Toyota LandCruiser VX 2022 review: off-road test

Ah yes, price. Now, at the risk of scaring the chickens, the starting point for the LandCruiser range is now a coffee and donut less than $90,000. And that's for what we used to call the 'mine-spec' or 'police-spec' variant with rubber mats and steel wheels.

The $101,790 GXL is next but still has you in cloth seats and it misses out on a couple of new safety features.

But the VX addresses those perceived shortcomings with synthetic leather trim, heated and ventilated front seats, four-zone climate control, a bigger 12.3-inch media screen, 10-speaker stereo, a sunroof, 260-degree cameras, daytime-running lights, specific (shiny) alloy wheels to match the silver grille and those extra safety aids, namely automatic wipers and reverse autonomous braking.

The VX addresses comes with synthetic leather trim, and heated and ventilated front seats.

That's on top of Toyota's 'Multi-Terrain Select' and 'Multi-Terrain Monitor' systems. The former allows the driver to select the mode appropriate for the conditions (sand, mud, gravel, snow and rocks) and have the vehicle tailor the responses of its dampers, ride-height, traction-control, braking and torque distribution to suit. The terrain monitoring system, meanwhile, is a network of cameras that shows the driver a view of anything around, near or even under the vehicle that's likely to be an obstacle.

All yours for $113,990. At which point, most buyers and likely to give the even pricier VX Sahara and GR-Sport variants a wide berth.

With no less than seven seats, the VX plays a pretty good practicality card right from the word go. Like most two-three-two layouts of course, the rearmost row is best left to smaller folk who will be better able to wriggle their way in and be comfortable when they get there. They will, however, be treated with USB outlets and cupholders as well as air vents and a decent view out.

The LandCruiser also suffers the usual cargo space problems with all seats occupied when the luggage area shrinks to a narrow space suitable for a couple of soft bags and an umbrella. Fold the rear row down and you're suddenly looking at 1004 litres of space or as much as 1967 litres with both rear rows folded and/or tumbled.

Better news is that the third row now folds flat into the floor, rather than swinging up to the side as per the previous model. That's also a bonus for those who tour with a fridge in the rear as that piece of equipment can now be mounted closer to the side of the vehicle, rather than having to allow for the fold-up third row seats.

Less rosy is that the packed underbonnet will need a fairly serious rearrangement of the furniture under there to accommodate a second battery to power that fridge. The alternative will be to mount a sealed battery under the second-row seats (maybe). Whichever, it will be interesting to see how end users and the aftermarket tackle these issues.

With no less than seven seats, the VX plays a pretty good practicality card right from the word go.

And it could be just us, but the front door openings seem a bit on the small side, making for some slight contortions when entering from the side-step. The header-rail seems awfully close during this manoeuvre, but at least there are plenty of grab-handles.

Our other observation involves the synthetic trim on the seats and other touch-points. It looks like leather, but it feels distinctly synthetic. One out to two ain't bad.

On the basis that Australian's love to accessorise their off-roaders, Toyota has stocked dealerships with just about every kind of factory-approved bull-bar, bonnet protector, roof rack and bash-plate imaginable.

Like most two-three-two layouts of course, the rearmost row is best left to smaller folk who will be better able to wriggle their way in and be comfortable when they get there.

Much has been made of Toyota's move from a 4.5-litre turbo-diesel V8 to a 3.3-litre V6 diesel, also with twin turbochargers. Many lovers of the old V8 diesel have expressed a view that a smaller V6 will never match the larger engine.

Toyota begs to disagree. In fact, with a power output of 227kW and torque of 700Nm, the new engine outpowers the old V8 by any yardstick.

The new engine is also interesting for its layout. The hot-side-in design places the two turbochargers and their plumbing inside the vee of the engine rather than hanging them off each side. This means a shorter distance between the cylinder head and the turbocharger for improved throttle response, as well as giving Toyota the opportunity of packaging the same engine in a smaller engine bay.

With a power output of 227kW and torque of 700Nm, the new engine outpowers the old V8 by any yardstick.

