Toyota Landcruiser 200 Series 4.5 V8 Twin-Turbo DI - King of the 4wd?

I have has the opportunity to take the latest edition of the Landcruiser out off road over Salisbury plain the other week.
First thing you notice is that this thing is huge. Alot larger than any Discovery or Patrol, longer wheelbase and alot higher.
The model I drove was the 4.5v8 diesel. Auto transmission. Factory standard.
Ill cut to the chase, this this is epic, benchmark setting when driving off road. Think 80 series landcruiser with 3x the torque. The traction is ridiculous.
The 4wd system is alot like the Landrover discovery one, but IMO alot simpler to grasp at first glance. This vehicle does it all for you. It is the most advanced system I have come across. You could be a complete novice to off roading and you will be able to outmanoeuvre and outperform an experienced driver in an older style Defender, Cherokee or Patrol.
Most notably the system that works the best are the following:

CRAWL - A four-wheel drive control system that operates like an off-road cruise control, automatically maintaining a low uniform vehicle speed using brakes and throttle, automatically adjusting torque and power settings, traction aids like diff locks, anti roll bars and gear changes from one terrain like sand to mud in split secconds.

Downhill Assist Control.

A newly developed ABS system, the multi-terrain anti-lock braking system. - This is one sweet bit of kit. - An example was braking on mud at 30mph vs a Jeep Wrangler. The 200 series Is alot hevier and yet its braking distance was nearly 10 meters shorter than the wrangler.

Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS), allows for greater wheel articulation. - No joke, alot better than any Live axle I have ever seen. It keeps the vehicles centre high with huge amounts of articulation for all wheels. Coupled this with the ride height for off road and it was a good 2" above any of the deep ruts on the plain.

But my favourite bit of kit is the engine. The 4.5 Twin turbo v8. It is nothing short of perfect.

650 N·m (479 lb·ft) @ 1200 rpm.

We tackled the steepest slope on the plain in 4wd Lo, centre, front, rear diff locked in crawl mode. The vehicle had locked its engine rpm @ 1400 rpm and it made it up 1st time with very little fuss. It took at least 3 attempts attempts for the Jeep Wrangler, Defender and Patrol we were traveling with to make it up the same hill.

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I can see why the UN and other aid groups are swapping out their flet range for these vehicle's. The sheer size, load space, reliability, performance and instant off road ability will make it an easy vehicle to use even for the most un-experienced off road driver.

Me personally, I would love one. It has truly set the benchmark for King of the 4wd's and Off Road
But if there was anything I missed, it was the sense of achievement that I got from my Terracan when after several attempts I made it up or across difficult terrain. This 200 series Landcruiser is that good, it takes the extreme to stop this vehicle, like a bottomless bog, vertical incline or a road side bomb.

Im torn, in one way It is trully the pinnacle of off road supremacy, but on the other, because its so good, its abit less fun.

Jas

Hi jas
My D3 does all the things metioned below

This vehicle does it all for you. It is the most advanced system I have come across. You could be a complete novice to off roading and you will be able to outmanoeuvre and outperform an experienced driver in an older style Defender, Cherokee or Patrol.

It has truly set the benchmark for King of the 4wd's and Off Road

Sorry but in my opion it will realy take a lot to knock the
Top of the range Range Rover
of its spot.

It would benice to have a drive though and then I might change my mind, but sadley it will never happen.

People tell me the D4 is a lot better than the D3, but again will not get to try it.

We have Discovery and a Range Rover sport in our fleet vehicles. They offer good ideas and designs, but This 200 Series is superior in mechanics and engineering, the build quality is higher and the materials used look to be high in quality.
Now I own none of these so long term review or ownership will not happen. But if any non biased non owning enthusiast was to see these 3 vehicles lined up side by side, they would see why.

When I test vehicles or review them, up to this point, my bench-mark was the Shogun 3.2. The shogun is one of the best designed, engineered and put together vehicles on the market.
And this 200 series Landcruiser tops it, in most category's.
And for all its credibility and popularity I have yet to drive and use a Landrover that can match the Shogun.

Overall I am pleased to see the 200 series here in the UK. If the finances are available this would be the ultimate vehicle for recreational use, and lets face it, it will live longer than most of us, a truly useful investment.

Jason

Ha well you live and learn, maybe if ever I get a chance to drive both motors, I will see for myself.


ps I do like all your reviwes.

Sounds like a winner. Incidentally, talking of new models, I saw the new full fat Range Rover out on the road the other day. It was decked out in 'stealth mode' to stop folk being able to take decent photos of it - basically zig-zag camo.

As usual, it looked the biz!!! The new Landcruiser may be king at the moment, but when that RR hits the showrooms the crown will change again. If nothing else, Land Rover do get their marketing spot on.

No doubt.

Im 99% certain that toyota bought a discover 3/4 and a range rover and said lets do the same but try to make it better.
As did landrover before that, and toyota before that, all the way back to their foundings.

The fact that I do not directly own a 4x4 now and drive a car has made things easier to see and evaluate. Even when I had my Terracan there was a small hint of bias im sure.

