|
 There is a reason why the Land Cruiser is the largest selling SUV across all segments in the Middle East and the most preferred vehicle amongst the Taliban. In a region known for the harshest terrains and the hottest climates , you will find this SUV going about its duty without a fuss , a protest or fatigue. They swear by it – what the Hummer was to the US Army or the Jeep to Hitler , the Toyota Land Cruiser is to the Middle East. Be it exploring the sand dunes on a weekend , dropping the kids off to school or ambushing US military troops , it never fails , never lets you down and stands by you like a faithful companion. Search You Tube and you will also come across Arabs drifting or driving the bloody beast on two wheels! One of the most dependable and true-blue Sports Utility Vehicles in the world had me impressed even before Sarmad (my Mumbai colleague) pulled into the office parking lot. The freaking huge chunk of metal didn’t fit into the allotted space in the basement! Say hello to Toyota’s temple of tumescence.
 We Indians have a liking for big things. Size matters for us. We want our ladies to be sumptuous , cell phones to be flashy and cars (or SUVs) to be huge. And up north , we simply love big SUVs. North Indians swear by Tata Safaris and Ford Endeavours , second hand Pajeros and imported Prados! The eight-generation Land Cruiser is like a mini giant on wheels with a huge road presence. Over the years , it has never stopped growing. Numerous iterations have seen it creep , millimeter by millimeter , upwards and outwards , to become the absolute barge arse of big 4WDs around the world.
You simply can’t ignore it on the road. There is no over the board Nissan Murano-like experiments with styling here , rather just a clean modernization of the concept. It looks imposing and the boldly stylish front end treatment firmly establishes this SUV’s steadfast , regal presence. The horizontally stacked grille is again , huge , flanked on either side by large sized headlamps. There are no sharp angles here , rather big chunks of muscular lines flowing to the rear of the vehicle. Frankly , we didn’t expect the Land Cruiser to stand a chance in the wake of modern and sharper looking SUVs from the Germans. However , during my two day stint with it , it got more attraction on the road than we anticipated.
 Step or rather climb in and you’ll feel as if you are looking down on the road from the first floor of your house. Toyota have even placed grabrails on the inside of the A pillars to help shorter people get in. It won’t take long for you to realize that every item of convenience known to the driving public has been accommodated in a mature fashion with sensible controls laid out in an unostentatious manner. The touch screen display in the center looks good and displays a wealth of information. Then there is an added sporty touch of the star/stop button! What the heck – it also has a cooler box to keep your beverages chilled. Punjabis are sure going to love this machine. The blue numericals in the speedometer console add a touch of bling. The leather cum wooden steering wheel feels great and as expected , has controls for various functions. Everything falls into your hand as if the vehicle was tailor made and even before we reached our photo shoot location , the cabin’s coddling confines and sumptuous accommodations had us hooked. The overly black inside might not be to everyone’s liking , but for me , it screams luxury. It takes time registering all the buttons in front of you and around the gear lever but each one is there for a reason. Control the ride height , switch between four-by-four high or low , switch off the traction control for some fun or switch on the hill descent function to ride down mountains.
Passenger comfort is top notch. This vehicle leaves no stone unturned to make you feel pampered. Take for instance , the four zone climate control that has no less than 28 outlets  to ensure a comfortable cabin environment even if it’s burning like hell outside. The second row feels even better with acres of leg room though we were a tad disappointed with the relatively cramped third row – best for kids or small adults.
The Land Cruiser’s cabin spoils you to no end , so much so that you doubt if the wood-trimmed , leather-wrapped , three-row luxury SUV can undertake hardcore off-roading. The pictures across these pages bear testimony to its capabilities. Enough time on hand and the Ed on leave , meant that i could indulge myself in taming the mammoth animal , sweating it out around Pune’s hills. Stream crossing , quarry exploring and even scaling up a mountain via a narrow dirt path , the Land Cruiser’s conventional body on ladder chassis plus the electronics made sure it happily took everything in its stride. The SUV ably deflected my best efforts to unsettle it. Toyota’s Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System enables the front and rear anti-roll bars to stiffen or relax automatically as and when the sensors determine changes in traction. Off the road , this lets the Land Cruiser corner flatter and provides four more inches of up-and-down movement for the wheels. Once back on tarmac , the system automatically disengages. It even climbed up a rocky incline (without engaging 4L mind you) only for me to stop before the rocks got big enough to threaten the underbelly. Which is when with a press of a button , the body moved up by a few centimeters (this feature , we are told , might not be on offer in India) and with the crawl system activated , I easily drove over the rocks to the other side. All this time , my colleagues almost had their mouths wide open in disbelief.
 Drive the heavy vehicle at high speeds over undulations and the suspension does a mighty good job of absorbing the imperfections. There is so much torque at play that you really don’t have to bother about losing steam on gradients. There is a sudden gush of power , however , it is well controlled with a linear flow which is ever so helpful while on loose gravel or sand. However , the porky vehicle’s limitations crop up once you hit the highway and drive hard around long flowing curves. There is no way you can drive this thing like other premium SUVs out there. It moves like a boat and you have keep correcting the steering to make it stay on the road. The protest from the tyres further makes you want to back off and instead drive her sanely , more like a big bore cruiser. The Land Cruiser feels at home on straights , munching away miles at a fast pace. The suspension is soft , soaks in bumps and that helps to a great extent in forgiving it for its inadequacy to perform around corners.
