Here’s How The New Land Cruiser Compares To The Bronco, Wrangler, 4Runner, Defender, GX, and More!

hey Tommy guess what I just got back uh from driving the allnew Toyota Land Cruiser yeah and I can't wait to talk about it on today's podcast because this is one of the most exciting vehicles of the year yeah and we can talk about it and kind of my driving Impressions and then uh there's a little bit of controversy that got stirred up on the program I'll bring that up as well and then we can also talk about how it compar comp s to the 4Runner which we did a very special podcast on last week and then we can also mention the GX because it's hard now to pick Offroad worthy Toyota because there are so many yeah for sure and um we're going to talk about um what you thought of how it drove off-road some of the cool features of this vehicle and whether or not it is worth the money yeah yeah so let's talk about the money you want to configure one yeah for sure so the new Land Cruiser is a lot more affordable than the old one but it's also a lot smaller and has some different options so it starts at 55 950 for the Land Cruiser 1958 with round headlights yep and that's before any options and I think that's also before destination so realistically you're going to be like in the mid to high 50s then the Land Cruiser the Land Cruiser Edition is 61 950 so nice they named it twice except I was talking to the marketing gal behind it yeah and she said they're just going to call it the toy Land Cruiser so it's not the Land Cruiser Land Cruiser no it's not like the Ferrari law Ferrari but see in the configurator it says Land Cruiser right and it says says build your 2024 Land Cruiser and then the model is Land Cruiser it is a little confusing I do agree and then the the one that are coming out first is the Land Cruiser first edition $ 74950 so that's a lot of money it's got all of the goodies it's got you know the off-road stuff and the little roof rack on it so that's the one that's going to be hitting dealers first but you know mid 70s for a Land Cruiser that's some big money yeah I mean for the new Land Cruiser for the new Land Cruiser so let's talk about the old Land Cruiser um for a second because we actually owned uh 200 series we actually own an 80 Series right now uh so we are you know pretty deep into the Land Cruiser World um and I think you know what's changed between the 200 series and the newest 2024 version is they've kind of gone back to their roots and I don't want to get confused with all like the pros and the different you know 250 versions in Europe let's just talk about the Americans because I think uh American versions because I think that's what uh you know we know the best so I don't want necessarily talk about stuff that we haven't driven okay so you know let's face it the Land Cruiser uh 200 series which your which you're showing right now is that ours no that's the Heritage Edition um just got a little kind of uh too bougie right the the problem I think that TOA saw with it was that it was actually encroaching into Lexus territory and if not not just encroaching but actually surpassing Lexus territory right that Heritage Edition was well over $100,000 they were a little bit less expensive than that they were were like 90s so so they were you know still under six figures but look in the real world they were 100 dude yeah that's true after markups yeah I think the 200 series was a really cool vehicle and there's a big following around 200 series and you know they didn't sell very very many because it's it is hard to justify like you said spending 80 90 100 grand for a Toyota in the US were very brand conscious yeah but a Land Cruiser person always went out and bought a Land Cruiser and Toyota knew knew that there was granted a relatively small subset of people that had to have that Land Cruiser because the Land Cruiser stands for not only offro capability but durability was a Toyota engineered to last they would never say this but unofficially 250,000 mies where standard Toyota typically last 150,000 mies or at 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high road ad at the bottom of the website if you're on mobile or click on the column if you're on a desktop hi Road makes it easy and we like easy yeah and the cool thing about the Land Cruiser at least the last one was that it had this great reputation of being very um reliable very comfortable uh very well built uh for people in the know right so if you were a Kardashian you'd get the G wagon which had all which has all his baggage that's associated with it but you know if you lived someplace that was very wealthy and you wanted to kind of not be showy and not kind of scream I've got a ton of money you would get the Land Cruiser because people in the know understood that it was comfortable it was luxurious but it didn't scream you know what the G wagon screams which is you know I've got way too much money and they would last you know your entire life right they would go without difficulty it can have an every person vibe to it yeah for sure and and you know that that here's the thing right starting in the 1990s is really when Land Cruiser shifted from a very utilitarian vehicle to a more luxury oriented vehicle right with the ad0 series we started seeing leather and um intermittent wipers and luxuries like that right and then in the hundred series it got power antenna yeah right in the 100 series it got you know the heated seats and the navigation system and they got more luxurious and the cooled box and the cooled box and 200 series went even Wilder on top of that and then with the new Land Cruiser they decided to tone it down a little now this is where Dad we are going to have to go into that territory that you don't want to go into a little a little bit because alongside the big Land Cruiser there's always been a slightly smaller one abroad called the pra right which was sold here as the GX right right Lexus yeah and now for the first time when they killed the 200 series in 2021 um they said it's not coming back it did come back but it didn't come back as the 300 series it came back as the little mini version yeah so what they did was they kind of changed it from being a G wagon or better yet a Range Rover competitor with the 200 series to now being more of a Wrangler SL 4Runner slash uh let's say Bronco competitor with the latest version of it and I I say that with the big asteris because obviously the Bronco and the Wrangler are convertibles whereas the Land Cruiser is not but it made it much more um Back to Basics back to its original Roots where uh you can make it uh something that you could like daily Drive every day and not have to go to the bank and get a loan that will mortgage your house right and I'm saying that very well aware that 55,000 is still a lot of money for a car it is a lot of money but coming from 90,000 it makes it feel affordable yeah and you know I think it was a good decision because like we said the 200 series did sell to the Land Cruiser people but because it was so expensive I think that they really did price themselves out of a lot of people that were considering you know a fully loaded Bronco or a Wrangler or even a Grand Cherokee this is more of a Grand Cherokee competitor in some ways but um now at the 50 $60,000 Mark it's going to be targeted to a much larger audience I think it was a really smart decision and if you do want a 300 series Land Cruiser you can still buy one in the states it's just called