Toyota Land Cruiser V8 review
Powerful, packed full of tech and a comfortable ride.
Toyota has been in the off-road game for a full 60 years now, so the flagship Land Cruiser V8 should be downright unstoppable.
The firm’s original 4×4, the BJ from 1951, was your basic, go-anywhere all-terrain workhorse with few creature comforts. That was tough enough to drive 2,500m up Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, but a quick look down the spec list of the latest off-roader shows it hasn’t been watered down any over the intervening years.
For a start the engine for which the car is named is an absolute powerhouse. With 282bhp and a whopping 479lb-ft of torque, the V8 is everything you’d expect an eight-cylinder would be bar one thing: it’s a diesel.
Exceptionally smooth and decently frugal at 28mpg on the combined cycle, Toyota decided it would lose no customers whatsoever by not replacing the old petrol unit from the V8’s ancestor, the Amazon. No complaints here: the official 0-62mph time is a hot-hatch rivalling 8.2 seconds and it feels every bit as quick as the time suggests on the road.
So there’s the required gumption under the bonnet, but Toyota has sensibly kept a strong link to the original 4×4 in the body-on-frame design. By building an immensely tough chassis engineers could keep the famed off-road strength that other makers have compromised with monocoque shells. They traditionally make the shift because it usually improves the road handling and ride comfort, but Toyota has included some smart technology to ensure the V8 doesn’t lag behind on that score.
For example it comes with active dampers that stiffen the suspension when cornering at higher speeds, and then relax it again when the car’s travelling straight ahead.
Also active (for which read intelligent) is the height control, which automatically raises by 110m for extra ground clearance as soon as the automatic gearbox is shifted into low-ratio for off-road work. Then, once back onto the tarmac and up to speed, the suspension lowers for better body control in the bends and improved aerodynamics (which reduces the amount of fuel consumed).
All this course is utterly alien to the original BJ and subsequent (and wildly successful) FJ Land Cruiser, but it does allow the V8 to whisk its seven occupants to the countryside in comfort while giving the same go-anywhere ability once the tarmac runs out.
Actually, make that luxurious comfort, which is evident throughout the car. While some makers brag about their two-zone climate control, where the driver and passenger can set the temperature individually, the Land Cruiser V8 has a four-zone system that hands control to the rear-seat passengers as well.
They also get a heating element under their leather seats, another rarity, and music is delivered through a nine-speaker hi-fi. That also comes with a stackable DVD player as well, so at rest you can watch films via the dashboard’s 8in screen.
While travelling, that screen also delivers satnav, which comes with maps for 24 European countries as standard, as well as a traffic rerouting function. And when you’re reversing the screen displays the view from the back thanks to a rear-mounted camera.
Back in 1967 when Toyota launched the five-door version of the FJ Land Cruiser, the most advanced safety item was a padded dashboard. Now the V8 comes with an amazing 12 airbags to fully protect occupants, including those in the very back seats. Even the driver and front passenger’s knees are given their own airbag protection.
The ideal of course is not to crash at all and to that aim Toyota has included an array of technology. The active traction control (there’s that word again) can identify the wheel losing grip and specifically reduce torque to that wheel. That means power can carry on being delivered to the other three, thus returning the car to full grip extremely quickly.
With this amount of protection, you can confidently load up the family and the vast amount of luggage the average holiday requires these days without worrying about your cargo.
You certainly get plenty of flexibility with the seating. Open the double deck tailgate, and you can flip the two rear seats to the side, and increase boot space again to an impressive 1,267 litres by folding the middle seat backs down. But despite all that space and the imposing presence, the Land Cruiser is actually pretty compact for what it is, measuring under 5m end to end.
So far Toyota has sold over a five million Land Cruiser models to 188 different countries and regions worldwide. With the latest V8, you could visit each one and not break a sweat.