Toyota has gone the right way by getting the 4.5-litre V8 oil burner for the Indian market. At over 280 horses and a Himalaya scaling 650Nm of torque , you are never short on power. The engine is mated to a six-speed auto ‘box with an option for manual override. Pedal to metal , naught to a ton comes up in under eleven seconds which is hugely decent for a 2720kg SUV running on extra wide 285mm tyres. What these specs don’t tell you is how silky smooth and quiet this engine is on the highway. Only when you stomp the pedal for more power do you hear a muted yet mellifluous snarl from under the hood. At such speeds , she drinks a litre of fuel every eight kilometers , the figure comes down to around five in the city.
Few SUVs are as well-known around the globe as the Toyota Land Cruiser. No matter how accomplished an off-roader it might be or how luxurious , over pampering and spacious the interiors , as some put it , there is a huge chink in the armor here. Blame it on the grey imports or the Prados that we see in metro cities , but didn’t most of us always think about the Land Cruiser as an Rs 50-60 lakh SUV? Isn’t it sold in the States for just over Rs 30 lakh? Comparing its pricing with the German rivals makes you start thinking if Toyota has played the pricing game wrong. Sure it is loaded to the brim with features and functions (including ten airbags) that would shame the rivals , but at close to a crore on the road , we think the pricing is and will be the only factor keeping enthusiasts , rich businessmen and bureaucrats as well as maybe even the mafia away from spending their dosh on a true blue luxury SUV. Unless you are one of those who are ready to spend anything to live with a low mileage , monolithic size and amorphous shaped vehicle that will climb mountains like a Sherpa , cuddle you in utter comfort and probably outlive its driver.
|
You simply can’t ignore it on the road. There is no over the board Nissan Murano-like experiments with styling here , rather just a clean modernization of the concept. It looks imposing and the boldly stylish front end treatment firmly establishes this SUV’s steadfast , regal presence. The horizontally stacked grille is again , huge , flanked on either side by large sized headlamps. There are no sharp angles here , rather big chunks of muscular lines flowing to the rear of the vehicle. Frankly , we didn’t expect the Land Cruiser to stand a chance in the wake of modern and sharper looking SUVs from the Germans. However , during my two day stint with it , it got more attraction on the road than we anticipated.
Passenger comfort is top notch. This vehicle leaves no stone unturned to make you feel pampered. Take for instance , the four zone climate control that has no less than 28 outlets
to ensure a comfortable cabin environment even if it’s burning like hell outside. The second row feels even better with acres of leg room though we were a tad disappointed with the relatively cramped third row – best for kids or small adults.
The Land Cruiser’s cabin spoils you to no end , so much so that you doubt if the wood-trimmed , leather-wrapped , three-row luxury SUV can undertake hardcore off-roading. The pictures across these pages bear testimony to its capabilities. Enough time on hand and the Ed on leave , meant that i could indulge myself in taming the mammoth animal , sweating it out around Pune’s hills. Stream crossing , quarry exploring and even scaling up a mountain via a narrow dirt path , the Land Cruiser’s conventional body on ladder chassis plus the electronics made sure it happily took everything in its stride. The SUV ably deflected my best efforts to unsettle it. Toyota’s Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System enables the front and rear anti-roll bars to stiffen or relax automatically as and when the sensors determine changes in traction. Off the road , this lets the Land Cruiser corner flatter and provides four more inches of up-and-down movement for the wheels. Once back on tarmac , the system automatically disengages. It even climbed up a rocky incline (without engaging 4L mind you) only for me to stop before the rocks got big enough to threaten the underbelly. Which is when with a press of a button , the body moved up by a few centimeters (this feature , we are told , might not be on offer in India) and with the crawl system activated , I easily drove over the rocks to the other side. All this time , my colleagues almost had their mouths wide open in disbelief.
Toyota has gone the right way by getting the 4.5-litre V8 oil burner for the Indian market. At over 280 horses and a Himalaya scaling 650Nm of torque , you are never short on power. The engine is mated to a six-speed auto ‘box with an option for manual override. Pedal to metal , naught to a ton comes up in under eleven seconds which is hugely decent for a 2720kg SUV running on extra wide 285mm tyres. What these specs don’t tell you is how silky smooth and quiet this engine is on the highway. Only when you stomp the pedal for more power do you hear a muted yet mellifluous snarl from under the hood. At such speeds , she drinks a litre of fuel every eight kilometers , the figure comes down to around five in the city.
Few SUVs are as well-known around the globe as the Toyota Land Cruiser. No matter how accomplished an off-roader it might be or how luxurious , over pampering and spacious the interiors , as some put it , there is a huge chink in the armor here. Blame it on the grey imports or the Prados that we see in metro cities , but didn’t most of us always think about the Land Cruiser as an Rs 50-60 lakh SUV? Isn’t it sold in the States for just over Rs 30 lakh? Comparing its pricing with the German rivals makes you start thinking if Toyota has played the pricing game wrong. Sure it is loaded to the brim with features and functions (including ten airbags) that would shame the rivals , but at close to a crore on the road , we think the pricing is and will be the only factor keeping enthusiasts , rich businessmen and bureaucrats as well as maybe even the mafia away from spending their dosh on a true blue luxury SUV. Unless you are one of those who are ready to spend anything to live with a low mileage , monolithic size and amorphous shaped vehicle that will climb mountains like a Sherpa , cuddle you in utter comfort and probably outlive its driver.
Content courtesy:
Good
waw what a car...