the Lexus LX yeah yeah yeah if you want to be bougie yeah if you want to be bougie exactly right so um so I think most people were happy with that decision you know we've done a boatload of videos on everything L Cruiser uh and so I was Tommy super excited when I saw that they both had the 1958 I and the Land Cruiser Land Cruiser model to drive and to compare and so Andre and I I got behind the wheel of both of them uh and took them on this course that TOA built U which you know was um I was listening to a bunch of podcasts I was listening to some people and they were like what a great course they built but you know I'm always very skeptical uh and so they will never build a course that the vehicle can't do so usually what the courses are designed to do is show off the capability of the vehicle without actually testing the capability of the vehicle and this was very much the case with the Land Cruiser um you know I was listening like I say some podcasts some videos and people talking about oh you got 30° sideways I'm like that's not really a test of a vehicle right there there are those Once Upon a Time Range Rover Land Rover had these uh like um slopes that they built out in front of their dealerships that did the same thing so so so you can be very um scared at 30° but it's it's the center of gravity of the vehicle most Vehicles will do that um let alone tall off-roaders so you could do that with a Camry for instance so I got to say I I was disappointed in what Toyota had built uh they had like two Rock Gardens they had kind of the small River Crossing and then they had some like you know little some hills and some descents and to be fair Tommy I've gone in the last four years on a lot of programs and for off-roaders and and they they they break down into basically two categories um when we were going on Subaru it was like the Subarus of the world the Toyotas of the world uh and think of any other potential off-roaders where either they build a course or they take you someplace that's relatively mild that doesn't really test a vehicle and they don't want to put the journalist or the vehicles uh in danger and then there are two exceptions to that rule uh and that is um Jeep and Land Rover Jeep and Land Rover when you go on a program that's off-road you will do some serious off-roading like best example of that is when we ran the Rubicon Trail which is you know this is a 13m trail that takes 2 days to do yeah it's with Jeep we ran that in a Wrangler and we ran that in a gladiator uh and I remember doing very similar things uh with Range Rovers and with Land Rovers um where you're out in the wild and you're out there really trying to test a vehicle to its utmost and the manufacturer doesn't seem to be afraid of putting it in danger now Toyota has had a couple trips so where they did do some pretty cool off-roading I did one trip where we drove from Moab to Telly ride and we actually did hell renge and Moab in a series of TRD Pro Models so that was some good off-roading but you're right for the most part especially for a new vehicle launch they are pretty timid with what they put their vehicles through you know it's their program they can kind of choose to do that so and I was kind of expecting you know to be crossing the serengetti it's a Land Cruiser rout yeah you're just on a little rock pile yeah it's like most L it's to's most uh iconic name plate you know so we should have been in Moab with the beautiful arches behind us or someplace you know where the Land Cruiser name actually has you know some kind of a reputation instead of this kind of man-made course so anyway uh that's enough of my whining and winging but we know we we we took it on the course uh and immediately what I felt is that the car is sprung more um or set up more for on-road use than off-road use and ironically we really didn't have a chance to drive it onroad so it felt like it was an on-road car that you can take off-road versus let's say a Wrangler which is an off-road car that you can take onroad in other words a Wrangler feels much better off-road than it does I mean than it does on-road and this felt good off-road but uh you know like we went on this little rock garden and then Andre kind of hit it a little bit too hard and we bashed a rock with the uh skid plate um and and that was because the suspension was is just not um you know taunt enough to actually give us enough uh Road and ground clearance to actually not hit that rock so so I I as much as I love the ride off-road um I kind of feel like there's a lot of room for aftermarket parts Wheels tires to actually make this you know the Land Cruiser that many people think it should be well I mean the ground clearance is also not super huge on this vehicle I think it's something like 8.6 in is what Toyota claims and and you know the first one out the door is going to go right to a Toyota shop and we're going to see lifts on these immediately so that's going to be addressed pretty quickly and you got to figure there might be if I were to it I'd should be thinking of this a TRD Pro version coming which will give you whatever you know you're going to stick with their uh current lineup Fox shocks and maybe even a trail Hunter version which will have old man emu you could be right but there wasn't a tierd pro version of the last Land Cruiser no there we had to build one remember yeah we we tried to build one yeah so so I was I was not I was not unhappy with it off-road I mean it has all the off-road credits so there is a lockable rear diff uh there is a disconnectable sway bar awesome uh there's certainly plenty of ground clearance if you had the right version the tires were you know certainly off-road and grippy enough uh for that course uh but definitely much more of an overlanding rig um than uh you know a rock crawler rig the way that at least the two that we drove were set up well I think that's always been kind of the Land Cruiser ethos it's it's apart from maybe some cool folks that are doing some crazy stuff with the 40 series the little jeepy ones from the' 70s it is a longdistance tour it's designed to tackle continents right and not so much the Rubicon Trail so it kind of makes sense that maybe it's it's not intended to be a rock crawler however they did like you mentioned they did some really cool stuff on this vehicle like the locking rear diff like the Locking Center diff like the sway bar disconnect that do allow you to do some of those cool maybe crawling even if it's not fully intended for that and I got to say I love the like the design language of it you know I would get uh the base model the 1958 all day long especially if you could you know maybe uh get the cloth interior which I think is a great off-road and I would rock that thing as a daily driver that I would occasionally take off-road and I would be very happy Tommy plenty of power uh out of the powertrain and you know we know that powertrain because it's the same powertrain uh that's basically uh in our aracoma a little different though hybrid standard hybrid look I um I don't know if you feel this way I did spend a little bit of time in the 1958 at the launch I didn't drive it but I did get to poke around it it's not a very premium feeling interior no it's very basic it's very like Cora in in a lot of ways and I actually love that because that's what I wanted my off-roader I agree I love that too but for $57,000 after destination I'm I would want I would want some more more quality materials in there