All right, we are back, and it’s that time of the week where we do our car reviews. Richard, you just drove a 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser, and it’s not like the Land Cruisers of old, or maybe it is.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I was going to say, there’s sort of a play on words here, right? It’s not like the Land Cruisers… Of the recent old, right? It’s not the ones that they just got rid of. And so for some of you, I guess, buffs or car buffs, we’ll call it, right? You’re more used to the bigger Land Cruiser, right? The more luxurious one. It had the TVs and all sorts of stuff on it. That is no longer the case. They actually got rid of that for a year, brought this back. But it’s not to be confused. This is a midsize SUV, five passengers. It’s right between like a 4Runner and a Sequoia, if you’re familiar with kind of the truck-based SUVs. There’s no longer a V8. It is a V6, and in this case, this was actually the hybrid version of it. I’ll kind of get to the details here. Yeah, basically, it’s got a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with a hybrid system, 326 horsepower. 465 pound-feet of torque. This thing, Dad, is sort of meant to be bought and go out on the road, or I should say off the road in a lot of cases, right? This is meant to do that. And like you said, you are more familiar of the Land Cruisers of, I guess I’m going to call them yesteryear. This much more aligns with that.
SPEAKER 02 :
It does. I mean, yeah, way back in the day with the FJ40s, FJ60s, some of, again, you old car buffs that Richard just mentioned. I remember some of those vehicles from way back when. They were sort of a runoff of the Jeep CJs back in the day. And then the Land Cruisers, of course, came along. And they ran that way for a very long time until they really… I guess I could say, Richard, modernize that platform, and it was very popular around the world, not just here in the U.S., and people would drive those things for half a million miles and not exaggerating and came to love that vehicle. Well, as you said a moment ago, that particular model ended. You can get… How should I say this? You can basically get that vehicle only in a lot more luxurious form on the Lexus end of things, but it is not one of the same. That’s, I think, some of the confusion as well. In the past, Richard, you could buy the Land Cruiser or get a little bit fancier Lexus of the same basic vehicle. That is not the case anymore. This is more of that old traditional Land Cruiser style.
SPEAKER 01 :
It is. I mean, it’s related to the new Lexus GX in a way, but it’s different, right? But it’s not, yeah. Because that GX, you can get with a third row and such, and this Land Cruiser, you can’t. I’ll kind of get into the specifics, and then we’ll finish talking about the rest. Three trim levels, Dad, for this model year, 2024, 1958, which is, again, a throwback to kind of the no-nonsense, no-frills origin of the Land Cruiser. The medium edition, literally just called Land Cruiser, or the first edition, which is, you know, sort of… well, it’s what it sounds like, right? It’s kind of a special one. You can get some different things on it. You can spruce this vehicle up. The one we drove was not spruced up, right? It had cloth seats. It had, honestly, heck, it didn’t even have a power driver’s seat. I’m manually pumping myself up if I wanted to sit higher or lower myself down or scoot forward, whatever it might be there. It does have some things as far as dual-zone climate, but if you And it’s got a smaller center screen. Again, we drove the 1958 edition, I want to specify there, which, again, is supposed to be an ode to the older generation. As it sat, Dad, again, not a whole lot of options on it. As it sat, $60,790, which, again, you have to be the judge of it. I will say this. At our altitude, and I think off-road, which we didn’t get a chance to take it and we’re even limited in what we can or can’t do, This vehicle ran really well up here at our altitude, Dad, with the I-Force Max technology underneath the hood. This thing got up and went. It went when you wanted it to. Some people argue that the braking was a little bit subpar, but what I would say, Dad, is it’s still a big SUV. I mean, this is not a small car by any stretch of the imagination. So, again, it’s not meant to be a little sports car that’s going to be able to slam on the brakes in that sense. But they’ve done a nice job at allowing for some upgrades if you want to, depending on what you’re looking for. This particular model had a roof rack, had some rock rails on it. In terms of styling, Dad, it’s not like the Land Cruisers of yesteryear. It’s more modernized. Correct. It is. It’s got some sleek, a little bit boxy. Again, folks, if you’ve seen the new… Lexus GX is running around, you’ve seen it. But this is not the Land Cruiser of the outgoing model, Dad. And that’s not to say it’s a bad thing. And like you say, sort of an ode, and a lot of people are going to know this car, your Land Cruisers from many years ago. That’s kind of where they want to get back to, right? They want this thing to be the do-it-all car for you, the do-it-all SUV, right? You can take the kids to school and you can go off-road. You can take this thing camping. You can tow your camper, depending on how you want to do it. It really is meant to be that sport utility vehicle, right? The SUV. It’s really meant to do that in a lot of cases. And so I think they’ve done a nice job on it. My only, honestly, nitpick, Dad, is just for the 1958, you’re paying $60,000 for a car, and you don’t get any of the frills that I mentioned.
SPEAKER 02 :
Got it.
SPEAKER 01 :
But that’s just a personal experience, right? That’s more of my personal opinion. Some of you, Dad, and some of your listeners may say, hey, when I’m off-road and I’m doing some of this other stuff, I don’t want to mess with any of that, right? I don’t want to have the risk of my seat not working because I get some water in it or whatever it might be. So outside of that, very comfortable, quiet. The roof rack did add a little bit of wind noise driving down the road, but that’s to be expected pretty much on any vehicle when you start adding noise. some additional accessories, Dad, as far as that goes. Overall, was really pleased with it. Fuel economy, let me get that for folks really quick, was an average of 23. And again, this is partly, it’s a heavy vehicle, Dad, but due to that hybrid technology where you can actually hear and feel the engine, shut off at times. 22 city, 25 highway. And again, we were actually right there about 23, 24 miles per gallon. So for folks that want to learn more, they’re starting to get some leads on the dealership data. I’ve seen several of them driving around town. They are out there. We encourage folks to get out as we always do test drive it because what we think that and what we like or don’t like, someone may differ completely from that. And so that’s why we encourage you to get out to your Toyota dealership and let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is John Rush from Rush to Reason and Drive Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Check out more of our podcasts at RushToReason.com or Drive-Radio.com.
