Usually, I clock a car’s true character—its foibles, its strengths, and its rightful place in the motoring hierarchy—within a few months of living with it. But watching the taillights of my 2023 Toyota Land Cruiser disappear down the road for the final time, I found myself thoroughly conflicted. The initial novelty of piloting a gloriously antiquated, diesel-swilling behemoth on my daily motorway slog eventually wore incredibly thin.

Let’s get one thing straight right out of the gate: on the tarmac, automotive progress is a wonderful thing. You can be as cynical as you like about the modern SUV craze, but putting the Land Cruiser up against something like a new straight-six Land Rover Defender is a harsh reality check. The Toyota’s body-on-frame setup, vague steering, and that persistently grumbling 2.8-litre four-pot diesel feel decidedly archaic in isolation. The ride is a bizarre, fatiguing mix of floaty and jittery, and the fuel economy is so stubbornly dire that a simple pint at the local pub started to feel like a decadent luxury. On-road, it belongs in the history books. Sorry, but it’s true.

The Unstoppable Payoff

Take it off the beaten track, however, and the narrative flips completely. I’m absolutely no off-road guru, so I dragged the big Toyota down to a course with Surrey 4×4 Tours and Training. The instructors—dyed-in-the-wool Defender blokes, naturally—were genuinely gobsmacked by the Land Cruiser’s sheer capability.

It effectively features off-road cruise control. You just chuck the hefty dial into 4L, point the nose at a terrifyingly steep, muddy incline, and the computers and ABS sort the rest. It scrabbled through tight woodland gaps and hauled itself up banks even when I made the rookie mistake of starving it of throttle, all on standard all-terrain rubber rather than aggressive knobbly tyres. If you happen to be a highland farmer or you spend your weekends dragging horseboxes around Devon, you would feel utterly invincible in this thing year-round.

Inside, the cabin is a masterclass in chunky, hard-wearing practicality. Proper, physical manual buttons for absolutely everything—a vital lesson the touchscreen-obsessed industry desperately needs to relearn. The massive boot swallowed my mountain bike whole with both wheels still attached, and it genuinely seats seven adults without acting like a medieval torture device. Mind you, the optional Ivory leather and carpets are a disaster for muddy boots; they belong in a Dubai showroom, not damp Britain. And while the armchair seats are undeniably comfortable, the sheer ride height meant less mobile passengers—and certainly our poor family terrier—couldn’t conquer the 90cm climb into the cabin without a leg-up.

A Tale of Two Toyotas

I was fully prepared to sign off this long-term test by concluding that the Land Cruiser was a brilliant one-trick pony, hopelessly outclassed by the Defender everywhere but a muddy rut. But just before we went to press, Toyota pulled the wraps off the new generation of the Land Cruiser, fixing almost precisely everything I’d been moaning about. It’s brilliant to see a manufacturer actively listening and finding a clear path forward.

And this relentless momentum isn’t just limited to their rugged off-roaders. Look at how Toyota handles its modern, mass-market fleet globally. While the Land Cruiser has always relied on bomb-proof mechanicals that thrive on neglect, Toyota’s broader strategy leans heavily into electrified tech and meticulous, pampered customer care.

Take the All-New RAV4. They’ve recently rolled it out over in South Korea, complete with a genuinely sporty PHEV GR SPORT trim that proves plug-in hybrids don’t have to be tedious to drive. To ensure these tech-heavy family haulers don’t miss a beat during the brutal summer monsoon season, Toyota Korea launched a rather comprehensive service campaign running right through to mid-July.

It’s a stark contrast to the typical maintenance of a traditional 4×4. Here is a quick look at the perks they’re throwing at owners to keep things ticking over smoothly:

• The ‘Essentials’ Kit: This covers smart air conditioning filters, Air Care systems, air cleaner elements, fresh wiper blades, and 12V batteries to keep those power-hungry hybrid systems happy.

As Toyota Korea’s Vice President Kang Dae-hwan noted, the whole exercise is about guaranteeing top-tier vehicle condition regardless of the weather, providing a professional, reassuring safety net for modern drivers.

We’re left with a rather brilliant dichotomy. On one hand, you have the rugged, mechanical purity of the outgoing Land Cruiser—a vehicle built to survive the apocalypse. On the other, you have the highly-strung, modern PHEV RAV4 that benefits from heavily subsidised, preventative summer pampering. Toyota seems quite happy playing both sides of the fence, catering to the old-school grafters and the new-age urbanites alike. And frankly, they’re pulling it off rather well.