I mean it's a it's kind of a big ask for that interior yeah so I'll give you the pluses the minuses the pluses are visibility straight upright windshield it's awesome um very comfortable seats lots of room behind the second row as far as I know there won't be a third row uh if you want that you're going to have to go with the 4Runner yep no third row um you know the materials feel very uh High uh usability rated you know what you know I'm not saying high quality but they just feel like you could like you know if you get dirt or if your dog gets its Muddy Paws on it you could just wipe them off you won't feel bad about it yes there's a lot of hard plastics especially in the 1958 Edition um and you still get kind of very small I think they're 31s from the factory if if I don't which you know which is is absurdly small it it it just it's just screaming out for uh you know 33s at least if not bigger uh but in general when you get behind the wheel and you drive it down a road it just feels right you know how some cars just immediately feel right like everything comes comes to hand everything makes sense it just feels like this car was designed like a tailored suit around you that's how I feel about the L Cruiser so yeah I would rock that thing as a daily driver always and yeah you're you're absolutely right you know at some point I may want nicer materials uh especially at the starting point uh but the problem then becomes that even bronos and jeeps and Defenders you know are now at the $60,000 range right a Rubicon is going to be at least 60k sure and and as far as I know last time I drove by the Jeep dealership the only one you can get is a 4 by and I don't know how much they'll start out at but I'm sure they're certainly around 55,000 I bet you it's not much off yeah no that's a good point yeah and look there's a couple cool things that Land Cruiser offers like it's a full-time four-wheel drive the center differential so you don't have to go between two high and four high I think that's a really great feature and yes you know Bronco and Jeep can be had with the four a aut system but it functions a little differently in that it's um not actually Center differential I don't believe I think it you know because there's a two High version as well in those Vehicles so it's more of an Electronics based system which is fine but having that third differential is a very expensive and heavy way to engineer a car but it's also typically very very durable which is great I really do like the design like you said I think that's fantastic I like that the towing capacity that's another thing we should talk about 6,000lb towing capacity Bronco and Wrangler can barely do five yeah it's got a ton of torque with that hybrid yeah so I can't wait to really get it on the Ike and see how it toes so I think there's really a lot of potential there for capability and look you can't pull the doors off compared to like a Bronco Wrangler you can't pull the roof off and I think that is going to be a detractor for a lot of people but then you get those six letters on the front which a lot of folks are very confident in is going to be a long lasting durable reliable vehicle so that's going to sell a lot of these Land Cruisers as well there is a little um fly my ointment when it comes to uh the Land Cruiser and that is at the same program I was able uh to drive and I can't talk about that yet because those impressions are still embargoed the uh um Toyota Tacoma LR um R3 cha Tacoma TRD Pro uh and of course uh the trail Hunter and also see the 4Runner uh and there's a new version of the 4Runner uh for 2025 and just let's just talk about when these vehicles will be available so uh the Tex GX which kind of lives above the land CR Cruiser we can talk about that we we've driven it um is in dealerships now the Land Cruiser is hitting dealerships as we speak uh and H to the wise I was talking to the Toyota people and they're built in Japan and so they deliver the cars to the West Coast and then they kind of propagate so if you want one early go to La uh you know go to some place in California and you'll have an early crack at it and then the new Foreigner won't come out realistically toward the end of this year I'm thinking probably more of beginning next year but the one that that that that at least if you're being price conscious and I think even like uh off-road conscious would be the one I would get would be the 4Runner um Trail Hunter which you know we don't know the pricing on yet it's not going to be price conscious at all well I'm saying compared to the Land Cruiser I don't think even compared to land Cruis so the current so the current 4Runner starts at about $42,000 yeah so you know you figure an SR5 is going to be what when it comes out 45 50 40 I mean yeah 45 Maybe 50,000 and SR5 is going to be yeah mid-40s okay but let's say let's say that the trail huner is 60 which it could be or 65 I think it's probably more in line right yeah 65 but you can it's still less than um you know the the first edition Land Cruiser and about the same as the Land Cruiser Land Cruiser sure and if I were to line those two up uh in terms of what you get uh for off-road worthiness uh so with the 4Runner Trail Hunter you do get the old man emu shocks y you do get the bigger 33s from the factory uhhuh you get a snorkel right right you get uh you know a windshield that that that comes in and out up and down in the back rear window rear window um you also get um you know a pretty aggressive 4Runner compared to the current generation so you're saying that that's a better deal I I yeah I think you know it's probably a better deal because it's going to be you also get the same same powertrain so there's no difference we get the four-cylinder turbo that's hybridized so I think that's I remember right it's like 325 26 horsepower and 400 and something pound foot of torque I don't think it toeses as much but you know it's within $1,000 so the question then in my mind isound th000 pounds yeah sorry is would I go for the 4Runner uh Trail Hunter which I really fell in love with or would I get the L Cruiser Land Cruiser and from a value perspective I'd probably get the Foreigner cuz it's already built out yeah right um I mean in the past the argument would be well the Land Cruiser is going to be a a higher quality vehicle that's going to last yeah potentially longer right even though that was never official and I could ask Toyota you know why is that Land Cruiser sitting in a pile of uh it's on a rock it looks like a cowo no no it's on a rock looks like a cow patty whoever designed that for Toyota you need to work on that a little better yeah so I I mean I could I'd like to talk to the TOA guys and see like you know is this built to the same standard as a 200 series they know there default answer is going to be you know we engineer all our cars to meet our rigorous internal testing that's what they're going to say sure so I'm not sure that this vehicle is going to last longer I mean I think when you're at that top level 4Runner versus The Land Cruiser they both have the same wheelbase they're roughly the same size they have the same powertrain like you talked about it's going to come down to preference and a design standpoint and I think that's going to really sell a lot of vehicles right and the label right people want the Land Cruiser right A lot of people like that more traditional and actually now that think about it it I wasn't so sure in the first video whether or