Toyota Land Cruiser 200 VX-R: Retro motoring in the modern era

By Martin Pretorius 

Land Cruisers didn't start out as luxury vehicles. In the early 1950s, Toyota came up with the bright idea of marrying a four-wheel-drive truck chassis with a large-displacement engine, in the process creating a legend from a very simple concept. Why was it so successful? Because it would go anywhere, last a very long time, and was simple enough for anyone with a bag of spanners to fix. Early Land Cruisers weren't comfortable or luxurious (and most modern-day bakkies still aren't!), but they were tough and dependable, and when you're hundreds of kilometres away from a service centre, that counts for a lot.

Eventually, Toyota decided to follow in the footsteps of such pioneers as the Jeep Grand Wagoneer and GMC Suburban, and combined the Land Cruiser's rugged running gear with some contemporary luxuries in a station wagon body, to take aim at a new, status-driven market. They stuck to this formula through multiple subsequent model changes, adding modern convenience features as time went by, but always keeping to the original recipe: it remained a rugged, off-road-capable wagon with a luxurious cabin.

Then it got crowded at the top…

For most of the 1980s and 1990s, the Land Cruiser Wagon shared its market segment with only two other serious competitors: the similarly-conceived Nissan Patrol and the Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen, both of which also started moving into the luxury sphere around the same time. The Range Rover was a significantly more upmarket offering, while the smaller SUVs such as the Pajero and Discovery catered for a far more lifestyle-oriented market. Meanwhile, newcomers such as BMW started fielding their X5, and Mercedes launched another threat in the form of the ML-Class.

While most of these new opponents couldn’t boast of the off-road abilities of the Cruiser or its original opponents, they (especially the Germans) did offer something else: a shiny, prestigious badge. Who cared if they couldn't match the Cruiser out in the bush? They looked the part, and had almost car-like driving dynamics. As it turned out, this combination of attributes eventually became more important than outright go-anywhere abilities.

Times have changed

These days, everybody is cashing in: Lamborghini has their variation on this theme, as does Bentley, and BMW and Mercedes are getting close to releasing their fourth-generation offerings by now. Meanwhile, the Land Cruiser has been soldiering on, essentially unchanged, for more than a decade.

In this market dominated by unitary construction, high-performance engines and sporty driving dynamics, the Land Cruiser is still conceptually the same as it was three decades ago. Was this a wise direction for Toyota's most prestigious product to take, or has modern trends rendered it obsolete? Is it stuck in the past, chained down by its own history, or does the Land Cruiser still make sense in the modern era?

It certainly looks imposing enough

No Land Cruiser wagon has ever been shy and retiring in the looks department, and the 200-series VX-R is no different. While it's not an exceedingly long vehicle (just squeezing in below the five-metre mark), it's very wide and very tall, with both these dimensions measuring almost two metres. The styling makes full use of this width, with a blunt, chromed grille bracketed by equally shiny headlights, leading into a squared-off bonnet and fenders with all manner of scallops and bulges in their surface detailing.

The rear-end is considerably more subdued, although LED elements in the taillights add some visual interest. Overall, the Cruiser 200 makes its presence felt through its sheer size and blocky, no-nonsense profile, but it would be a bit of a stretch to call it beautiful. Rather go for imposing – regal, even – and with a sense of respectability to its shape, mainly because it looks very much like the older wagons which forged its heritage.

The cabin is quite nice…

In the black-and-cream colour scheme applied to our test car's interior, there's a certain measure of discreet luxury to the cabin's ambience. Most of the surfaces are soft to the touch, and it's all very well-made, but there's no denying the age of its design. There are a multitude of switches and rotary dials scattered all over the dashboard and centre console, with no iDrive-like controller dial to be found anywhere.

The interior detailing is rather subtle: there's just enough brightwork to provide some visual distraction, and strips of matte-finish wooden trim define the border between the black upper section and cream lower area and frame the centre console. The only concession to modernity is a large touchscreen display perched atop the centre console, with its control functions accessed via the horizontal row of buttons just below.

Luxury features include full leather upholstery, 4-zone climate control, electric adjustment for the front seats (with 3-position memory for the driver), heated- and cooled front seats, and head middle-row seats. A refrigerated compartment inside the centre console is a thoughtful touch, even if it does reduce the available oddment stowage inside the passenger compartment.

The technology is... mostly there

That touch-screen is a bit of a give-away, as its graphics quality is out of step with modern standards, with a rather grainy display and a clunky user interface. In addition to the usual (standard) navigation and audio system displays, the centre screen also acts as a supplementary interface for the air-con system and surround-view cameras.

The importance of those cameras shouldn't be underestimated, as it's quite difficult to judge the Cruiser's extremities when parking and off-roading, largely due to its sheer size. Other driver aids include parking sensors all round, and a driver's side rear-view mirror which tilts downwards when reverse gear is selected.

