser thing and got us home, so now that we know that the The new 4Runner is still a suitable go-anywhere off-road SUV and the Lexus GX is actually not much more expensive than the Land Cruiser, but it has a larger V6 engine, more towing capacity, no loss of trunk space due to a hybrid system and the possibility of three rows, it is actually very It's hard to see where the Land Cruiser fits in, but somehow it feels that way, it feels like Toyota left some room for it to be a slightly more stylish and grown-up Forerunner and, in the same way, it feels like a more honest Lexus GX than it does.

Benefit from better fuel economy and a 2400W output in the trunk, although the Land Cruiser currently does not have a wild engine option in its top version, it is more pleasant to live with every day and has better road manners than a regular Bronco and Wrangler and while we historically love the Land Rover versus Toyota defender for its reliability, it's not so much a fight as a kill, "I've talked a lot about appeal and it's certainly very difficult to quantify, but the Land Cruiser It seems to have it because if someone asks you about your Lexus GX you might say, well, it's a Lexus, but it's actually a Land Cruiser under or on top of your Forerunner.

Say yes, think of it as a kind of North American Land Cruiser, but yeah. you drive one of these no questions need to be asked or at least that's how I see it because I'm a weak man and I've been sold on the nameplate so I bought a special Old Land Cruiser and it's currently on its way from Earth. of the Rising Sun, thanks for watching.