not was good but I'm kind of coming around to it is that the Land Cruiser is a more traditionally styled vehicle it's very square there's not a lot of risks taken I think it looks great but it's not you know pushing the edge of future futurism whereas the 4Runner is very blocky it's got all sorts of crazy angles and swoops and and swishes and cool colors and bronze wheels and like it really stands out there so it's going to come down to at that price point yes some of the off-road stuff which you talked about but also whether or not you just like the look and the name and the design of the Land Cruiser over the Forerunner yeah you know so to me the new um Land Cruiser kind of uh hearkens back to the 80 series that we own uh in that you know the 80 series was um more of a more of a mall crawler in some ways than an off-roader the 80 Series yeah yeah I mean that's how it was used I know you're looking at me and you're saying you can get that thing triple locked and people you know lifted it but from from you know you spent your childhood driving around from our neighborhood to school in an 80 series and I think that's how most people use it I'm not saying I'm not saying it wasn't designed by TOA to go hard off-roading because you could like I said triple lock it but most of the majority of those weren't triple locked and and they ended up being the Suburban but that's the same with the 100 series and the 200 series yeah yeah and and honestly the 60 series as well yeah so I don't I'm not sure this a return to the 80 Series in that way cuz the hundreds were used just like that as well what I miss about the current uh Land Cruiser and to me it's the most iconic part of it are those fold down seats in the back yeah you want the third row yeah I just you know because there they mounted to the side and I'm not sure people used them a lot because it's kind of a silly way to you know it's hard to get it out takes up a lot of trunk space but it became like so iconic that the Land Cruiser kind of represented it represented what a Land Cruiser was right right and I kind of missed that in the new one and ironically if you look at the new one they actually have cup holders back there and but no seat well as I understand it the reason for that is certain markets abroad are getting a third row yeah so certain versions and Toyota will say well the cup holders in the trunk are great for camping and and you know you're out camping in the back of your car you want to put your beverages someplace you that's what they said you're exactly right also the trail Hunter speaking of which has a compressor in the back which is cool yeah I do agree with you I think you get more say the 63 which I think is a good bet yeah plus Mar you're going to get more gadgets with the trail Hunter compared to the L Cruiser that's that's almost for sure but the Land Cruiser offers that third transf that third differential in the the transfer case and it offers um you know some other some other stuff that kind of counteract some of the the features I guess I'm saying is what's your use case right if if you want to go and you know occasionally off-road and go on the dirt roads you know in your neighborhood or in the Great American West uh but not necessarily go do like frame bender and metal masher and poison spider and hell's revenge and Moab then go with the Land Cruiser because if you do want to do that you're going to have to I'm Ser you're going to have to build it out it's just from the factory it'll do it but you'll you'll break stuff even with the bash plates you're probably going to want some sliders on there for sure and you're going to want some some more aggressive Rubber and maybe a little left yeah but 30 I mean I think L Cruiser is going to amaz you where it can go no I'm not you're bottomed out pretty quickly when I took it Offroad sure yeah it's only got 8.6 Ines or something is what they claim now here's the pickle so if you want to go do hell's Revenge get yourself the new Trail Hunter wait wait but the Land Cruiser will do hell's Revenge yeah a guy in a Crown Vic did hell's Revenge Dad I think the L will do hell's Revenge yeah okay so I I went like this if you're watching this not because I didn't think it would do it but because I hate bashing on things I hate breaking things I hate being hard on things and yes you can do it but you'll bash on it yeah but it's a land criser that's what it's designed to do it's got skid plates if you're paying for the skid plate dad you better be using the skid plate that's my mentality we just had the inos grader that also had 31s yeah and it was fine but it had two more inches of ground clearance so this is the other vehicle that I think also throws a big question into the equation and that is for a few thousand more you can spec yourself a GX 550 over Trail so we're looking at 69 for this vehicle um and now this is an interesting this is an interesting choice so 69 that's after destination 67 beforehand and this vehicle offers the same capabilities as the Land Cruiser but with a nicer interior and a V6 instead of a four-cylinder so this might be the one for people and I'm doing air quotes now in the no and the reason I say that is I don't want to mention who this was but on the program I talked to somebody who's very deep into the turtle world I don't know if they've announced it yet so I don't want to be like like you know taking any uh uh Splash away from their announcement but I asked them you know which of these three are you buying and without hesitation they said GX yeah I mean and want I say three four runner Land Cruiser or GX and GX is a Max depending on how it's configured of 9,000 lbs of Towing so you get more Towing you still get the Locking diff you get the aggressive tires and um the better approach angle compared to the standard GX so this offers a lot of Value Plus you get a much nicer interior so I I kind of think that this is this is the way to go there's two versions of the overt tril there's the standard one and then the overt tril plus that one's going to be you know we're talking 80 grand and and you know I said at the beginning of this show that you know only Jeep and Land Cruiser Land Rover um sorry land I've got land on my brain now only Jeep and Land Rover do hard off-roading uh for journalists uh apparently the program we went on with the GX they set up a really difficult course but unfortunately the day we were there it got rained out so we got so so I don't want to like leave the impression that toad is not doing hard offroading we went on a dirt road with it and I talked to some other people who actually got to go on the off-road course and they said it was very difficult but then I also thought to myself you know I talk to a lot of journalists who go on Subaru programs and they say they're very difficult and then I look at the program and I'm like that doesn't look difficult yeah it's it's you know just it's kind of it's kind of what you're used to it's a spectrum for sure no I think GX is an interesting proposition I think for me um I I need to take both of them off-road and compare I personally like the look of the land Cru are a little more than the GX but people love this new GX and I think rightfully so it's a really attractive vehicle not saying it isn't but I also like the hybrid system four cylinder maybe get a little bit more efficiency and I don't need a tow so the Land Cruiser for me I think is a better option but if you're already in that 60 to $65,000 