The 2021 Toyota Land Cruiser is a full-time four-wheel-drive icon with a handful of luxury touches. Its go-anywhere, haul-anything attitude is a direct link between utility vehicles from the past and modern luxury SUVs of today. It’s nostalgic and useful in all the right ways, but it’s not as comfortable as models that have embraced luxury more than utility.
This Land Cruiser’s basic design dates back more than a decade by now, and the Land Cruiser’s name has been around for more than 60 years. This year, like last year, there’s a Land Cruiser Heritage Edition available with special wheels and badges.
The Land Cruiser’s calling is off-road capability, and its tall ride height and short bumpers speak to that. It’s aerodynamically lousy but perfectly rugged. It has some modern touches: chrome and cameras, LED headlights and active safety gear, too. It has some heritage cues: a rear tailgate, and on Heritage Edition models, cool badges.
That’s because the Land Cruiser still uses a big 5.7-liter V-8 that’s slow and deliberate, but also powerful. All 381 horsepower comes on with the subtlety of a grenade, and its full-time four-wheel-drive system feels just as powerful. An 8-speed automatic handles shifting duties well, although it’s not at all capable of making the Bruiser efficient.
Inside, the dash gets a 9.0-inch touchscreen. Up to eight can fit within the Land Cruiser, but five is really a better idea. Regular Land Cruisers have a standard third row that’s cramped and not useful; Heritage Editions make that third row optional (and we think it’s better for it).
Leather upholstery is standard. The same goes for active safety features and some luxury fittings. The Land Cruiser predates smartphones so don’t expect its infotainment system to understand those either. Toyota charges at least $86,910 for a well-equipped Land Cruiser; no trim levels, no powertrain choices, one option. Pick your paint and off you go.
The 2021 Toyota Land Cruiser makes no apologies with its go anywhere anytime persona. What the Land Cruiser gives up in around-town drivability it more than makes up for with it’s impressive off-road capabilities. Few vehicles will get you where the Land Cruiser can go, but no other vehicle can get you there with Toyota’s legendary Land Cruiser reliability. The 2021 Toyota Land Cruise is really a class of its own.
