Return of a Legend: 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser 1958 Review and Off-Road Test

this is the allnew 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser is this the Epic Overlander we've all been waiting for we're going to check out all the features take it for a drive then put it to the test right now on driving sports TV [Music] the Toyota Land Cruiser has finally returned to North America this new one is smaller less expensive and it's exclusively available as a hybrid so in other words it's completely different than the one that came before it this new vehicle is based on the global Land Cruiser pra which is the smaller of the two Land Cruisers it also shares a lot of equipment with the new Lexus GX 550 although the Lexus is available exclusively with a twin turbo V6 no hybrid there this new one also shares a lot of underpinnings with the upcoming allnew Toyota 4Runner which was just announced and if you really want to go down that road it also shares a platform with the Toyota Tundra Tacoma and Sequoia that means that yes this is a body onframe off-roader and with that you get all the benefits of that style of chassis so far as durability is concerned so how does it drive we will get to that a little bit later in this video being a Land Cruiser prao means that it is slightly smaller than the GL Global Land Cruiser 300 otherwise known as the real Land Cruiser but you know what it's really not that much smaller only 3 in in overall length and the wheelbase they're exactly the same if you want to get a 300 here in North America your only option is the Lexus lx600 but then you'll have to look at this every day but let's bring our attention back to this new Land Cruiser the model we have here is the base 1958 trim which starts at $56,000 move up to the standard Land Cruiser and you'll be out $62,000 the top end first edition goes for $75,000 our test vehicle came with a number of options including roof rack skid plates covering the transmission in Front End plus floor and cargo mats for a total price of $59,999 including destination even for a base trim the interior here is basic Fabrics on the seats an undersized infotainment screen even the digital gauge cluster has been downsized the rear gate yeah it's manual and then there's the Plastics that are all over the place they're hard and just not very attractive even though the Land Cruiser here in North America has been somewhat of a luxury vehicle internationally that's not the case it is a rugged go anywhere kind of vehicle that does have Bas trim options so I am glad that they finally brought that option here into the US now if you do want something that's fancier don't go with the 1958 just go with the midt trim which has synthetic leather and a very nice interior or go all the way for a first edition that comes with rock sliders roof rack and a fully leather interior the powertrain is now hybrid but you do get full-time four-wheel drive this system pairs a turbocharged 2.4 L 4 cylinder engine to an electric motor which is attached to the 8-speed automatic transmission this sends power to all four wheels with a Torsen Center differential in all Drive modes Peak power is rated at 326 horsepower torque 476 pound feet of course being a hybrid you would expect it to be more economical than the outgoing V8 and it is EPA rates economy at 22 m to the gallon in town and 25 on the highway in the 24 hours that I've been driving this before filming this segment I've been averaging about 22 to 24 MPGs and that's basically doing the school run which is 20 minutes Highway with a little bit of around town driving and Back Again in so overall yeah we're kind of hitting those marks this does have a two-speed transfer case so you get both full-time high and four low on the street the Land Cruiser has a 4060 torque split that means that it is a rear bias system when in forlow you can engage the crawl control system with off-road Trail turn assist unlike previous generation Land Cruisers the trail turn assist is no longer a separate button instead Toyota has integrated it into the crawl control system one feature that is missing on this 1958 but does come standard on the upper trims is Toyota's excellent multi-terrain select system this is an advanced traction control system that allows you to fine-tune the brake vectoring of the vehicle for various conditions you do get the more basic version of MTS otherwise known as atak on this 1958 however when you switch into four low it just turns it on if you want to be in forlow without a track on you do have to disable traction control by holding down the traction control button this does however have Center and rear lockers those are standard across the line This base trim comes with standard Yokohama geolander xcv allseason tires they are a 24570 r18 fitment and they are wrapped around these really nice 18-in alloy wheels the suspension up front is a five link independent in the back you get a coil sprung multi-link solid axle moving to the back you can see another spot where Toyota kind of cheaped out on this 1958 it's a manual lift gate which I actually don't mind but if you want Power it's not at this trim level back here we do