territory it's not a stretch to think that those folks may be able to afford 67 69,000 yeah and I don't I don't come across a sounding you know we're only comparing these based on how good they off-road because that's kind of where this conversation is going but the truth of the matter is all three are great onroad right and I keep thinking to myself they're all very comfortable the the new uh well we haven't driven the 4Runner so I can't tell if it's I'm just assuming it's going to be good off on road because it's basically based on Tacoma which we own so if it drives at the Tacoma it's just going to be really good on road very comfortable much more torque down much lower in the Rev band uh very um I would say rev happy uh four-cylinder the only downside of that engine and the I think 8-speed transmission is it doesn't sound great but that's pretty much any four-cylinder uh turbo nowadays but um but why wouldn't you want that off-road ability when you can get it so the other vehicle that you could also put in this class potentially is is of course the Land Rover Defender 110 also starts at right around 6162 after destination which we've also owned for a base model yeah and you know this is also a very interesting proposition I I really do like the defender realistically you're not going to get into one for under 70 so this is going to be on the on the top end of the comparison you have to give it to Jerry McGovern who designed it I'm looking at it right now on the screen yeah it's very good and you know you can tell the Toyota with especially with the lights on the Land Cruiser crib some of the design elements from the uh Defender I like the interior actually a lot more on the defender compared to both very utilitarian yeah but it's also got kind of like an air of luxury so like you've got the exposed bolt heads but then you've got really nice leather on the steering wheel and you can get it on the seats and it it it feels really good and I think you can still get it with rubber floors which is cool so I think the defender interior is cooler than all of them I think that the exterior design is okay and then of course the thing you have to mention because we have to unfortunately is longevity look we had some bad luck with one or two of ours but from folks I've talked to overall they have been pretty good long term actually folks seems to be really happy with them and there's a lot of options you can get on Defender you can get the off-road package with the locking rear diff you can get it with the towing package you can get it with air suspension which you can't get on the other vehicles so there is some advantage to going with the Land Rover plus it's got you know and I we talked about how it's bad but the fact of the matter is a lot of people do like that brand in that image right Defender does offer that that brand and that image yeah Defender you know is I love the look of it I uh you know love the ride I love the handling uh I love the smell of it actually it's got a really good smell to it uh the biggest issue it has I think there are two issues one and this it can't help this unless they refresh it it's no longer the new K on the Block so when it first came out it was like holy cow man you know they they just designed something completely different from the old Defender MH um and so people are getting kind of a little bored with it to some extent you know if you wanted one you would had one by now um the other problem with it is um really the operating system that that that that that Land Rover has is really slow cumbersome and just not intuitive and that that is something that not just Land Rover suffers with but every automaker seems to be struggling with that right now and we know that Apple for instance is going to be not just you know Apple carplay but the actual software that runs underneath is going to be now with certain brands built by Apple and I think that's a good thing because I somehow it seems to me that automakers are really great at building cars but really bad at building operating systems for uh their screens and and let's face it today the cars and trucks are all about you know how they interface with your life in other words how they interface with your phone and if you if it struggles then then it becomes kind of cumbersome and you know kind of offputting to some extent and the other option too which we should talk about is the Grand Cherokee so also in the same class uh now Grand Cherokee does offer some things that Land Cruiser doesn't offer like you can get it with the plug-in hybrid 4X version and you know on the lower end it's certainly if you get the gas model you can get it in the high 30s on the upper end it's going to be you know 607 so you're right in line with it but how do you think like a 4 bye Trailhawk Grand Cherokee compares to the uh the the new Land Cruiser oh wow that's a great question so um got two answers for that uh and this is once again me uh so the Grand Cherokee along with the wagon year and the grand wagon year have kind of moved up market so I I think they kind of set their sights more on Range Rover and Land Rover versus what they were traditionally which would be kind of you know more affordable and so to me not in terms of off-road but in terms of luxury you get a lot more luxury with the Grand Cherokee it's got a lot more screens it's got a lot more like bells and whistles you can get uh it's just a much more um luxurious and in some ways uh um more um more uh what's what's another word for luxurious premium more premium car yeah uh um whereas the Land Cruiser um is much more basic in a lot of its Design Elements and much more utilitarian so to me the the Land Cruiser uh doesn't necessarily compete with the Jeep Grand Cherokee it seems like the Jeep Grand Cherokee competes more with the GX these days than it does with the the new Land Cruiser well but you're also forgetting like the Grand Cherokee spans such a wide it does yeah we had one for a while we had we had the off-road Trailhawk I mean keep in mind gr Cherokee you've got both two and three row in the standard and the L you know base model if you get a standard Two Wheel Drive Laredo you're going to be looking at like 37 38 so here's my question can you actually get a standard Two Wheel Drive Laredo I mean I don't know why you would I'm saying can you I don't know if you actually can once again when I go buy the Jeep dealership and I've gone buy a bunch it's all four byes yeah no that's true and that includes Grand Cherokees and what does a 4 by start at they're like 60 yeah but keep in mind 60 there is some tax advantage you know tax credit with going with the 4 bye and then if you're looking at like a Trail Hawk 4 bye you know starting at 60s before the credit you're right in line with that with that Land Cruiser and pricing now I think the 4xe that electric only capability for that 20 25 miles is very cool I think that's really really neat I do agree with you I think the interior is much more upscale than the Land Cruiser I don't love the way that this new generation drives off-road is very stiff even though we do have a new redesigned air suspension system it feels very firm and it doesn't feel very um rugged in some ways like it it feels a little fragile because there's just so much stiffness in in the frame and it feels like a lot of the jolts are being transmitted into the components instead of being soaked up by the tires and the suspension now that that I I don't know I