There's only one transmission choice; a 10-speed conventional automatic with a torque converter.

While Toyota does offer differential locks on its really expensive model as well as the extremely clever 'Kinetic Suspension System 'with active sway-bars, none of that is included on the VX. In fact, it's not even available as an option, at any price.

That leaves the VX with a locking centre differential as well as its full-time four-wheel drive system that includes low-ratio gears in the transfer-case. Of course, combine that with the independent front suspension and live rear axle, and you have a pretty classic formula for a capable off-roader.

It's usually seen as a compliment, but your first impressions of the LandCruiser from the driver's seat is that it isn't as vast as you thought it might be. That extends to not only the way it drives – and visibility is very good – but also to the look and feel of the actual interior. The high centre-stack and high dashboard line probably add to the impression of compactness, not to mention the fairly unrelenting black trim of our test car.

What isn't so great is the way the switchgear is laid out. There seems to be an awful lot of switches, but no real acknowledgement that any one is more important than the others. The dark-chrome buttons on the steering wheel also seem to attract stray reflections, rendering their base-relief graphics indecipherable. The push-down volume-up button is also an ergonomic mystery.

With keyless entry and start, a starter-button is placed high on the dash and cranks things over after a small cold-start delay to run the glow-plugs. The soundtrack of the V6 is clearly high-tech for a diesel, but still very much a diesel. And while you simply can't argue with the efficiency nor potency of the new engine, there's also no doubt that it lacks a little of the charm (or, more precisely, character) of the old V8 turbo-diesel.

It’s usually seen as a compliment, but your first impressions of the LandCruiser from the driver’s seat is that it isn’t as vast as you thought it might be.

The fact is, the LC300 is so quiet in every other way, that you will hear some typically diesel harmonics when the engine is under load or revving hard. It's never terrible, but it's there, although at a steady cruising speed, there's virtually no mechanical noise whatsoever. Part of that is the tall gearing that sees just 1400rpm at 100km/h in ninth gear. Why not 10th gear? Because the gearing is so tall that, at Aussie cruising speeds, the Cruiser will almost never select top gear.

Suspension-wise, there's a small amount of jiggling when crossing small-amplitude bumps. This is down to the suspension rates required to control so much weight carried so high, but it remains that as speeds rise and the bumps become larger, the Toyota starts to cope better. The steering, meantime, is calibrated to work off-road, so can feel a little distant and remote on road. But the turning circle is tiny for such a big machine and makes life easier in the city.

Overall, the LandCruiser is a much more precise, accurate vehicle than its size and off-road smarts would suggest. It's no high-performance SUV, but then it was never meant to be.

The improved efficiency of the new V6 engine has meant Toyota could reduce the capacity of the LandCruiser's fuel tanks and still achieve an acceptable range (one of the major reasons off-roaders tend to be diesel-powered in this country). And since fuel range is such a huge issue in Australia, that's worth investigating.

With a main tank of 80 litres and a sub-tank of 30, the new Cruiser's total is well down on the previous model's 138 litres. But when you drag out the calculator, you can see that the 200 Series' combined fuel number of 9.5 litres per 100km, would have given it a theoretical range of just over 1300km. The new vehicle, based on its combined number of 8.9 litres per 100km and 110-litre tank, should still be good for better than 1000km.

In the real world, the 300 Series is much better placed to achieve its on-paper figure, too (the 200 was never as frugal as its official numbers suggested) so the difference is probably even less than it looks here.

Toyota's new-car warranty for the LandCruiser changed from three years to five years back in 2019. The factory warranty also includes unlimited kilometres, so the brand is about equal with its main competitors on this subject.

Where the 300 Series is not so strong is in terms of its service intervals. Basically, Toyota recommends servicing about twice as often as some of the opposition, with 10,000km/six-month intervals. That's offset a little by the capped-price servicing available for $375 for the first 10 services (five years' worth). But the bigger issue for fleets and business customers is going to be the down-time associated with that service regime.

Toyota’s new-car warranty for the LandCruiser changed from three years to five years back in 2019.