Weekend Athlete: 2008 Toyota Land Cruiser
Based on its size, one could be forgiven for thinking — as I did — that it would cruise through the Weekend Athlete compulsories, but it was surprisingly deficient.
The load floor was hard to access because of the tailgate’s clamshell design. When you open it, the bottom section juts out, and it’s awkward to reach over it to fish stuff out of the cargo area. It can also make it hard to put bulky items in there.
I don’t know if it’s the height of the cargo area or how long the bottom part of the clamshell is, but I do know Kelsey Mays is about 6 feet tall … and I’m about the same height, so it’s not like I’m too short to load stuff. I think it’s just a poorly executed design. Shorter athletes will want to give it a look. Heck, even taller people should check it out.
Ditto for the second row. You flop the seat forward then secure it upright using tethers that stow underneath the seat and attach to the second-row grab handles. If you think it’s hard to explain, it’s not much easier to do. The heavy seats don’t ever click into place or anything, they just sort of sit there and feel like they could topple back into place until you secure them with the tethers.
Thing is, Honda uses a similar tether setup to hold the seats out of the way on its Element — the second-row seats fold up to the sides of the car — but Honda’s system felt better integrated. It’s just more intuitive and stows more securely. Toyota should have looked at Honda’s setup before letting the Land Cruiser out into the world.
Of course, because the Land Cruiser is so much bigger than the Element, and other cars, its cargo area is massive and it is an easy five-person camper. (That “large” thing again.) What’s interesting is that when the seats are stowed, little pieces of plastic can be inserted to cover the holes where the seat latches are. It would even make for a smooth cargo load floor – not a big deal for me, but if it is for you, enjoy!
Our test model came with parking sensors that were most welcome. They, combined with the rearview camera, made parking this beast easier. Oh, and the navigation screen was the biggest and easiest to read of any I’ve used. Those are a couple things that would be welcome treats after a hard day racing or a long day out in the woods.
Even so, this is really not the right tool for the job. I don’t have kids, sure, and I don’t need to go offroad or tow … and as long as I don’t have to, I won’t pick this car. But even if I did, I just can’t see this as a Weekend Athlete car. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that our test vehicle stickered at more than $71,000! I mean, seriously! You could fly to all your races for that price.
I’d honestly rather have a Scion xB. With its jutting, jaw-like front bumper, it looks more Popeye than Bluto anyway.
Weekend Athlete Scores (out of 10)
Ease of loading gear – 5: Technically, loading is a breeze — just stand back and chuck your stuff in there. It’s when you have to fish it out by leaning over the clamshell that you have the problem — or if, you know, you’re not loading something you want to throw in there. That’s doubly true if you’re shorter.
Ease of seat operation – 4: The straps feel cheap, every seat is heavy and I’m still wondering why the heck they made the second row fold the way they did.
Bike hauling – 2: For this size, you should practically be able to ride the bike in the back. Loading it isn’t easy, though, because of the clamshell and the load-floor height
Locker room cred – 2: Maybe if you have kids, like to tow or whatever, this is your thing. But our model stickered at $71,103! You could buy a lot of spinach with that money.
All-around – 3: It’s not easy, it’s not fun — but it is large.