haven't broken one Offroad so I could be way off base here but um I think that you're right the exterior wise the new Grand chky is awesome interior is a little too premium for me but it is worth noting you that 4xe model delivers a lot of power and it delivers a tremendous amount of torque as well so it's a it's a pretty high performance vehicle it's pretty fast I mean 375 horsepower so 50 more horsepower than the Land Cruiser yeah 470 um pound feet of torque that's it's a lot of power yeah I'm learning to like the 2 L uh turbo that g puts in both this vehicle and of course uh the Wrangler but I don't love it Tommy I just don't like it um as much as I like the Toyota's uh four cylinder turbo why is that uh it just feels a little clunky it feels less refined it feels a little bit less uh less comfortable with the transmission um I think Jeep with their 1.0 version of their uh 4 by has created something that's outstanding and groundbreaking but um certainly it's the first go at it and so so so there's a lot of different systems that are at play and sometimes it feels like they're not quite dialed in yet so it's a seamless uh flow of power and torque um and regenerative braking whereas Toyota has been building hybrid systems now forever right as long as they are and to me those feel like they're really dialed in right there if you didn't know it was a hybrid um you wouldn't guess it was a hybrid yeah oras you'll know it's a hybrid when you get into the Jeep you I mean I think that the for the the the was originally called the hurricane engine actually now that name's been kind of applied to the six-cylinder but the 2 L 4-cylinder um it's a little coarse the power band is very abrupt low lowend and then there's not a lot in the upper end and it doesn't interface very well with the hybrid system in low range so I think there's definitely some tweaking that needs to be done there so yeah I mean for me if you're looking for an on-road vehicle only get a standard V6 Grand Cherokee it's great it's really good if you can get one for under 50 I think it's a great vehicle if you're looking for a vehicle that's a little bit more rugged to take off-road I would definitely lean more toward the Land Cruiser and I hav driven it but just from a durability standpoint I think that feels a little bit better screwed together now if you look at the forward lineup so obviously uh Land Cruiser kind of kind of encompasses a couple different options you know it encompasses maybe explore Timber line right because it's kind of closed off SUV but that's a little bit bigger and then of course you've got Bronco um and Bronco has a really wild pricing model all the way from 39 and then you're getting Raptors now in like the 9,000 range so plus I mean huge huge bandwidth so so there's no doubt that the Bronco will kill a current Land Cruiser off-road it just will it just will sure um it just will it's just designed more much more for off-road use than for on-road use having said that the land Cruise will be better on road than the Bronco the Bronco is much better than the Jeep on road uh because it doesn't have two live axles uh but the Land Cruiser is just much better um at least from the little on road I on dir road driving than than than a Bronco is the other thing that the Land Cruiser does well is it looks utilitarian without feeling um cost cuty and sometimes Ford has this issue and I'm not using the c-word cheap because I think that's unfair but sometimes you can really tell where the Ford um accountants got to the car and started saying nope nope nope nope nope whereas the Land Cruiser also is a little cost cuty in some ways but it doesn't feel cost cuty if you see what I'm I'm saying sure yeah I I understand that and I think I think Ford's gotten a lot better at that I think their interior quality has gone up substantially but there are certainly some areas that we went in our long-term Bronco where we felt like they cheaped out a little bit and keep we had one of the first ones so I'm sure they've gotten better over the years but I do like the Bronco I mean I I really like its packaging I really love its capability especially if you can get one with that front diff lock design is incredible even with just the rear yeah the top the door integration is better than the Jeep in in most ways I mean it is such a cool vehicle and they've been out for long enough now too right if you part of the issue with buying a Land Cruiser or forer whatever is that they are brand new and there's a lot of anticipation and you're going to have to if you're not in line already you're going to have to get in line fight with markups fight with dealers fight with availability and that's a very stressful experience whereas you know the Broncos now you can just go to any four dealer and there's going to have six of them on the lot you pick one it's probably not going to be marked up there might even be some money in the hood and you drive out the door and you got a really cool vehicle that you can take the doors and the top off of and I love the Heritage Edition those are oh my God they're so good looking yeah especially the white roof um you know there the the blue one there Tommy yeah that that that is I love that yeah does it have a white I thought it had a white roof yeah I have the roof off yeah okay put now you got the stripes on yeah the Heritage editions are cool but this one this is a Heritage limited edition mean look at the price on this we're we're knocking on the door of 70 G's here 72 holy moly so that that is some big money although you can get the basic one for well it's it's it's up there with the first edition Land Cruiser um so price-wise they're right in line with each other but I think what you said is hugely important if you're one of those people who needs to be first then you know get ready to fight for a Land Cruiser because everybody wants one people are super excited by him and TOA has this kind of interesting way of allocating vehicles in that you can't really go and build one online and then you know wait for it to be delivered to your dealer uh toota just builds what they think that people want and then they deliver them to dealers and the dealers have to kind of swap cars among themselves and that's not going to happen with Land Cruisers until there's a lot more of them built for sure yeah no I think you're on the money I mean Bronco look you can get a basic Heritage Edition for 50s High 40s yeah and keep in mind Bronco you also have a choice of a manual transmission which you don't get in the Land Cruiser you also have the option for that Ecoboost V6 so if you do really need V6 power you get it in the in the Bronco and then I mean of course the last key to the the uh the pie here that we need to talk about is the Wrangler you know and Wrangler and Land Cruiser have never really competed in recent decades but now that Land Cruiser is in that mid-50s territory i c certainly think there's going to be a certain level of cross shopping going on yeah no doubt um and Wrangler you know you can get it with 4 by as you mentioned most of them you're going to find on the dealers are going to be 4 by ease it's funny you know if we had done this podcast like four years ago I would have said Wrangler people or G people are G people and they're never switch but then I met a lot of people who fought Broncos who used to like be Die Hard je people and I'm not saying there isn't still a Die Hard Jeep Community um but you know four years ago