Old-school Cruiser gets modern lift
Here’s a ute with history – almost enough to let it retire. But now the Toyota Land Cruiser 70 series has been refreshed and is back on the job again, reports Rob Maetzig.
In an age where utes are becoming increasingly luxurious and urbanised, there’s one model that is sticking to its knitting as a tough and uncompromising vehicle, ready and able to take on New Zealand’s roughest terrain.
The ute is the Toyota Land Cruiser 70 series, a model that has been on the Kiwi market pretty well unchanged since 1984. It has a direct lineage to the Land Cruiser 40 series that was made from 1960 to 1984 – so it could be said that this truck is the latest representative of Toyota’s longestserving nameplate.
It wears that history like a badge of honour, too. The ute’s body styling is so old-school it could be from the 1980s or even earlier, and in terms of ride and comfort its interior is among the most uncompromising around.
Not uncomfortable mind you, but certainly no-nonsense. And the good news – or bad news depending on your experience – is that the truck is available only with a five-speed manual transmission.
But the latest iteration of the Land Cruiser 70 series isn’t all oldschool.
The vehicle has just been facelifted, with the majority of changes in the interests of a more comfortable and safer drive.
Actually one of the safetyrelated changes had to happen, because Toyota New Zealand wouldn’t have been allowed to sell the ute without it.
It now has vehicle stability control (VSC) which became mandatory on all new passenger and light commercial vehicles sold here after July 1, 2015. The fact the pre-facelift models didn’t have the VSC removed the 70 series from the Kiwi market for six months this year, because there were no stocks to sell until the facelifted model became available.
Thanks to installation of the VSC, the vehicle also now has the likes of active traction control, electronic brake-force distribution, hill-start assist, brake assist, and an emergency stop signal. The ute also now has a reversing camera, which is great considering that under normal circumstances it can be quite a difficult vehicle to reverse.
A further major change in the interests of modernity is the adoption of dual automatic locking hubs for the four-wheeldrive (4WD) system. Up until now the hubs were manual, meaning that if you wanted to use 4WD with the hubs locked instead of free, you had to stop, climb out, engage the hubs and then get back into the ute again.
But now the new automatic system allows for the hubs to be engaged and disengaged from inside the cabin. The hubs can engage or disengage automatically when shifting between H2 and H4 or L4.
The 70 series used to be available with a High Country Pack option with front and rear diff locks, but these have now become standard. That’s contributed to about a $6000 increase in the price of this Toyota.
So you could say that technologically speaking, the good old ‘Cruiser 70 series has been dragged into the modern age. And that’s OK too – there are plenty of us older ‘uns around who have had to do the same. But drive the Toyota, and it doesn’t take long to recognise the fact that despite these upgrades, it very much remains a vehicle happiest out in the outdoors.
This was underlined early on in a week we spent in a $85,580 LX double-cab, which is the highestspecified and most expensive of the five-model 70 series lineup.
First thing we had to do was park it in our inner-city car park. That required some work, not only because the cab-chassis ute came complete with a heavy duty galvanised steel tray that helped make the ute 5.2 metres long and 1.8m wide, but also because the turning circle is 14.4m and it takes 3.83 turns of the steering wheel to get from lock to lock.
That turning circle is way more than a standard 4WD one-tonne ute, which is normally a little over 12m. So we quickly found that when you’re negotiating the 70 series into tight spaces, you’re rowing the steering wheel back and forward.
A second thing we quickly noticed was that the Land Cruiser has a very short first gear, so short in fact that you use it only to get off the mark before quickly moving into second gear, which has been revised as part of the facelift so it is taller than before. In fact we got a bit lazy and often started off in second anyway, preferring to use the turbo-diesel engine’s enormous amount of torque to move away.
But all of that is when the Land Cruiser 70 series is in town, which really isn’t its natural environment. Get out into the open country where turning circles and transmission ratios aren’t so noticeable, and the truck immediately becomes a lot more appropriate.
Get off the road, and the 70 series is a lot more appropriate again. In 4WD Low it really can go places, crawling across very difficult country, helped no end by its very high 283mm ground clearance, substantial approach and departure angles, and such down-and-dirty necessities as engine idle-up. The vehicle boasts a 700mm wading depth too, and it has a big air intake snorkel that rises up the right-hand A-pillar to above the roof.
It’s obvious then that the Toyota Land Cruiser 70 series remains an offroad vehicle in the truest sense – little wonder it is the darling of farmers, rural contractors and the likes of mining companies.
This time around the truck has made some concessions to comfort, including re-tuning of springs and shock absorbers for a smoother ride, taller second and fifth gears for more relaxed driving on the open road, the introduction of the dual automatic locking hubs, and a suite of technology including cruise control, and a 6.1-inch display unit with Bluetooth connectivity, CD player and USB port.
There have been some minor changes to the vehicle’s wellknown 4.5-litre V8 turbo diesel, too. The engine still makes 151kw or power and 430Nm of torque, but it now has new injectors which have helped reduce fuel consumption by up to 10 per cent, and allow the vehicle to meet latest European exhaust emissions standards.
In so many respects it is a refreshing experience to spend some time behind the wheel of the Land Cruiser 70 series. It’s because this ute is so traditional. Thankfully Toyota hasn’t done much to change that – the exterior body styling is almost the same as before (the bonnet has been changed to provide more engine clearance), and mechanical changes are all in the interests of making the vehicle more usable, but not softer.
The old saying, about you getting what you pay for, rings true with this ‘Cruiser. It is expensive, but for the money the buyer gets one tough vehicle. And that’s what the 70 series is all about.