Toyota Land Cruiser review

A mix. There are plenty of buttons, but they’re almost all for the modes and off-road controls. Operating the infotainment for the nav and media means using the touchscreen. Depending on trim level (more on that in the Buying section), you have either an eight- or 12-inch touchscreen. There’s no separate dial controller or touchpad. You’ll cope, but a touchscreen feels like something from a Lexus, not a Land Cruiser. Also challenging to operate with gloves on, which the rest of the car isn’t.

The dash display is another screen and a little confusing to operate via the steering wheel buttons. The off-road graphics are small and hard to see, mainly because there’s so much information on there.

How’s comfort and space?

Up front it’s really good. The seats are soft and enveloping, the view out over the flat bonnet is panoramic, the window line is low, you are the master of all you survey.

Further back the separate body makes for a high floor, so legroom is merely OK for a car that measures 4,925mm long (worth knowing that at 1,935mm tall it should sneak into most multi-storey car parks). The central passenger has to negotiate a plastic plinth. Third row seating is optional in most versions, accessed via a middle row that tumbles easily forward. If you don’t have people back there the boot is giant, but our gripe here is luxury.

Why? Is it too luxurious?

Not exactly. The plastics and materials aren’t that special, certainly not up to Mercedes, Land Rover or even Lexus levels, but we’d argue there are too many electric motors about the place. The rearmost seats don’t need to fold electrically. We know the Land Cruiser has the most astonishing reputation, but that feels like something with the potential to go wrong. Nor does the steering column need to move electrically. While we’re at it, the head up display is mostly surplus to requirements. We’ll keep the panoramic roof and 14 speaker JBL audio though. We’re not totally immune to luxury here.

We suspect market research showed everyone else had these features, so Toyota thought it had better fit them as well. But for us they mean that a lower spec Land Cruiser is probably the one to have.