Toyota Land Cruiser (2003-) Review

Running Costs

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It ain't going to be cheap, but strong demand for secondhand Land Cruisers means that depreciation (loss in value) isn't going to be too horrid, at least. Toyota dealers are also generally well-priced for servicing and maintenance, and the Land Cruiser's reliability should mean that you won't have to make any unscheduled visits for a long while. Even scheduled trips only happen every 10,000 miles for a 'health check' and every 20,000 miles for a major service. Fuel consumption from the diesel is claimed to be around the 30 mpg mark for normal road driving (27.2 mpg in auto form) but the petrol is said to do just 20 mpg or so. Carbon dioxide emissions, and hence tax levels (BIK tax for company car drivers) are predictably high: 250-277 g/km from the diesel, depending on version, and a whopping 323 g/km from the petrol model. Demand is high on the secondhand market, so used Land Cruisers aren't particularly cheap. However, one that has been properly maintained and serviced should give years and long miles of reliable use, and not pose any problems. Watch out for hard-used ex-agricultural vehicles (though farmers tend to keep them long-term, so these won't be up for sale for a good while yet) and worn rear suspension from heavy-duty towing. The Land Cruiser is a lot of big 4x4 for the money, and works out considerably cheaper than equivalently-equipped Land Rover and Mitsubishi models - even if making metallic paint a cost option is a little stingy. As far as hardcore off-roaders go, only the popular Nissan Terrano offers a similar proposition, though of course, the namby-pamby 'soft-road' set (including Toyota's own RAV-4) come up a lot cheaper if you don't really need to stray far off the tarmac.