get a pretty spacious interior you're looking at over 37 cubic feet of space the floor is actually elevated because of the nickel metal hydride batteries that are placed back here uh we do get a couple little accessory bins which are nice and you do get cup holders back here even though there is no three row in fact you even get USBC sockets which is kind of funny now the power socket back here has been upgraded over older Toyotas this is a 2400 W ac1 120 volt socket which is great to see here we have pretty clever Jack placement right in the wall now if you need to get into the back or you're on an incline and don't want everything to fall out you can also pop the glass here for easy access if you fold the tumble down seats down um you do get slightly More Level surface but you do have to fill in this Gap cuz there's about a 2in uh rise here where these meet up so uh you have some things you can do but out of the box you're not going to want to sleep back [Music] here so to get this off you actually have to remove pop rivets with a screwdriver which is annoying why no twisty things or anything that just seems kind of ridiculous but anyway you do get a tow hitch back here little to to 6,000 lb there are chain stays here as well as power outlets down here okay got to climb up CU it's Stadium style seating right so I don't think this is too bad I'm 61 that legs torso proportionate I got room for my knees room for my feet my head is not hitting I'm fine here down here I also get my own climate controls which is great I can control temperature as well as fan and then below that I have both USBC sockets and DC power yeah actually overall not bad I can even recline a little bit yeah now do I get a fold down armrest yes with two integrated cup holders overall it's really not too bad even this fabric it's kind of industrial but I like it so here we are finally behind the wheel of the 1958 Land Cruiser or Land Cruiser 1950 2024 Land Cruiser 1958 I have to be careful not to call it a 1958 Land Cruiser because that's something totally different anyway here we are in the new Land Cruiser one thing I have to say I have sat in one of these before because of course I did a first look video uh several months ago I love the button design in this vehicle they clearly said you know what we're not going to put everything in the infotainment system we're giving you actual switch gear and it's all here I have climate control in the middle as well as seat warmers nice touch uh down below that I have Drive modes crawl control mode select and then further down here I have my dual range transfer case Center and rear lockers and then on the steering wheel I got buttons to control the adaptive cruise control system as well as my gauge cluster on the left which also includes voice and phone buttons overall such a great design now that doesn't mean it's perfect there's some real issues I have with this 1958 trim first off these Plastics super hard haven't seen Plastics like that since the 1970s on my Fisher Price toys this infotainment system did they have to go with one that small and the size isn't the issue it's the fact that they gave this like fuss bezel design around it which is clearly covering up the lack of screen it's like seriously that just looks ridiculous but in terms of function it is all here and it all falls to hand nicely and it all makes sense more important I think even than the harsh Plastics and the silly bevel uh is the fact that the things your hands actually touch the shifter this steering wheel they're nicely wrapped in materials that your hand wants to be on the mode select knob feels super high quality the buttons down here all have a nice play to them even switching between high and low gears feels good so they really focus on the stuff that you touch on it's just too bad that these Plastics are such an assault to my eyes now the seats here are cloth at this trim level you can get leather um on the standard Land Cruiser and then it's ventilated leather up on the first edition these are actually pretty comfortable I feel very nicely supported the silly thing is they are manual I actually have a ratchet style elevation thing there and then I get a slider in the front to uh set my position okay north of 50 Grand you might expect a little bit more and I do um I don't get a charging pad for my phone although this does support wireless Apple carplay which is nice uh in here I get a very large bin which is excellent it probably fit an iPad in there I get some blank plates telling me of features that I don't have this would actually be a plate spot for the surround view camera system which is on the upper trims I do get a tow Hall mode button down here and then I also get a towing controller on the left as well as AC power button over there overall everything is very well thought out Falls to hand nicely quality touch points it's just the rest of it is a little on the che side but that just makes me feel better the fact that I ordered a first edition if it ever gets here it's currently been import for close to 40 days I just checked today and they said that it's uh waiting a QC review not sure why anyway today we're going to go take this for a drive