There are all manner of other gadgets as well, such as a lane departure warning system and adaptive (radar-guided) cruise control. Just a pity that the cruise control disengages at low speed, as a traffic jam assistant would have been most helpful. In the same vein, the lane departure warning doesn't help to keep the Cruiser on course, it merely beeps to alert the driver when it's about to cross lane markers. The blind-spot monitoring and forward collision warning systems work very well, though.

As for the headlights' high beam assistant, it's mainly a nice idea, because its usefulness is restricted by slow responses and erratic behaviour. Far better to perform high/low beam selection from the stalk, to take full advantage of those excellent LED headlights.

That engine is a bit of a beast!

Because the petrol V8 was dropped during its 2015 facelift, South African Land Cruiser 200s are only available in 4.5-litre V8 turbo-diesel format, tuned to produce 195 kW and 650 Nm in the latest VX-R (increases of 22 kW and 30 Nm from the older VX variant). This isn't a performance diesel in the vein of Volkswagen's Touareg V8 TDI, preferring a more-leisurely approach to doing its thing.

Performance is further blunted by the Cruiser 200's significant kerb weight of 2740 kg (a good half-ton more than the VW) and the fact that there's only six ratios in the smooth-shifting but rather slow-witted automatic gearbox. As a result, acceleration is quite leisurely. Following a noticeable period of take-off lag, the big diesel politely takes the bit between the teeth to get up to 100 km/h in a claimed 8.9 seconds, en route to a limited top speed of 210 km/h. It’s not really an economy star either, returning an average fuel consumption of 13.6 litres/100 km during our test period – yet another effect of the Cruiser’s hefty build.

On the road, the acceleration feels far more leisurely than that sprint time suggests, but in-gear acceleration is quite robust thanks to all that torque. That said, there's just about as much power as the rather old-fashioned chassis can handle...

The suspension has a difficult life…

It might have independent front suspension and a reasonably contemporary multi-link coil sprung live rear axle, but the chassis has to work very hard to meet the conflicting requirements of off-road prowess and on-road comfort in a very heavy vehicle. To this end, a hydraulic chassis control system is fitted, which aims to reduce body roll and keep the ride height constant under changing loads.

It's fine in theory, but in reality, the active suspension struggles a bit to keep proceedings under a tight enough rein. The nose lifts quite emphatically as the Cruiser starts accelerating, and then dives down load under hard braking applications. Body roll is also rather prodigious, leading to ponderous behaviour when tasked with any cornering above a leisurely pace.

And while the steering uses a variable-ratio system, it's never what could be called alert by any stretch of the imagination. In terms of handling dynamics, the Land Cruiser 200 is clearly a product of a different age, and somewhat out of its depth when compared to the latest air-suspended full-size SUVs.

Comfort is priority

Even though the Cruiser 200 cannot make much of an impression through the corners, it strikes back in one important area: comfort. Yes, there are still some of those traditional body-on-frame tremors which find their way past the well-insulated body, but in terms of overall comfort, the Cruiser 200 stages a strong comeback. The combination of soft springing and generous wheel travel means that it simply flattens large bumps with nary a thump, and it simply ignores potholes altogether.

It's a far cry from modern-day performance SUVs, which are generally cursed with “sporty” suspension and ultra-low-profile tyres: While those opponents are undoubtedly much more competent around corners, their trade-off on ride quality swings the scale back in the Cruiser's favour. Combine that comfortable springing with its effortless open-road performance, and the Land Cruiser 200 becomes a splendid way to travel long distance in smooth, near-silent comfort.

Off-road is still where it shines

There are a myriad of assistance systems to make off-roading really easy. Mounted around the gear lever is a terrain-response selector, along with switches for the locking front differential and crawl control system. The latter enables the driver to select a suitable speed for an off-road obstacle, which will then be maintained up hill and down dale by the computer.

Low range is also on offer, further setting the Cruiser apart from most of its car-based opponents. And, while the independent front suspension does limit axle articulation, there's still enough flex to conquer almost any challenge even if the driver has only mild off-roading skills. Anything more strenuous will require a hard-core machine like a Jeep Wrangler, or even a Land Cruiser 70, but among its peers, only Land Rover has anything approaching the same all-terrain ability.

Compromised, but honest

This brings us back to the original question: Is the Land Cruiser still relevant in the modern world? For the right kind of buyer, it is, and without a doubt. It still has no real competition in the marketplace other than the opponents it first faced 30 years ago (the Nissan Patrol and Mercedes-Benz G-Class), when your requirements include the ability to cross vast distances in uncharted (untarred) territory. And, because it is essentially still a truck in a fancy suit, towing capacity is first-class, with a maximum rating of 3500 kg and enough torque to pull a house off its foundations.

As for the prestige brigade, almost every opponent is better at being a sporty, car-like SUV, and just about every one of them is quicker, faster, and loaded with more modern technology. Does this matter to Land Cruiser buyers? Most definitely not - the Land Cruiser 200 is still somehow above all this new-fangled flashiness. Old money also won't bat an eyelid at the R 1 345 000 price tag, even if that could buy them a very nice X5 or GLE. It just wouldn't be the same: for old-school ability and unique, upper-crust respectability, the Land Cruiser is still the default choice.