I would have said it's e if if you want an off-roader it's either a Wrangler or nothing but now I don't know I think it's much more fluid I think people like to mix and match I think they like to try different flavors uh and the problem the Jeep is having uh is that the JL is getting all sold yeah for sure I mean it's been out since 2018 it was refreshed in 2024 in my opinion they didn't do enough to refresh it they gave it a new grill bigger screen power seats that's cool uh and you know I'm sure that the Corp would tell you they also cut costs but realistically the costs of these vehicles in person in dealers are going to be crazy High I mean this Willies 4 bye you're going to be mid to high 50s for even a basic one but once again you get the tax break because it is you know hybrid and you get 20 miles of all electric range so yeah I mean I think the way that really broke away from the crowd especially Bronco when it came out is they started diversifying the power Trend so you had V6 2 L plug and hybrid V8 and that was a good strategy and now they're kind of stuck you know there's not a whole lot to really elevate it in some ways above the competition until they start maybe even inevitably cutting the price because it is getting older and I I do think that some of its onward capabilities are somewhat compromised I think you saw that graph with the Gladiator right when it first came out they were and they still are you know sticker priced at the top end of the midsize pickup truck World sure but now if you go to your local Jeep dealer you'll see Gladiators in a lot with like you know serious money on the hood uh because people the problem is those who wanted to have bought it and now you know the rest of the world is looking at other vehicles that they're starting to crash up yeah that's that's kind of that's kind of scratching that itch for the the off-roader um so of all the vehicles we talked about now that you've driven the Land Cruiser a little bit and the GX and the Bronco and the Wrangler and the defender and the inos if you want to go crazy expensive um which one is your favorite all right if I wanted to daily something I want a daily something I would definitely get the Land Cruiser not the GX not the GX because it's you know once again it's it's very expensive and it's a little too uh premium um so if I want you know but if I want to daily something and then actually do serious off-roading I'm not talking I'm talking about Toyotas Only okay well I'll add I'll add those into a second let me extend this podcast so we get an hour time um so if I wanted da and take it off-road I would get the GX if if if money were No Object um but if I were to get any of the new totas it would be the 4Runner uh I haven't driven it but I've seen it I fall in love with it the 4Runner Trail Hunter okay okay now talk about Bronco and the Wrangler I love Wranglers and I love Broncos but for me um those are kind of off the list because I get bored and I've been there and done that okay so you know right now the most exciting we own is a 1945 Chief military MB and that gets me so excited because it's it's a whole new world of Jeep that I have yet to explore and I drove it once and I just absolutely fell in love with it and nothing not that there's anything wrong with Wranglers but like I say been there done that a lot um you know certainly one of the most capable off-roaders um same thing with the defender kind of been there done that and so I'm ready to move on to something new um and you know I can't say which one I would buy if I could only buy one because I haven't driven the 4Runner we really have an Offroad to the GX and we really have an off-road to the L Cruiser so I've kind of given you kind of a you know a basic best I can description of what I would buy yeah and I think you're right we do need more Hands-On time with Land Cruiser and GX and then of course 400 no one has driven I mean I think for me um I do agree that the I think if if you do have the money the GX is a is a better package than might be the one for the people in the know yeah but I I don't think I could justify spending $69 on a on a new vehicle that I was going to take Offroad I think that the um 4er looks very cool but I'm not a big fan of The Styling fair so I think it looks cool in in a very futuristic way but it's a little busy so I I like Land Cruiser more than 4Runner and then you know when you bring in the competition Defender is cool but it's just too expensive especially you know if you're going to be in the mid-60s you're going to be four-cylinder I don't love that four-cylinder Defender so that's kind of if I had 80 I'd go Defender that's off the list though for cuz just pricing well if I had 200 I go G wagon yeah same thing yeah same thing with the inios it's just too expensive yeah um I think that the Wrangler is a little old and it's just too compromised on road now for most folks as a daily driver um it it it just needs to be better in a lot of ways especially for the price point the problem I have with the Wrangler is uh I just can't move the seat far enough back I just drove the Gladiator same problem all the way from Moab here and I just every time I got into thing I would reach for the now that it's electric controlling I was always trying to scoot it back another inch and that's a that's a me problem because I've got a weird torso short body long legs but yeah I just need a little bit more room so then that I mean that leaves the Bronco and I I I kind of still think that the Bronco offers the best compromise between crazy off-road capability but still pretty good onroad but you can still take the top off and you can get a manual transmission and you can get a front locker and yeah I mean I I really do like that Bronco I mean I I think it's going to be between me it's going to be between Bronco and Land Cruiser I'd like to get them side by side I haven't driven the Land Cruiser maybe it's phenomenal so I'm really excited to spend some time in that but um just initial Impressions I'm still leaning more toward the Ford over the Toyota because of the top off capability and because you can get one fairly well equipped for under 50 yeah you fell in love with that Everglades didn't you when you went on I Everglades that was that was some good off Factory we did some good offroading in that tra yeah it's also amazing that like uh right now uh and I know we're just at the beginning of the Land Cruiser roll out but there aren't a lot of the serious off-road uh uh add-ons that that I would want you know what I'm saying well no one has them what no one has them here Bronco has them you can get a Bronco with a factory winch Oh you mean like Toyota itself optioning they're leaving once again they're doing the same thing that the other manufacturers did and they're leaving a lot of room you know a lot of money on the table for aftermarket and I'm just I'm just curious about why don't do that toota there's so much more you could do to the Land Cruiser I'm just not talking about bumpers but you know give it some give it some like better off-road worthy tires from the factory so the first edition does come with a lot of that stuff some of that stuff it's got the rock rails and the roof rack it's got um more Overland stuff yeah it's got the mud guards right so it's got some stuff mud guards Tommy you can get a Jeep now with 35 from the factory with the extreme Recon package I know I know it'd be really cool like if they did a factory winch