Toyota Land Cruiser Estate 2003 - Present

While it may have two bigger brothers in the V8 and the Amazon the Land Cruiser is still an enormous vehicle. That it's the smallest of the three is more an indication of the ridiculous state of one upmanship on British roads currently, as it offers ample room for 8 (eight) people, yes OK the three in the back row will have to be either dwarves or children, but how often do you take two volleyball teams out to the beach?

The first impression of the Land Cruiser is one of awe, and mild concern as you climb into the drivers seat, you can't help wondering how well you're going to be able to drive it with little experience of such large vehicles.
As you take it onto the road the handling does nothing to allay those fears as the road manners leave you with a sense of worry. The suspension is a bit too lively to engender confidence and there as a element of body roll that you feel all to acutely when you take a corner at anything live an aggressive pace. These vagaries of handling are instantly dispensed with once you take the Big Toyota off road, where all of the handling issues suddenly make perfect sense. The soft suspension will take anything that the road can throw up and leave the Land Cruiser hungry for more. The cabin feels as if it can almost self level in order to keep the passengers steady in their seats. There are a host of useful gadgets to make even the most challenging terrain bow to the Cruisers ability. With Hill Start Assist Control and Downhill Assist Control, you'll never have any trouble going either up of downhill again.

The engine options are all pretty big and each more than able to punch it's own weight; starting with the 3.0 diesel motor. At launch it pumped out 161 bhp, which was increased to 171 bhp on 2007. the torque figures were also increased from 253 to 302 lb-ft, giving you ample guts to pull your mate in their soft roader out of that hole they're stuck in. none of the engine options are going to give you much eco bragging rights with a best figure of 31 mpg from the 3.0 model and a worst of 20 mpg from the 4.0 unit. They are all great performers and none of the engines can be accused of falling short in their performance.

The Toyota Land Cruiser represents a very clever piece of kit and offers a great deal of versatility but as it's more at home off road is there much point in getting one for the school run?

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