Toyota Land Cruiser D-4D LC5 review
Toyota Land Cruiser 3.0 D-4D LC5 Road Test
Test date 20 December 2009
Price as tested £49,950
For Outstanding off-road ability, rugged construction, space, standard kit list
Against Price, crude ride and handling, coarse engine, chaotic fascia
The way Toyota views the Land Cruiser can be summed up by the fact that most people who saw us driving the latest model for this test thought it was either a facelift or the outgoing model, or failed to flag up any difference at all. But while many concepts of the old car have been carried over, this Land Cruiser is, in fact, almost entirely new.
Still, its specification reads like an off-roader recipe someone might have cooked up 20 or 30 years ago: a thumping great four-cylinder diesel engine, a live rear axle and, would you believe it, not even monocoque construction but rather the same body-on-frame thinking that’s existed since long before the car was invented.
Nor has Toyota gone down this path to give the Land Cruiser a competitive price. The range starts at £29,795 for the entry-level LC3 model, rising up to £44,795 for the fully loaded LC5 seen here. Whether a car made from such humble underpinnings can still amount to a fully competitive seven-seat SUV is what we’re here to find out. The beauty of a pot lies not in the clay but the potter’s skill, and if anyone can pull off this unlikely feat, Toyota can.
Your say
Comments: 10 Join the discussion