What is certain is that competition breeds excellence. And this is only the beginning im sure, both companies will hopefully continue to keep building epic off roaders.

One of my favourite 4x4's for sale at the moment is the Skoda Yeti. Yes the yeti, but thats a story for another time.

Jason

The new cruiser is a fine vehicle, but it relies upon multiple interlinked electronics systems to function and this is its downfall along with its size.

People like the UN are finding this because several failures have been recorded, for example the vehicle lowers itself if you exceed a certain speed which has caused damage to several vehicles, and if you lose or damage one function it affects several others. One other issue with such vehicles is drivers don't have to learn the basics of off road driving which is essential to drive off road safely and practically.

In the main it is a good vehicle and will be reliable, it will perform for longer than most other products due to its excellent build quality, reliability record, Toyota's many years of building quality off roaders, and their worldwide technical resources availibility and back up, and yes I have driven one and liked it.

I LOVE LANDCRUISERS........but I have to agree with some of the comments;

TOO MUCH reliance on electronics. TOO EASY to drive. TOO expensive.

But if I won the lotto?..................probably!

I had a great hour in the new Disco with the Land Rover experience a while back and the new incarnation was fantastic it climbed a steep muddy bank and stopped half way up, then pulled off and finished the climb with no effort we followed a tricked up 110 which took 3 attempts to do the same climb.

Great in the wilds of Warwickshire but would not fancy crossing the Sahara in it too much electrickery to go wrong !

I was telling the owner of the garage that maintain our works vehicles the story and he was telling me the newer Toyota's are built down to a price and the equipment is a shadow of it's former self (not quantity but parts have seen a downgrade from previous).

He was saying the pickup version was still up to the task and recommended the Hi-lux over the opposition from Nissan, Ford, Isuzu and Mitsubishi but the Landcruiser it's self was now taking on the mantle of the biggest and the best Chelsea tractor trying to wrestle the title away from Mercedes and the top spec Range Rover's all very capable of transporting the little darlings to school and parking on the verges but again way too much electrickery for serious overlanding and you wouldn't want to try taking any of the above green lanning down tight scratchy lanes with deep muddy ruts, no you need a Disco 1 or 2, defender or even a nice swb Frontera for that !!

But if I had the money would I buy one you bet, the biggest and best Range Rooney money can buy

The days of the live axle and basic electrics are numbered as tin worm takes its toll of Range Rovers, Discos, Isuzus, Suzukis, etc. Sure it's still possible to swap around components on RR, Defender and Discos, but most other makes you'd be pushed to find one part that fits another.

As for 'home servicing', is this still possible at all on new models? We've known it for years, the manufacturers just don't want us tinkering with our motors at home as it diverts revenue from the dealerships, I think the day is fast approaching where they will have succeeded ... if it isn't here already.

RIP the off-roader/overlander as we know it Jim!

wideformat4x4 wrote:

but again way too much electrickery for serious overlanding and you wouldn't want to try taking any of the above green lanning down tight scratchy lanes with deep muddy ruts, no you need a Disco 1 or 2, defender or even a nice swb Frontera for that !!

ha but we have taken are D3 down tight scratchy lanes with deep muddy ruts, as some on here know,

been to yarwell and bala, tixover and a few in wales.

The days of basic live axles and electrics are numbered!!!!!! yes, its called evolution Tom, unfortunately most of this is politically and European controlled and dominated as the current trend is the proven myth of climate change and a myth because nobody can either prove or disprove it, only throw theories and speculation which is often scare tactics to obtain financial benefits such as funding. Obviously the upshot of this is the deliverance of newer and much more fuel efficient engines for new vehicles which have to rely upon electronics to control them.

As for home servicing, yes its still possible as it requires you to evolve with it and gain new knowledge and new tools such as a scanner with appropriate software for your vehicle which can be purchased for under £200 for most vehicles, and you only have to buy additional software for every individual system. If you had the Toyota software for a Toyota and you bought a Rangie you would have to buy that software, and you would have to learn how to use it. Thats the evolution. In every other respect an engine is an engine which contains all the same fundamental parts, an axle is an axle, and a gearbox and transfer case is still a gearbox and transfer case, it is just switched differently, maybe by vacuum or electrically.

Wideformat made an interesting comment from his local garage, and unfortunately Toyota lowering their standards is actually untrue. Electrics and electronics have evolved at an alarming rate over the last two decades, Toyota have not dropped their standards as such, the components they use have evolved so much in terms of energy efficiency and reliability as well as considerably improved performance that Toyota don't need top quality components of that era. Basically the bar has been raised so much that they still use better components than previously but they are so much better than before that they can now use what would be termed upper average components instead of the top quality components of their day.

Basically it comes down to cost, everything does, but if you have much better components available and many more classes of components available you don't need to spend so much on buying them as you can buy in much improves components which are more powerful, much more efficient and more reliable at a lower cost.

Assassin wrote:

Wideformat made an interesting comment from his local garage, and unfortunately Toyota lowering their standards is actually untrue. Electrics and electronics have evolved at an alarming rate over the last two decades, Toyota have not dropped their standards as such, the components they use have evolved so much in terms of energy efficiency and reliability as well as considerably improved performance that Toyota don't need top quality components of that era. Basically the bar has been raised so much that they still use better components than previously but they are so much better than before that they can now use what would be termed upper average components instead of the top quality components of their day.