I'm pretty excited cuz I have not driven this on camera yet and then we're going to bring it back to our pen approving grounds here to see how it deals with rough surfaces and traction challenges now you do want to keep in mind that this vehicle has all season tires obviously we can't do like anything absolutely crazy with it but we are going to stress test uh not only its grip abilities the crawl control but we're also going to test the articulation see how long that solid axle can reach down and try to grab a little traction so uh let's stop talking let's start driving [Music] so here I am finally behind the wheel of the new North American Land Cruiser and I am stoked this is so cool the biggest thing to note here is the powertrain because this power Trin is an allnew powertrain it's a four-cylinder Turbo with an electric motor and that motor is mated between the gas engine and the transmission so it's actually kind of like tucked into the transmission so you get that electric assist in all modes all settings it's not like some of uh Toyota's other all-wheel drive hybrids where they use an electric motor to power the back wheels not the case here so basically you get maximum power all the time in all modes which is cool and it has a lot of torque so let's just kind of feel what this powertrain feels like because this is the same powertrain that's going to end up in the new Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro so this is a big deal and I have to say you know it doesn't feel like a four-cylinder and it doesn't sound like a four cylinder you get that turbo but you also get that electric boost down low and that's what's really important in a vehicle like the Land Cruiser you're not it's not a high-speed desert running vehicle it's not designed to be a Speed Demon and it's not but it is plenty fast for the category and of course efficiency is one of the main reasons to to move from a big thirsty V8 to a hybrid 4 setup and you know economy is actually much better than the old V8 Land Cruiser that we used to get here in the US uh I've been driving around town I'm getting averaging about 22 miles to the gallon which is right in there with what they say in the EPA ratings now I haven't done any long distance freeway runs but you know uh I wouldn't be surprised if they were probably around 23 24 a little bit south of the EPA guidelines but most vehicles are cuz most Vehicles don't do what the test cycle is which I think is 55 or 60 yeah most of the freeways around the US are 70 to 85 and of course when you're driving a vehicle shaped like a brick you know physics kind of rears its ugly head driving this vehicle is really comfortable it sits high you have like a proper you know upright seating position I get excellent visibility all around around it's like a big Fishbowl in a good way and then also they have this little dent in the hood this little lower section in the in the front which gives me better visibility forward in fact I'm only losing a little bit of visibility because of the hood and that will become especially important a little bit later when we go on the trail uh because this particular Land Cruiser doesn't have any camera so actual visibility is a good thing I like that the side mirrors flip out so when you park it they tuck in that's a nice touch good for car washes and tight garages but yeah this thing actually feels really good I I liked the old Land Cruiser it was a fullsize big vehicle but it was well past its due date I mean those interior materials were not great unfortunately a lot of that is carried over to this vehicle even though I love this interior design it's a lot of gray on Gray on Gray which isn't exciting but they did such a phenomenal job with all the button placements everything falls to hand perfectly it's a very driver Centric kind of layout and I love it the gauge cluster I do like that you can change the designs between three different looks and you can also change whether the ring is a tack or Speedo these seats they are the fabric ones with manual adjustments they're actually really comfortable if you're really picky about your seat position you probably want to go up a step at least so you can get the electronic adjustments uh this one is just very very basic but for people who want just a basic machine that has an excellent powertrain then yeah get the 1958 I like the Retro round headlights that's also a nice touch those headlights are also on the top trim so it's kind of funny the same headlight treatment on the lowest trim and the highest trim but they are a retro design so I can kind of see why they did it on the first editions like all modern vehicles this does have different Drive modes you get sport normal or Eco it defaults to normal and if you go into sport yeah this thing really picks up they clearly are letting you use as much of the battery as possible and it moves now it does feel very tall and it is softly sprung cuz it's kind of a one-size fits-all suspension uh setup and it's clearly designed for Trails so the suspension you do feel a little rolly in the corners a little topheavy kind of although you're obviously not going to have any like you know Tippy issues if you drive