Toyota Land Cruiser Review 2025

The Toyota Land Cruiser is only coming to the UK in limited numbers, which is for the best. It's expensive and compromised on the road, so it's going to be a niche choice. The Land Rover Defender 110 alternative delivers even better off-road performance while being more pleasant on asphalt, plus it's available with myriad engine options and seating layouts to meet a broader range of needs. So why can't we help but be drawn to this new, loveable and chunky SUV despite its foibles? Find out with our full Toyota Land Cruiser review.

What sort of images does the mention of the Toyota Land Cruiser conjure for you? Perhaps an aid convoy of white SUVs with UN stickering lumbering across a war-torn state, or maybe with spares strapped to the roof in the midst of an epic overland trek. 

You're probably less likely to be picturing a plush SUV that’s quite a bit more expensive than some versions of the Audi Q7, yet that’s where we’re at. After a brief hiatus, the Land Cruiser is back, more luxurious than ever, costing the best part of £80,000.

In its quest for more luxury, the Toyota Land Cruiser hasn’t done the one thing that’d make the most difference in terms of refining its on-road manners — ditching the whole separate chassis thing. Largely abandoned for most SUVs and generally reserved primarily for pick-up trucks, this old-fashioned method of car design involves the body being grafted onto the chassis frame beneath, which in this case resembles a ladder.

Other highly capable, luxury off-roaders, such as the Mercedes GLS and the full-size Range Rover switched to a more conventional car-like monocoque approach long ago, where the framework is more like a cage, formed in part by body panels, with the remainder being bolted on.

Separate chassis vehicles aren’t as rigid as monocoques, although it makes for better off-road performance, where you actually want a bit of flex, without sacrificing robustness. All of this sounds quite boring and technical, but it’s important, as it plays a big role in the way the Land Cruiser drives, as we’ll detail later.

Given its price and focus on off-road durability over how it drives on firmer ground, the Toyota Land Cruiser is a niche choice by default. It's a substantial-feeling vehicle that looks brilliant but struggles to justify its price tag when it comes to its interior plushness. Also, the idea of paying this much and ending up with a noisy four-cylinder diesel engine shared with the Toyota Hilux pick-up is irksome. 

Clawing back some ground, the Land Cruiser can comfortably seat seven adults — and we do mean comfortably as that third row isn't a token effort only for kids — it looks great and stands a good chance of surviving an apocalypse or two.

It's also a more convincing package than the Ineos Grenadier, a car intended to pick up where the previous-generation Land Rover Defender left off, given that the new version is an altogether different proposition. The problem with the Ineos is it's even less pleasant on the road, and it's not far off as expensive, for something that doesn't have the reliability reputation of a Toyota nor the extensive dealer back-up. 

Remember what we were saying about the separate chassis' body-on-frame? Here’s where it’s relevant. Because of the way it’s made, the Toyota Land Cruiser shimmies and shakes over poorly surfaced roads. The suspension has a certain firmness to it which means the body roll in the corners is reasonably well-contained, but the trade-off is an unsettled nature to the ride.

It grips well in the corners so long as you’re sensible enough and understand that the Land Cruiser isn’t going to take a bend with quite the gusto of a BMW X5. Doing so might result in a fair bit of body roll and the front end washing wide. And your passengers not being awfully happy with you.

The ride settles down to a satisfactory level on dual carraigeway and motorway cruises, at which point you can enjoy a decent level of sound-proofing to insulate you from road and wind noise, although there is quite a lot of whistling generated by the massive door mirrors.

Where the Land Cruiser really shines is away from the asphalt, although our only taste of that so far has been some light green-laning. But still, the way it handled a tamer trail left us with confidence that much rougher stuff wouldn’t be too much of an issue. You just need to bear in mind that the rear overhang is quite substantial, making for a departure angle — how much the car can tilt before it drags its bum on the ground — that's some way off that of a Land Rover Defender.

There’s just the one engine available in the Toyota Land Cruiser. It’s a 2.8-litre, four-cylinder diesel also found in some versions of the Hilux. In a working vehicle like the Hilux, it makes sense, but here, you’re left wanting for more refinement. It’s not so bad when cruising, but demand anything more than moderate acceleration, and good Lord, does it make a racket.

It’s not anything like as smooth as the inline six-cylinder diesels offered by BMW and Mazda nor the V6 TDI units in some Audis. Even the four-cylinder diesel engines of the latter brand are more refined than this.

It doesn’t help that the Toyota’s 2.8-litre unit develops a relatively modest 204PS and 500Nm, which isn’t much when it’s expected to shift 2.3 tonnes of heavy SUV. As such, it does need to be revved hard to get the Land Cruiser up to speed, while its 0-62mph time is an underwhelming 10.9 sseconds.

The gearbox, meanwhile, isn’t exactly the most responsive of automatics, either when it comes to both shifting gears yourself or kicking down on its own when you press the throttle.

The latest Toyota Land Cruiser hasn't yet been crash-tested by Euro NCAP and given its price and niche status, it may never be.

Plenty of safety systems are included as standard, including lane assistance, traffic sign recognition, rear-cross traffic alert, autonomous emergency braking and a driver alertness monitor. We found the latter to be over-sensitive, though, and with a narrow field a few. Slouch in your seat just a little, or even recline your seat to what seems like a perfectly acceptable angle, and it'll say it can't see your face and moan at you to sit up. It's like being back at the dinner table as a child. 