Basically it comes down to cost, everything does, but if you have much better components available and many more classes of components available you don't need to spend so much on buying them as you can buy in much improves components which are more powerful, much more efficient and more reliable at a lower cost.

I think what they were actually eluding to was they are having to replace more and more electrical componants on the newer Landcruisers than they ever used too on older models !!

roamingman wrote:

wideformat4x4 wrote:

but again way too much electrickery for serious overlanding and you wouldn't want to try taking any of the above green lanning down tight scratchy lanes with deep muddy ruts, no you need a Disco 1 or 2, defender or even a nice swb Frontera for that !!

ha but we have taken are D3 down tight scratchy lanes with deep muddy ruts, as some on here know,

been to yarwell and bala, tixover and a few in wales.

They are more than capable machines and would handle the terrain without any problems what I meant was if it's your pride and joy you probably would not to want to ruin the paint job on blackthorn bushes and assorted trees.

The battle scars on my Fronty do make it look a little tired and the last outing ended with the offside front indicator being gouged out by a rather large sticky out branch which was being hidden by a rather soft looking leafy bush

More than likely a massive £2.50 repair bill where as I would think a replacement item for a new D3 or 4 would be a lot more

Wideformat:

That may well be the case, you where there and obviously understood the context of what was said. Its interesting as now more and more vehicles are having more and more electrical/electronic components replaced as they have more fitted to comply with emissions regulations and also now safety standards such as the modern pyrotechnic systems fitted to new vehicles.
If we base this on a percentile figure both Mitsubishi and Toyota 4X4's have the lowest percentage of electrical/electronic components replaced, and Subaru and Honda are the same for soft roaders, it makes interesting reading. If we compare them with Range Rover we see they're the worst for having electric/electronic components relaced for 4X4's, and Ford are the worst manufacturer for all vehicles.

AS you quite accurately state its a case of horses for courses where many owners wouldn't contemplate using either a new Toyota or RR for the type of off roading you do.

Assassin wrote:

Wideformat:
If we compare them with Range Rover we see they're the worst for having electric/electronic components relaced for 4X4's

Sounds as if "Lucas - The Price of Darkness" still supplies Land Rover Limited.

Tom Mc wrote:

Assassin wrote:

Wideformat:
If we compare them with Range Rover we see they're the worst for having electric/electronic components relaced for 4X4's

Sounds as if "Lucas - The Price of Darkness" still supplies Land Rover Limited.

It would seem from the above comments Japanese is still the way to go when looking at off road vehicles when it comes to reliability.
Still think for off road I would go older Land Rover but that's just a personal thing.
As for road cars I would stick with the Germans

The way I see it, all modern vehicles are reliable compared with earlier recent decades in motoring history. Sure the new Discovery, M Class, Land Cruiser, etc. are wonderful machines, but they are just that - machines, so they will break down at some stage; it's inevitable.

As pointed out earlier, what you have to ask yourself is ... WHEN your machine breaks down in the middle of the Sahara - or the Mongolian Steps - or the Siberian Wasteland - or any other of the planet's desolate regions, would you rather be in a modern vehicle with all the electronic gizmos, or a bog standard* Land Rover/Toyota/whatever?

*By 'bog standard' I'm talking about a relevantly modern 4x4 without traction control, downhill decent modes, selectable automatic transmission and suchlike.

And once again another interesting debate which is free of arguments, free of individual ego's and penis envy, full of constructive points and individual considered opinions.

And not an argument in sight, its why I like this site and its members.

Assassin wrote:

And once again another interesting debate which is free of arguments, free of individual ego's and penis envy, full of constructive points and individual considered opinions.

And not an argument in sight, its why I like this site and its members.

Isn't that whats supposed to happen

I think the way this forum conducts itself is due to the fact there are no cliques as often found on other forums (not mentioning names)
Just people swopping information and tips some worthwhile some not so much.

I always work on the assumption nothing is that new and you don't have to keep re-inventing the wheel if you want to take a trip or go off on a great adventure someone will have alway been there before and picking others brains and deciding wether to take their advice or not is often part of the fun involved

I concur gentlemen.

Talking of travel, enjoy your excursion to Le Mans Gary, I can smell that sizzling bacon wafting across the Brit campsite from here!

Tom, sod the bacon, in France you hunt wild boar and spit roast them very slowly, much nicer smell.

Tom Mc wrote:

I concur gentlemen.

Talking of travel, enjoy your excursion to Le Mans Gary, I can smell that sizzling bacon wafting across the Brit campsite from here!

It's more like the smell of crunchy nut corn flakes these days, not as much cholesterol, don't you just love getting older

Nah, a little of what you fancy does you good. Me I'd rather go though life enjoying the treats (bacon/drinking session/etc. once a month let's say and things like salt and sugar in moderation) than not having those treats at all and living another couple of years. When your time's up, that's that, may as well enjoy life while you're here.

Le Mans + bacon (or wild boar) = memories