What's the news?
Toyota has given its iconic Land Cruiser a make-over for 2014 that includes a styling refresh, updates to the interior and a new multimedia system, which incorporates Google Street View functionality. There are also new safety and off-road driving systems whilst powering the updated Land Cruiser is a revised 3.0-litre turbodiesel engine.
Exterior
The most noticeable changes to this updated Land Cruiser are at the front where new headlamp units and daytime running lights are now integrated with the front grille. This whole section has been set at a slightly higher level in order to reduce the risk of damage during off-road driving. In a nice bit of design work, the new headlight units are finished with black and powder-coated aluminium internals and feature subtle Land Cruiser branding. A more prominent grille, which is made up of an evolution of the traditional five parallel vertical bars, gives the Land Cruiser a more solid look while below this Toyota has added a larger bumper to the front, which protrudes a further 20 millimetres - although the Japanese manufacturer claims that it has no impact on the vehicle's off-road capabilities.
Interior
Big strides have been made with the interior design of the Land Cruiser in order to give a feeling of higher quality. Nestled between the clocks on the instrument panel is a new 4.2-inch TFT colour screen, which relays information to the driver including an angle gauge, which differential lock is engaged and the traction control levels at each wheel. Taking pride of place atop the centre console is a seven-inch colour display. In the case of the five-door Land Cruiser, the folding angle of the second row of seats has been improved in order to allow easier access to the third row of seats.
Mechanicals
Toyota's Land Cruiser already enjoyed a pretty respectable reputation when it came to off-road driving, but the Japanese manufacturer doesn't want to rest on any laurels, and so has made minor adjustments to the suspension to give improvements in ride quality. The 3.0-litre turbodiesel engine has been revised in order to comply with the latest Euro 5+ emission standards, but despite this it sees no loss in power. Torque output is 420Nm while CO2 emissions have been reduced slightly to 209- and 214g/km for the three- and five-door models respectively.
Anything else?
Pricing for the updated Land Cruiser will start at £34,995 based on the three-door manual model in Active trim, with deliveries commencing from December 1st. Toyota will also be offering an Off-road Pack as a £1,650 option on the middle 'Icon' trim level while it will be standard on the range-topping 'Invincible' trim.
Dave Humphreys - 3 Oct 2013