within the limit but it does create a really cush Driving Experience I mean Heck if your commute is through New Jersey you will love this suspension you just will but you know I'm in sport mode I'm blazing through these Corners feels great you just have to know what to expect it's not going to corner like it's on Rails because it's a tall SUV and you know there there's certain things that go with that you know your penalty is that blazing through the corners that's not what it's going to be best at although this powertrain is definitely up for it that's actually I actually really like this powertrain go down to Eco and with that yeah the throttle becomes a little bit more lethargic it's going to use battery a lot more it's not exactly a setting that I'm going to drive around in okay back to normal so this thing does come loaded with safety stuff I mean you get your Toyota safety Sense 3.0 which is their most advanced uh safety package it includes Collision mitigation blind spot warning rear camera with cross traffic alerts that's a nice touch for a base trim vehicle you also get of course adaptive cruise control I can just set my speed set my Target and it will match the vehicle in front of me if the vehicle in front of me is driving slower it'll also detect lanes and Trace down the middle it's a decent setup in fact I can take my hand off and we can see that it is tracking in the middle even without an outs side line so that's pretty cool they've done a really good job of advancing this but when I first got in this vehicle there was one setting that I had to turn off it was driving me crazy it's called PDA not really sure what that stands for but what it does is it basically preemptively drives the vehicle for you if a car in front of you starts to slow down it'll apply the brakes before I do uh it keeps the vehicle centered in the lane uh without much engagement it basically it's kind of like a lowgrade Hands on the Wheel autopilot and I kind of hate it now I can see that it might make somebody who's not very attentive a better driver so that's a good thing but I did find it really weird when I got on this vehicle and it was basically like putting on the brakes for me and doing all this stuff I had to find and shut that off immediately but luckily it's in the gauge cluster and you can just pop over and turn it off let's try up here a 0 to 60 and see what this thing can do I'm going to put it into sport mode so we get the maximum power output out of that electric motor right stop here it's fairly level 3 2 1 go okay so the first kick is pretty good but then it kind of evens out 40 50 and 60 you know that's actually pretty quick no problems with that at all and the great thing is that even over 60 it still pulls so you know that passing it's going to be fine at now of course this is a dual transfer case and we have both a four high four low and the neat thing and kind of the thing that you're really paying for with this vehicle is the fact that it has a Torsen Center diff what that means is that instead of power is going to the rear wheels it actually has a torque sensing differential in the middle that pushes power to the front wheels uh that allows it to vary torque front and back so like right now I'm turning my front wheels are actually doing a longer amount of rotation more distance than the back wheels and if I didn't have that tors and diff there would be stuttering there would be binding in the powertrain that's what happens when you go four high on a part-time system because it's a hard 50/50 split like say for example in a truck however this one has that Torsen diff which allows for that speed difference so basically I can be in four-wheel drive all the time which is why this vehicle is so cool now if I want to lock that Center diff I can do that there's a push button here and that'll lock it down to 5050 split and then further if I want to lock the split between the left and right wheels in the back I have a diff lock for that so lots of great options for off-roading stuff this is not a rock crawler so you're not going to see any of the like really hardcore stuff like a front Locker uh or a sway bar disconnect or anything like that although you can get a sway bar disconnect in the upper trims uh Toyota however doesn't actually put front lockers on pretty much anything so or actually no they don't put them on anything uh so those aren't an option there so around town I really enjoy driving this truck it's it's a fantastic Cruiser on the highway I love the fact that they don't really require you to go into the infotainment system at all you can do everything with push buttons and dials just the way nature intended but how good is this when the road ends and the trail begins can it tackle the stuff that you kind of expect a Land Cruiser to be able to tackle well we're going to find out right now as we take this to our Peninsula Proving Grounds and put it to the test [Music] so we're going to start the off-road portion of this test with something that I think is a really important test for this vehicle its ability to drive smooth over really rough roads and to do that I'm going to drive on something that's not really even a road