2024 Toyota Land Cruiser consumer reviews

Reading some of the reviews here on Cars.com, and I get the impression folks bought the wrong car. This Land Cruiser is perfect. Toyota stripped out luxury, got away from a 90k luxo-barge, and built and off-road SUV. "the ride can be rough/stiff at times"; it's body on frame, for good reason! The suspension articulation, ramp angle, etc... beat the pants of a unibody SUV. "The transmission is jerky..." for a few thousand miles; once it learns your driving style, it smooths out (my '23 Alfa Romeo with the ZF 8-speed did the same thing). Hybrid systems are complex, and once the vehicle learns where you throttle off/on, brake, how firmly you accelerate, it behaves much better. "The hybrid offer rubbish fuel mileage"; first - blame the Federal Govt and CAFE for everyone switching to hybrids. second - if you actually take it off-road, you'll discover the brilliance of having electric motor torque at low speed while crawling... much better low-speed control than even my old LC100 with a V-8. "the interior plastics are cheap"; Toyota made a decision to use long-wearing, durable materials, and keep the cost down, so we could get an excellent off-roader for 55k (a little more than the average selling price of a car in America), instead of 90k (previous gen LC200 luxo-barge). Bottom line, if you want the luxo-barge, get the GX... the V-6 won't work as hard, has a larger tank, it has leather, and a trick suspension that smooths out body-on-frame ride characteristics... if you want a rugged off-roader, without stuff to break, and don't plan on being precious about it... the current gen Land Cruiser is a bargain, checks all the right boxes, and has reliability the Wrangler and Bronco can only dream about.

I guess I was expecting better. But this seems underpowered and has awkward shifting mechanics -- also it's super hard to get the stated MPG. Maybe if I had bumped up to the upper-level trims it would be a better long term vehicle.

Here is my honest review of the new Toyota Land Cruiser after 6 months of ownership. If I had to summarize my opinion about this car in one word, it would be "disappointing". Terrible fuel economy (19-20 mpg) AND requires Premium gas. Uncomfortable ride and noisy at any speed. Cheap plastic interior. Small cargo space and absolutely no storage space in the cabin - only tiny central console and tiny glovebox. Doesn't even have a place to put your sunglasses. The engine is noisy and unrefined, transmission is jerky. Wind noise above 60 mph is terrible. Stay away. I'm trading in mine as I write this review.

Got a First edition trim. The hybrid system is garbage. It needs the GX 550 6 cylinder engine. Trnasmission is clunky and kicks hard when shifting. The first edition trim interior is amazing, but the rear bunper plastic hinge cover is hirrible, its separating from the bumper, has a gap. The value is brutal, I should’ve gotten an overtrail for the same money I paid for this one. The car feels slow. Toyota messed up with this hybrid engines. The spare tire sticks out too much due to the battery pack in the back. It takes space from the truck and deleted third row seats. Needs thrid row seats instead of battery pack. The diesel engine in the Japan model would be better option as well as their gas model.

The car is pretty good but has some issues. The dash is very glitchy. Things work... some of the time. The HVAC system is bad... I can set it to auto and 62 and never get cold. Auto brights is useless in town. Cruise control tells you to grab the steering wheel while you are holding it. The car is unstable under normal braking (maybe the hybrid nonsense)? Sometimes the care shutters very hard when shifting into reverse. Everything bad can probably be fixed with updates but who knows if Toyota will fix it. If they fix it and loose the hybrid for the V6 from the gx550 (same car) it would be worth buying.