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https://www.wsj.com/articles/2017-toyota-land-cruiser-the-hippopotamus-of-luxury-suvs-1493923141
RUMBLE SEAT
2017 Toyota Land Cruiser: The
Hippopotamus of Luxury SUVs
Toyota’s much revered Land Cruiser is as aerodynamic as a hippo
With a near-6,000-pound curb weight, the 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser can pull an 8,100-pound trailer. PHOTO: TOYOTA
By Dan Neil
Updated May 4, 2017
6:05 p.m. ET
I worried that calling the Toyota Land Cruiser a “behemoth” might sound catty, so I
looked it up. The word comes to us from the Hebrew for “hippopotamus,” and—in the
actual presence of Toyota’s cultic, revered luxury SUV—I have to say, that’s pretty spot
on. Both appear equally aerodynamic, for example. The proportions are similar, too,
with massive bodies poised over itty-bitty feet. If anything, it’s the hippos that should
take umbrage.
×
If not behemothic, pachydermic: The Land Cruiser as help-elephant of the American raj,
perhaps, gently bearing up to eight of the royal family, knocking down the occasional
tree. Sorry about the droppings.
In truth, the Land Cruiser is a dinosaur—heavy-boned, placid and semiaquatic (wading
depth of 27.5 inches)—with anatomy un-evolved since the Late Hasselhoff Epoch: a fullsize, body-on-frame 4x4 with a solid rear axle, steel and more steel, a big-displacement
V8 up front and no remorse at the tailpipe. They don’t build them like this anymore,
because if they did, all SUVs would weigh three tons and get 13 miles to the gallon.
This sauropod was once the most advanced species of SUV, with premium construction
and cabin appointments, atop the unstoppable, fully agro chassis and four-wheel-drive
system. Everything built with Toyota’s silver hammer. But as stylish, capable luxury
SUVs have multiplied like rats in rhinestone collars ( Audi , Bentley, Maserati, MercedesMaybach), I have wondered what rare and powerful charm the Land Cruiser still holds
for the approximately 4,000 Americans a year who buy them.
My guess: mass. Or density, if
you like, the sense of
concentrated heft, the
avoirdupois of quality. The
Land Cruiser is heavy, and
moreover, it feels heavy, every
inch of it gratifyingly solid and
substantial, like a fine watch,
or the bank safe that falls on
your boss. While other auto
makers are whittling and
fiddling to save grams, Toyota
The 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser. PHOTO: TOYOTA
offers the epicurean delight of
unrestrained curb weight.
It’s a rude kind of Veblenism, the notion that the heavier things are, the more valuable,
but it’s fairly ingrained in our consumer responses. Give a pull on the Sasquatch-size
driver’s door handle. Feel the gathering momentum of the huge door pivoting on its
oiled hinges. It’s not easy to halt. When did they start making the doors out of bronze?
Press the Start button and the big V8 stirs, but the Land Cruiser’s steely mass absorbs
nearly all the vibration and noise. Turn the JBL sound system up, the huge subwoofer
thumping a beat that would shiver the timbers of other cars. The Toyota’s cabin is still.
More mass means more mass-damping.
As a point of comparison, the Range Rover, standard wheelbase, weighs about 1,000
pounds less than the Land Cruiser. Further, its V6 engine has higher specific power (340
hp out of 3 liters displacement) than the Toyota’s; and it gets about 20% better fuel
economy (19 mpg, combined). Meanwhile, the Range Rover’s highway manners make the
Land Cruiser feel like Jeb’s old pickup. But then the Range Rover doesn’t feel like Her
Majesty’s trusty anvil.
The Toyota is beautifully
made, of course. The silksmooth 5.7-liter DOHC V8
rouses 401 pound-feet of
torque at 3,600 rpm and
dispatches it through a (new
for 2016 model year) eightspeed automatic. But it’s got
its work cut out for it. In
instances of extreme throttle
cruelty, you can accelerate to
60 mph in the mid-7 seconds,
The 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser. PHOTO: TOYOTA
the Land Cruiser making
outraged sounds and
performing an epically graceless squat. Yeah, no. Driven in the real world, the big
machine moves off the starting line with the crispness of Noah’s Ark.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Land Cruiser sales in the U.S., Toyota’s PR
department helpfully reminded me. But the formative years were certainly the 1990s,
with the remarkable J80 series. In 1996, a pair of J80s took first and second place in the
unmodified-production class of the Dakar Rally. That’ll do, pig.
Then and now, the Land Cruiser puts iron on the off-road target, with a beyond stout
four-wheel-drive system based on a fully automatic, limited-slip/locking center
differential; a two-speed (low-gear) transfer case; and a solid rear axle suitably sized for
farm equipment. At the four corners are 285/60R18 mud-and-snow tires, though under
the visual bulk of the body they look like casters.
All of that—and the balloon-y tires and the long-legged suspension—deliver stupendous,
world-famous chops, off road. But on road, the same equipment makes the vehicle feel
floaty, sometimes alarmingly so, gently swaying like a blimp at its moorings. Toyota’s
chassis engineers have tried to address the compromises. A switch in the console allows
drivers to limber up the front
and rear stabilizer bars, the
anti-roll bars, allowing
increased wheel articulation
off road. To which I exclaim: It
has anti-roll bars?
Another system is designed to
help the SUV negotiate extratight turns on off-road trails,
actually dragging a rear wheel
to pivot the vehicle. It also
The back seat of the 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser. PHOTO: TOYOTA
works in parking decks.
I
2017 TOYOTA LAND CRUISER
gathe
r
from
the
gener
al
frum
pines
s of
the
exteri
or
The front seat of the 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser. PHOTO: TOYOTA
that
the
Base price $85,950, with delivery
few
Price, as tested $86,303
loyali
sts
Powertrain Naturally aspirated 5.7-liter DOHC V8 with variable valve timing; eight-speed automatic
transmission; two-speed transfer case; full-time four-wheel drive (40/60 static torque split, front/rear) with
limited-slip/locking center differential, limited-slip front and rear differential.
out
Power/torque 381 hp at 5,600 rpm/401 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm
there
Length/weight 194.9/5,815 pounds
are
Wheelbase 112.2 inches
not
0-60 mph 7.5 seconds (est)
aesth
Maximum trailering capacity 8,100 pounds
EPA fuel economy 13/18/15 mpg, city/highway/combined
etes.
Why
Cargo capacity 16.1/43.0 cubic feet (third row up/folded)
does
Toyot
a’s most capable off-road vehicle look like it’s wearing a housecoat? The important thing
is preserving the command seating, the high perches looking down at the world through
Amtrak-sized windows.
Toyota’s designers were left to improve the front end, mercilessly. With the most recent
face-lift, the Land Cruiser got that big chrome nose, upturned a bit snottily, and
extraneous “power domes” stamped into the hood. You wonder who in Toyota Design
has a secret Dodge in his garage?
The Land Cruiser has other currency. Toyota loads these things up with every available
convenience, aid and comfort in its larder, for one price ($85,950, delivered). That
includes all Toyota’s latest driver-assist technologies, featuring emergency-braking
assist and pedestrian detection.
That seems especially prudent. You wouldn’t want to be the jaywalker who steps in the
path of this speeding brontosaur.
Write to Dan Neil at [email protected]
Appeared in the May. 06, 2017, print edition as 'Toyota Land Cruiser: An SUV From Days
of Yore.'
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