The 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser Pays Homage to Its Forebears

In Australia, there’s an old saying: “If you want to go into the bush, take a Land Rover. If you want to come back, take a Land Cruiser.” 

It’s hard not to frame the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser that way. This is a car explicitly designed to evoke its forebears, the ones used globally by people and organizations for whom nothing less than the most-rugged and reliable ute will do.

This is a very different Land Cruiser than we’ve grown accustomed to, however. Where before, Toyota brough the full-size flagship Land Cruiser to America, it now brings the smaller, more-affordable Land Cruiser Prado, which previously came to the States as the Lexus GX. The old 200-series Land Cruiser cost $87,830 in 2021, its final year on the market; this new 250-series starts at $57,345. 

Like all of Toyota’s latest trucks, the new Land Cruiser rides on the automaker’s TGNA-F frame, and shares a lot of hardware with the Tacoma and 4Runner. Standard in the U.S. is a hybrid powertrain that marries a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder and an electric motor for 326 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. The mill mates to an eight-speed automatic transmission, plus a full-time four-wheel drive system with low range, and lockable center and rear differentials.

Toyota had us out to a ranch near the Mexican border to sample the Land Cruiser in its base “1958 Edition,” and in a fancier trim called, simply, “Land Cruiser.” Unfortunately, we weren’t able to drive either on road, so a full verdict will come later. But on sandy, reasonably challenging terrain, the new Land Cruiser proved its mettle. 

The 1958 Edition is a throwback of sorts, a tribute to purely utilitarian versions of the Land Cruisers, like the standby 70-Series still built today. The 1958 Edition comes in three colors only— white, silver, and black—and inside, you’ll find cloth seats and small screens for the gauge cluster and infotainment. There are no option packages available, just aftermarket accessories, and round headlights to evoke the original FJ40 Land Cruiser.

These bare-bones trucks also sit on very road-biased tires and do without Toyota’s excellent Multi-Terrain Select (MTS) system, which helps maximize traction off