Time machine drives the Land Cruiser and finds out if it lives up to its legend

Paul Acres

Today’s Land Cruiser doesn’t look a great deal different to its predecessor. Even the dimensions have changed little with an additional 45mm in length and 10mm in width. The wheelbase remains unchanged.

The five-bar chrome grille is huge. Bulging wheel arches, huge running boards and chunky roof rails help emphasise the rugged, go-anywhere image.

While it might not have the looks but it’s certainly hard to miss.

On the road it handles pretty much as you might expect. It doesn’t like to be hurried. There’s a fair amount of body roll in the corners – it’s a tall, heavy car and behaves like one – and the steering lacks a little directness.

The ride can get a little fidgety on uneven surfaces but, overall, it’s a comfortable and refined machine.

Venture off-road and the Land Cruiser starts to live up to its name. It’s equipped with a low-ratio gearbox and lockable centre differential that allows it to tackle difficult terrain with the kind of ease that the new breed of crossovers can only dream about.

There’s only one engine available, a 2.8-litre fourcylinder diesel that produces 174bhp and 332lbft of torque with the automatic transmission. It’s not the quickest, nor the quietest, but it does do an admirable, if unspectacular, job of lugging the big 4x4 around.

Climbing inside the topspec Invincible is a bit like walking into an antiques shop. The wood trim on the steering wheel and dash, while achieving its aim of giving the cabin an upmarket feel, does so with a certain amount of old world charm.

There’s a cluster of buttons below the multimedia system display that operates the air con – which in the Invincible spec includes a blu-ray player with remote – and two air vents above it.

At the base of the centre console is a large rotary selector, switches and buttons to select the off-road modes.

Rear-seat passengers get their own controls for the air conditioning mounted in the back of the centre storage bin.

Bluetooth handsfree with audio streaming is standard across the range, but sat nav is only included on the Icon and above, as is a JBL premium sound system.

There’s perhaps not as much room as you might expect given the Land Cruiser’s dimensions. All-round visibility is excellent and finding a just-right driving position is easy thanks to lots of adjustment in the wheel and seats.

Invincible spec models seat seven, with the rearmost seats