I think that would be awesome if they did tierd skid plates if they did a 2-in lift like that all should be Factory option and like you know here's a great opportunity incorporate onx you know one of our partners which is great off-road which shows you Jeep does that with a different provider but I'm saying I would if I were to I'd be reaching out to onx and saying hey could I have the software built into the vehicle so that I can you know go and explore places that are much more off-road than on-road yeah no I think that basic basic stuff like that you know I mean the one I probably wouldn't get that first edition I think is a big premium over Land Cruiser Land Cruiser and it doesn't get you that much more I think that's to is capitalizing on the fact that people want to have it first which is ultimately A smart business move and people are going to pay yeah you know like we did with the Cyber truck by getting the foundation series and then not getting it that that work that worked brilliantly and you know Gladiator did the same thing too A lot of people people got really pissed off because the first edition gladiators eventually we delivered after the base ones yeah that yeah that's that's not a good look if you're a automaker but looks like Toyota is doing the first editions first so that is a good move don't get me wrong that's a smart move it would seem a logical move it would seem a logical move but I think I would if I if was my money I would wait for the 58 or the Land Cruiser spec I mean let the let the people get their first editions first and then have fun with them and be jealous for a few months but then save like some cases $10,000 to get the the Land Cruisers back so there's another problem with the Land Cruiser which we haven't discussed and we can close on this okay okay uh color choices so I love the 1958 but there three bad colors black white and gray yeah I know a refrigerator I hate black and I hate gray like could you get less interesting colors I mean it's almost like they did it on purpose to make you well I think they probably did yeah but that I hate that too don't don't do that don't DEC content the base one to make you or at least if you're going to DEC content it don't decolor it to make you jump up to the next one up and even if you go to the next one right the Land Cruiser there's that blue one which is cool but the rest of the colors are also so I mean they're so boring they're very muted yeah you you really almost have to go to the first edition to get anything that's at all like youi interesting but no the first edition is the same color that gold or Sandy or whatever on the Land Cruiser too I I think you're they're they're betting that folks buying the Land Cruiser are going to be a little bit grown up and mature where is the forest green where's well the for runers is going to have those where's the red I think foreigners is going to have all the fun colors yeah that's not no no get don't don't give people choice please give PE people love having Choice okay yeah all right folks well we' love to hear what you think about the upcoming four-wheel drive Wars Toy's had such a big few months with this and they're really cranking out some cool stuff we just need to get them out to Colorado out to Utah you want to do a little bit of a rant no I think you should you've been really upset about that uh Lexus that we have now this week so we have a we have a Lexus rx450 h plus yes yes and it just it just beeps constantly at us it does beep a lot it I mean it and we had the same problem with the Tacoma it's like Toyota's getting a little too nanny is with their product so like for example so it it it snowed today so it beeps that the parking sensors are blocked okay and then you turn it off hang on beeps at the parking sensors block so you start driving it stops beeping and then it gives you a warning on the dash it says parking sensors are blocked and then you're like clear it all right I know they're blocked drive for another couple minutes parking sensors are blocked clear it drive for a couple minutes parking sensors are blocked so you have to go on into the screen and turn off the parking sensors that was great figure that out drove along another 5 10 minutes to get a warning oh your adaptive cruise is blocked oh okay clear that adaptive cruise is blocked your radar sensors and like then then you got a then I turned off like the driving assist and still got the warning so they just need to be a little bit less Naggy with some of their warnings yeah how about your attention warning yep that I did figure out you can just go into the screen and disable and thank God because every time you look at the window it says driver in attention that's not just to that's a lot of yeah yeah that was really really bad um but yeah it's just a little fussy and then the electronic door handles no one over the age of 60 can figure out so there's a button you push includes me and you have to push the button in the door at the same time but if you push the button in the wrong direction and it tries the manual version and then and then the old people get really confused I got the point I got so confused that I'm now using the manual door meod well it's just a mess pull it out twice to override the electronic door you're not in park then you it doesn't want to unlock and it's just a lot of lot of fuss with it so I think that's bad the powertrains great I really like the plug-in hybrid system it's a very comfortable car seats are good um design is not good the design is not good they've G they've gone full like like beluga whale yeah it is not good but the the car is very comfortable it's a little too expensive this one's like mid 70s I I see clouds in the Horizon cuz the RX is lexus's most uh popular car it's the one by far it sells more than any I think it sells more than all the other models combined and they they didn't they didn't nail it Tommy they just didn't nail it in this generation and that's a problem for Lexus well yeah but they have so many other great cars once again it's the most the one you got to get right but the the crossover lineup now I mean not it used to be they only had the the RX and like the GX and now LX and NX and theux it's still a sweet spot in the yeah in kind of the size and MoneyWise a little fussy but a good car it's just fussy I I see I see a uh midcycle refresh coming sooner than later on the RX well I hope they they fix the the front end CU it's very uh angular all right well that was our rant thank you guys for watching uh if you have any questions you know leave a comment we do read our comments and of of course if you want to see the video of me and Andre comparing the two Land Cruisers Go to alf.com we really appreciate you guys listening because without you we couldn't do this uh and we shall see you next time yep ciao bye [Applause]

Channel: TFLtalk

Views: 37,905

Keywords: tfl, tflcar, podcast, new toyota landcruiser, landcruiser, new landcruiser, new land cruiser, new toyota land cruiser, new landcruiser 70 series, all new landcruiser prado, toyota landcruiser 70 series, 2.8l landcruiser, toyota landcruiser, new 70 series landcruiser, landcruiser prado, new 4 cylinder landcruiser, 2024 toyota landcruiser, toyota landcruiser prado, 2024 toyota landcruiser prado, 2024 toyota landcruiser 70 series, 2024 toyota landcruiser 70 series review, all new

Id: Y4-eGeV-JyE

Length: 56min 49sec (3409 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 20 2024