it's just the Gravel Pit so let's see how this feels now there's no adjustments to the suspension uh it is what it is and let's see oh oh okay you know it's actually pretty good the soft suspension really soaks up those irregularities yeah the suspension is doing a really good job I mean it's a little floaty but that's kind of what you expect in this type of vehicle nice let's watch that again but this time in slow motion you'll see how the suspension really moves around to keep the vehicle basically floating over the bumps now it's not as technologically advanced as the suspension in my Ranger Raptor these aren't like external Reservoir units or anything like that but they obviously do the job in conditions like this the Land Cruiser isn't a rock crawler this doesn't compete with vehicles like the Jeep Wrangler it is designed to get into remote areas and back out again and many remote areas have roads that resemble Trails so luckily we have lots of trails here that we've designed to be able to put Vehicles like this to the test now what we're going to do here is set up the vehicle for a simple drive through the woods first off I'm going to turn off that parking sensor and there is no front camera I have to rely on my own eyes here which is fine now I can lock the back I can lock the middle um there's really not much else I could do crawl control uh but what I think I'm going to do is just keep it in drive I'm going to keep it in high four and I'm not turning on any of the features but I am going to try to crawl through this as slow as possible and we'll see if there's any issues with this vehicle because it doesn't have multi-terrain select that is the system that shifts power from left to right and right to left um as necessary when there's wheel spin it basically uses braking Tech and it has really Advanced brake boosters uh to be able to shift that power ground really aggressively so right here I'm trying to climb up a little bit I'm going as slow as possible which by the way the crawl ratio on this even h H 4 is pretty darn good and I'm going to see if we can lift a wheel probably not because we have a solid axle in the back yeah this this thing's putting wheels down so good articulation is more important than having good power shift because if you can put your wheels down then no worries right it's going to put some power ah the alarms have come back on turn those back off again okay now we're going to dip a wheel down on the left driver front that might lift the back kind of curious if it does because it has a solid axle in the back let's go take a look to see if that wheel's lifted not even close Okay climb back out oh you hear that we're actually on all electric right now I had a little throttle in the gas engine kicks in there's no button here to go into like a dedicated EV mode because that's not really the point of this vehicle so dipping down here by the way if we had like a Hyundai Palisade right now or a Honda Pilot Trail sport those Wheels would be flinging in the air right now but this vehicle it just reaches down and moves us forward yep no drama there let's move on in fact I would say that is so easy that I'm not going to even do the logs there's no reason to let's move on over to the more challenging course oh ah parking sensors kicked in stop that going to rub not too bad I mean it doesn't it only has a little bit over 8 in of ground clearance but uh yeah it seems to be enough for most stuff right so let's head over to a deeper set of ditches and see how well the suspension deals with that maybe maybe we will finally tax this four-wheel drive system oh I lost a tree where did that fall this must have just fallen so oh not a healthy tree that's not a good a sign well hopefully the rest of the tree doesn't come down on me I think it'll be fine hopefully so moving forward now one thing I do like about this vehicle for its size it actually seems to have a really good turning radius okay so now here we have a set of ditches that are way deeper than the last set of ditches uh I'm going to go ahead and let's go and put it into four low so we can try out that crawl control system go drive okay and I'm curious too like will it lift a wheel at all okay crawl control I'm going to keep it in low just use this little select knob here and we start moving forward now my foot's not on the brake it's not on the gas all I need to worry about is my line get as deep as possible on these tracks wheel lifted just a little bit but then you hear that at track kick in and it's good to go there we go right so we got a little wheel lift But ultimately atra kicked in and did the work now this does have atra which is great it just it's automatic in the system there's no buttons for it which is awesome so what's the difference between at track and MTS so MTS multi-terrain select that one is like a scalpel because you can pick how much traction you want before it kicks in uh but with a track it just kicks in whenever it feels like there's extra wheel spin um really great system it's been around forever but now it's even better with this electric powertrain uh the hybrid electric powertrain it really just helps it crawl very slow very quietly and very