2018 Toyota Land Cruiser Review

The 2018 Toyota Land Cruiser is a vehicle intended to go literally anywhere. Any terrain, any climate, any country — it can handle it. Warning stickers inside are even printed in English, Japanese, Russian and Arabic, driving the point across that it can be used by any adventurous driver.

Its immense capabilities stem from a stout body-on-frame chassis, full-time four-wheel drive, Toyota's bag of off-road tech tricks and a strong V8 engine. All of this is further backed up by a legendary and hard-earned reputation for reliability based on decades of service in every corner of the world.

So whether you're traversing a glacier in Iceland or oven-baked sand in Death Valley, the Land Cruiser will get the job done. It also does this while cosseting you in a leather-lined, fully loaded cabin that makes this Toyota a fully fledged luxury vehicle.

However, if the only terrain you intend to cross is the local interstate and perhaps a Costco parking lot, the Land Cruiser doesn't make any sense. It gets only 15 mpg in combined city and highway driving, which is terrible even by full-size SUV standards. It's big, heavy and has slow steering, reducing its maneuverability and compromising its on-road handling relative to a large crossover.

Then there's the cabin — the second row is mounted a bit too low for comfort and its otherwise hilarious degree of recline is reduced to almost nil when the third-row seats are folded up against the cargo area walls. And, yes, that means the third row doesn't fold into the floor. It, therefore, still takes up cargo space when not in place, and when it is, it's not as if many humans will be able to comfortably fit back there or easily reach it. "Compromised" would be the word to sum it up best.

But, for a select few, the 2018 Land Cruiser is an absolutely perfect tool for their adventurous lifestyles.

The 2018 Toyota Land Cruiser is an eight-passenger luxury SUV offered in one fully loaded trim level. Every Land Cruiser also comes with a 5.7-liter V8 engine that produces 381 horsepower and 401 pound-feet of torque. It is paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission and a full-time four-wheel-drive system.

Other off-roading components include a locking center differential, Toyota's Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS, a decoupling stabilizer bar), Crawl Control (a low-speed off-road cruise control), Multi-Terrain Select (off-road vehicle settings), hill start assist, skid plates and tow hooks.

Standard exterior equipment includes 18-inch wheels, LED exterior lighting, automatic high beams, power-folding and auto-dimming mirrors, automatic wipers, a windshield wiper de-icer, roof rails, running boards, and an integrated towing hitch receiver and wiring harness.

Inside, you get a sunroof, keyless ignition and entry, four-zone automatic climate control, leather upholstery, heated and ventilated power-adjustable front seats, driver-seat memory functions, 40/20/40-split second-row seats (folds, reclines and slides), 50/50-split third-row seats, a heated power-adjustable steering wheel, and a cooler box under the front center armrest.

Tech features include adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, a surround-view parking camera system, wireless smartphone charging, a USB port, a 9-inch touchscreen interface, Bluetooth, a navigation system, voice controls, Toyota's Entune smartphone app suite, and a 14-speaker JBL sound system with a CD player and satellite radio.

The only factory option is a rear-seat entertainment system that includes two display screens mounted to the front seatbacks.