Unsurprisingly, the Toyota Land Cruiser is well-suited to towing, able to haul a braked trailer load of up to 3500kg.

There are three tow hitch options — it's £629 for a fixed tow bar, £645 for a flanged type and £735 for detachable one. Some rivals go one better than all of these with an electrically attachable hitch, but something similar isn't offered here, sadly.

As is typical with most seven-seater vehicles that aren't based on a van, you get precious little boot space with the Toyota Land Cruiser's third row of seats in place — a mere 130 litres, to be exact. Fold the rearmost seats  down — which happens electrically in an almost mesmerising fashion — and there's a decent 600 litres of room to use.

Drop the second row as well, and the you get a 2000-litre load space that's easy to access thanks to the Land Cruiser's wide boot opening and boxy proportions. 

In the front, there are large door bins and an chilled cool box compartment under the front armrest. The latter works well, although it's not massive. 

Tall windows and a boxy body give the feeling of a spacious interior, but headroom is more restricted than is expected because the seats are mounted quite high. The third-row seats aren't a token effort, it should be noted — adults in excess of six-feet tall can fit back there with a bit of legroom to spare, but again not much in the way of headroom.

There's certainly nothing wrong with the material quality inside the Toyota Land Cruiser where everything feels built to last years of use and abuse. It's just not quite as posh-feeling as other SUVs costing a similar amount, so it's hard not to feel a bit short-changed when you slide behind the wheel. 

There's nothing noticeably cheap-feeling, at least, and there are more soft-touch surfaces than you'll find in a previous-generation Land Cruiser. 

The Toyota Land Cruiser’s infotainment touchscreen is a decent size at 12.3 inches and it’s pleasingly responsive, though it’s a little basic in terms of its colour schemes and graphic design. Other manufacturers pay a lot more attention in this regard, consequently the Toyota system has the feel of a mail-order aftermarket system.

It’s also brutally bright by default and on our test car, the automatic brightness function which is supposed to change the settings based on the readings of a temperature gauge and the time of day simply didn’t work. We had to change the settings manually to avoid a distracting beam of light exploding out of the middle of the dashboard.

The in-built navigation is okay, but as with almost every manufacturers' system, we preferred to use the wireless smartphone connectivity to display Google Maps on the screen instead. Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are both fitted as standard.

Other infotainment highlights include a 14-speaker JBL sound system, which isn’t bad yet far from outstanding in terms of sound quality, along with a good smattering of USB-C ports including three in the front, together with an HDMI port. How generous. And slightly confusing.

Bearing in mind there’s a wireless charging pad as well, along with a further two USB-C ports in the middle row, plus a 12-volt power socket and a further two USB-Cs for third-row passengers, you won't be struggling to keep you and your occupants' devices charged in here.

The starting price for the Toyota Land Cruise in Invincible trim is £77,845 (as of April 2025), which is a great deal more than the £62,120 kicking-off point for the Land Rover Defender 110, although that will only get you into the most basic version of that car's mid-length body.

In theory, there's also a limited edition Land Cruiser First Edition also available for £82,845. While it's price-listed, it's not shown on Toyota's configurator and unsold examples within the dealer network are likely to be as rare as the proverbial teeth of a hen.

It’s also worth noting that there isn’t a massive options list full of expensive trinkets to push the price of the Toyota up further, with the main cost options being colours that range from £730 to £965. We’ll take ours in Sand, please.

Given Toyota's hybrid expertise it's disappointing to find there's no such choice here, which means the Land Cruiser won’t be winning over company car users. Its Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax rate is in the 37% bracket thanks to CO2 emissions of 276g/km.

The 26.4mpg WLTP Combined cycle economy figure might make you assume you're in for a wallet-busting time running a Land Cruiser, and, well, you are, frankly. We did manage to better that figure, averaging just over 30mpg when we tested the car, although it helped that we did a lot of motorway journeys during that time.

You should be able to get more out of a diesel-engined Land Rover Defender 110 or an Audi Q7 TDI. The Land Cruiser's 80-litre fuel tank should keep you away from visiting the pumps too often, if you can cope with the psychological barrier of a three-figure fill-up cost when you do need to stop on a filling station forecourt. 

Because the price of the Land Cruiser is far beyond the £40,000 threshold for the government's Expensive Car Supplement (premium car tax), the Toyota is liable for a £425 annual fee on top of the £195 Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) payment from years two to five of ownership. It's based on the car's original price and is transferred to each subsequent owner during that time period, so you can't get around it by buying used. 

So far, it's looking like the Land Cruiser is going to be quite expensive to run, but the silver lining of all this is that the residual values seem to be quite strong, so it should be possible to recoup a decent chunk of the original purchase price when it's time to move on. Even much older generations of Land Cruiser with starship mileages seem to command eye-windenlingly strong money.

There's only one standard version of the Toyota Land Cruiser available in the brand's well-appointed Invicible specification.

This sole Toyota Land Cruiser Invicible grade comes with everything you might want, including all the safety gear previously mentioned, plus three-zone climate control, a 14-speaker JBL sound system, heated, cooled and electrically controlled front seats, a wireless smartphone charging pad, a large infotainment touchscreen and adaptive cruise control.