confident it's so quiet in fact you can hardly even tell that it's doing anything all you know is you're getting through challenging situations for other vehicles with zero effort so now let's move on to the Ridge Trail and see what else we can test on this truck so what next why yes we are going to test departure angle by going into a ditch then climbing back out again actually this also tests approach and break over we going to grind no grinding that's good going start lifting and the Tails going down going to drag oh oh barely grazes that tow hitch cover I thought honestly that was going to be a problem there but it's not great okay well we have what else to test ah yes Hill descent control it has it's called a DAC so let's see what that does for this I'm going to put it in neutral switch back to four high uh the reason is because the DAC function only works in four High you're in four low it turns on Crawl so basically I enable that put it in Drive move my knob and I can dial in how fast I want to go down this hill let's see 2 miles hour and see how this does I just lift my foot off the brake it grabs the wheels and it eases me down very easily now this is more important if you're in a really slippery condition like a gravel downhill or snow uh but that just demonstrates how the function Works personally I don't really ever use it so here's a question you may not have ever asked yourself how well can a Land Cruiser climb out of a very deep hole on regular street tires let's find out so here I'm going to put it in forlow cuz I'm going to use all the tools here put it back in the drive uh I'm going to lock the center and I'm going to lock that rear diff let's use it all will this work I have absolutely no idea I've never tried it on a vehicle with street tires uh so some concerns obviously maybe approach that's probably fine breakover definitely up on top and then of course grip we don't really have any because these are street tires let's do it start rolling forward looking for grinding none ooh o let's turn on our gauge cluster oh right I always forget it uses very vague numbers well let's see if we can Max it out to 30 yep we have maxed it out oh it turns yellow when you max it out maybe I should focus on what I'm doing here okay so I'm at 30° traction sucks um let's go ahead and see if crawl can overcome the deficiencies of these tires so I'm going to go into crawl mode I'm in low let's just see what it does crawl on up there there you crazy Beast let's turn it up a little more I mean we could use momentum but I'm concerned that when we crown that we'll bottom out come on go maximum crawl Mode come on you going to do it you're figuring it out uh think we're digging holes that's what we're doing okay so let's steady that down see if we can still get out or do we dig holes too deep nope still not ripping off body panels that's good oh yeah we did kind of start trenching there though okay so I'm going to try a little momentum here uh I'm not going to do crawl turn that off and that's basically it I have no other functions I have Center locked and rear locked try a little momentum oh yes we did it thank you Land Cruiser nicely done now that I've taken this Land Cruiser through our courses here at our Peninsula Proving Grounds I have some thoughts on it first off the actual Mechanicals of this vehicle are excellent I actually really like the four-cylinder turbo mated to the hybrid powertrain it delivers power when and where you need it and it never really feels slow which is great in terms of off-road features I was disappointed that off-road Trail turn assist is not actually functional on this version um it is on the Toyota website they actually do list it as a feature so hopefully that'll be coming soon the Plastics they are a little bit on the Rough Side I kind of feel like maybe Toyota could have spent a few more bucks at least on the outside to make this look a little fancier give you a little bit better quality especially where your elbow hits on the window but if you want an entry-level trim and you do not care about synthetic or leather interiors and you just want a vehicle that is honest hybrid decent MPGs has all the latest tech all the latest safety and has push buttons yes it has push buttons you don't need to use the screen for anything in this vehicle you can fully function this vehicle using the gauge cluster controls as well as the physical switches which is exactly what enthusiasts have been asking for so thank you Toyota for doing that with the Land Cruiser and uh yeah thank you for watching this video for driving sports TV I'm Ryan delit thanks for watching be sure to like subscribe share our videos we make them for you I hope you enjoy them I really enjoy making them and I really enjoyed this this rig this is cool

Channel: Driving Sports TV

Views: 137,218

Keywords: car review, driving sports tv, 2024 toyota land cruiser interior, land cruiser prado, new car review, land cruiser 250, 2024 toyota land cruiser off road, toyota land cruiser 2024 price, toyota land cruiser 2024 usa, Off Road, Crawl Control, Trail Turn Assist

Id: IpMh4oQci84

Length: 35min 47sec (2147 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024