The Toyota Land Cruiser started life in the 1940s as a knock-off of another famous all-terrain vehicle. Japanese soldiers who had invaded the Philippines during the Second World War captured a Willys Jeep and shipped it home to Toyota with instructions to strip it down and build a vehicle that could equal its off-road capability. Eighty years on and the Land Cruiser is one of Toyota’s most popular models, with more than ten million sold. The 250 aims to bring it into the digital age while not upsetting traditionalists. Land Cruisers are renowned for durability and the vehicle of choice of rugged folk worldwide, from Aussie farmers to wilderness explorers and warlords. All expect it never to break down or, if it does, to be able to fix it with a hammer or the butt of an AK47.
The first thing you notice is Toyota has combined modern mechanicals with retro looks. Its boxy, Tonka toy shape takes inspiration from the timeless LJ70 from 1984, now a classic. Parked in a woodland clearing in the drizzle, the 250 I tested looked as though it were hewn from an ingot of wet, grey aluminium. Inside is a clever new feature that adjusts the suspension so you can drink a cup of coffee without spillage even while bouncing down a rutted track. This is achieved by pushing a button that electronically disconnects the front anti-roll bar, smoothing out bumps and potholes.
By tradition Land Cruisers are as unbreakable as a bricklayer’s hod with controls as uncomplicated as an Aga and this update doesn’t lose sight of the fundamentals. It still has a ladder frame chassis, lockable diffs and a low-range gearbox — all very standard. In fact, strip away the body panels —designed for easy replacement if bashed or scraped — and you’d be hard pressed to tell it apart in many respects from the previous 150 model. It’s old-school, in other words, and in no rush to go auto-touch-tastic, though it does have a central touchscreen — 8in or 12.3in depending on spec level.
To show the 250 off, Toyota chose an area of dense woods and streams on the edge of a Buckinghamshire shooting estate. This is Land Rover territory by rights, but the Land Cruiser soon made short work of a series of boggy tracks and hill climbs. It waded through water up to its doorsills and tackled gradients up to 30 degrees. Speed is not its thing: if you want on-road performance, go for a Land Rover Defender. But the Land Cruiser has a persistence and insouciance about it that convinces you it’ll get there in the end, and anyway, what’s the rush?
The new eight-speed gearbox gives a better spread of torque and sharper acceleration, but the 250’s strength is really its lack of frills. Under the bonnet is a 2.8-litre, four-cylinder turbo diesel like the one in the indestructible Hilux pick-up. Toyota is not saying officially what its fuel economy is, as the Land Cruiser won’t be fully homologated (approved) until closer to its arrival in Europe this autumn. As a guide, the 80-litre fuel tank should be good for more than 500 miles.
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Inside, the new Land Cruiser Tonka edition — as it should be called — has controls marked with three-letter acronyms that look as though they were taken from an old push-button phone: SDM (Stabiliser Disconnect Mechanism) isolates the anti-roll bar, MTS (Multi-Terrain Select) gives a range of terrain options and DAC (Downhill Assist Control) restricts speed on descents.”
Like its forebears, the 250 gives a sense of adventure. After all, where the Land Cruiser goes you don’t need roads. “The trip only begins when the asphalt ends”, one early advert read. When, after 9/11, the US wanted to recruit Afghan tribal leaders it sent Land Cruisers as currency. More recently it donated them to Ukraine’s armed forces.
If there’s a problem with the 250 it’s that the price is beyond the reach of typical farmers and contractors. The First Edition is £79,995. There’s a cheaper version — the £74,995 Invincible — but that’s still a lot for a car like this. Yet nowadays it’s hard to find anything less expensive. The Mercedes G-Class G400d is north of £130,000. The Defender starts at £63,500, but the price will be the same with a few add-ons. The closest rival may be the Ineos Grenadier, which shares its ethos of low-down grunt and unbreakability.
And don’t start thumbing through the Land Cruiser catalogue just yet — Toyota has presold the 3,000 250s it plans to import into Europe. It could sell more but restrictions apply because of government rules designed to boost sales of electric cars. Manufacturers must sell 22 per cent battery electric vehicles this year, a proportion that rises each year to reach 80 per cent by 2030. This effectively caps the number of combustion vehicles each can supply before it risks exceeding its quota and incurring fines of up to £15,000 per vehicle. So enjoy the look of the new 250. It may be a while before you can get behind the wheel.
