2024 Toyota Land Cruiser: What We Know So Far
Toyota's legendary nameplate returns to North America with a lower price and more off-road tech.
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The Toyota Land Cruiser is returning to the United States for 2024, in the form of a boxy, retro-inspired five-seat SUV.
This marks the first time in three years that a new Land Cruiser will be available on our shores. The company says this generation marks a return to the vehicle's roots, as it's focused less on luxury and more on rugged off-road capability. To highlight the shift, all trims come standard with tow hooks.
Instead of the larger 300 Series model currently sold overseas, the new Land Cruiser is Toyota's version of the latest Lexus GX. Unlike the Lexus, however, the Toyota comes exclusively with a hybrid powertrain.
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Land Cruiser Styling Honors Its Past
The GX underpinnings of the 2024 Land Cruiser inspire boxy proportions with an upright, rectangular windshield and a tall, airy greenhouse. But given the prominent Toyota block-letter badging, which recalls Land Cruisers of the 1980s, few folks should have trouble distinguishing between the two SUVs.
At launch, three trims will be available: Land Cruiser 1958, Land Cruiser, and Land Cruiser First Edition. The 1958 trim is named to commemorate the year Toyota first offered the Land Cruiser in the U.S. It gets some vintage flair courtesy of its round headlights.
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The Land Cruiser First Edition will be limited to 5,000 examples for the North American market and will also feature round headlights, while the midtier Land Cruiser spec will get rectangular units reminiscent of 1980s and 1990s models. For 2024, the Land Cruiser will be offered in seven colors; a pair of two-tone paint options will also be available. Don't look for a third row: Every Land Cruiser seats five.
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2024 Land Cruiser Gains Its First Hybrid Powertrain
The new Land Cruiser will be offered with a single powertrain: a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder paired with an electric motor and a nickel-metal hydride battery. At the time of this writing, no fuel-economy estimates have been disclosed.
This setup is a first for the U.S.-market Land Cruiser, both in terms of cylinder count and hybrid tech, and Toyota says it's good for 326 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque. All models will come with an eight-speed automatic transmission and a standard trailer hitch. They are rated to tow up to 6,000 pounds.
By comparison, the current 4Runner — a design that's been on the market for more than a decade — uses a 4.0-liter V6 to generate just 270 horsepower, and it's rated to tow just 5,000 pounds.
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Land Cruiser Off-Road Features, Tech, and Pricing
Every Land Cruiser comes standard with full-time four-wheel drive with locking center and rear differentials, a two-speed transfer case, and Crawl Control, which works as an off-road cruise control.
The midtier Land Cruiser trim adds the ability to disconnect the front stabilizer for improved wheel articulation over rough terrain, along with additional traction-control modes for Mud, Dirt, and Sand. A camera system displays what's happening underneath and beside the vehicle. The limited-run First Edition includes all those features and adds a roof rack, rock rails, a skid plate, and mud flaps. All trim levels come standard with 18-inch alloy wheels, and the Land Cruiser trim offers optional 20-inch units.
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By the numbers, the Land Cruiser features 8.7 inches of ground clearance as well as up to a 31-degree approach angle, a 25-degree breakover angle, and a 22-degree departure angle. At about 194 inches long, it's around an inch shorter and 4 inches narrower than the 200 Series last sold in the U.S.
All versions will come with Toyota's Safety Sense 3.0 suite of driver-assistance tech, plus a choice between 8.0- and 12.3-inch touchscreens with over-the-air updates and wireless smartphone mirroring. Top-end models trade the standard version's cloth upholstery for synthetic or real leather, while a sunroof is also on the options list.
Toyota says the 2024 Land Cruiser will cost less than $60,000 to start. Initial deliveries are slated to arrive in early 2024.
