Toyota LandCruiser 300 review and buyer’s guide
Should you buy a LandCruiser 4X4 wagon or a Nissan Patrol? Here’s why you might consider the big bruiser for heavy towing and serious off-road driving assignments, or possibly its closest rival…
The Toyota LandCruiser 300 is supposed to be the greatest four-wheel drive chariot ever to grace Australian roads. But is it really?
It’s the king of body-on-frame SUVs and although it’s not Australian made (it’s Japanese, at least), it is an important part of the landscape to countless outback communities.
Admittedly, LC300 is a good heavy towing platform for anybody with beefy farm machinery, horses and their affiliate float trailers, tool trailers and so on.
But exactly how happy or sad and infuriated is buying a LandCruiser 300 really going to make you in the years ahead? Is it all smiles and laughter in your future, or are there dark clouds looming over you as you prepare to sign and drop your hard-earned cash on the so-called ‘King off the Road’?
Let’s look at why buying a 300 Series LandCruiser could bring you untold joy, or teeth-grinding madness. You can download the LC300 spec sheet here >> and the Toyota marketing document (AKA brochure) here >>
The Toyota LandCruiser has racked up over 10 million sales around the world since it first launched back in the early 1950s. Now, Toyota has launched the 13th generation called the 300 Series. It promises to be even more capable than ever before while boasting new levels of comfort, refinement and technology inside. But is it?
The 300 Series is serious business. This is not just a facelift to an existing model. Instead, it jumps to the TNGA-F architecture which supports more modern technologies than before, and provides improved driving dynamics over any previous generation. Well, the bar wasn’t set very high to begin with. Nonetheless, it’s still a truck and don’t worry, heavy-duty aficionados, the 300 continues with a live-axle rear suspension setup.
You have six variants to choose from in Australia, starting with the GX and topping out at the Sahara ZX, with a new GR Sport hardcore model added to the mix. All are powered by a brand new 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6 diesel engine that produces 27kW more power and 50Nm more torque (now 227kW/700Nm) than the predecessor’s V8 diesel. This is connected to an equally new 10-speed automatic.
What variant is right for you?
It’s not uncommon to see the flagship Sahara version in built-up areas, including in the city. Let’s just get one thing straight from the start, this is not an ideal vehicle for people living in the city. Not only is it too big and cumbersome to manoeuvre in tight conditions, you’re simply not utilising this product for what it is intended for. And that’s a waste of your money.
There’s nothing quite like arriving at the private school gates in rear-wheel drive, safe in the knowledge a centre diff awaits if things turn apocalyptic.
Imagine buying a $50,000 caravan and then only using it to have a picnic in your front yard twice a year. There are other products out there that can accommodate a picnic with less fuss and a lot less money. The LandCruiser is built to go off road and if you don’t take it off road then you’re missing the point. These big things aren’t cheap.
If you must have a LandCruiser but you’re not sure how often you’ll venture off the bitumen, if at all, then straight away I do not recommend you opt for the GR Sport. This version comes with special suspension with disconnecting sway bars (called e-KDSS) to open up suspension travel off road. But on the road, the ride and handling is not as refined as the other variants – again, the bar isn’t set high to begin with.
The base GX might seem like a tempting option due to its low price compared with the others. However, this model is designed for rugged duties, first and foremost. With narrow tyres mounted on steel wheels, the braking performance is not as good as the others that feature wider tyres. The 245/75 tyres are also made for harsh conditions and not for taking your family on a comfortable journey; these tyres will do it, but they are much more suitable and safer alternatives out there.
The GX is good for those planning a trip around Australia, though. Because you could add a couple of full-size spare wheels to your caravan and not take up too much room (or add too much weight). The GX also comes with the full-size 110L tank (80L primary, includes 30L sub-tank), like all other variants. This means the theoretical range is 1236km. And you still get a locking centre differential and low-range to maximise off-road performance.
It won’t be hard to remember where you parked… or maybe it will.
Moving up to the GXL is the weakest excuse to buy a LandCruiser, in my opinion. The cloth trim inside does not signify its circa-$106,000 price tag and the 18-inch wheels and basic trimmings aren’t good for bragging rights down at the camp site – or glamp site. To me, it’s basically saying: ‘I really, really want a LandCruiser but I can’t afford a proper one.’
The best middle ground is the next model up, the VX. It comes with plenty of luxury and a wide array of bonus features, such as LED headlights (that should be standard anyway), wood bits inside, and a comprehensive safety pack including a 360-degree camera system and lane-trace assist. The camera system in particular, I think, is important for a big vehicle like this because its circumference is so large, you never know what kiddies or pets are running around.
The Sahara and Sahara ZX are the ultimate posing machines for a particular demographic. But, these models retain most of the excellent off-road capability as the others and they do it with added luxury. The problem is, if you want to pose around, why not just buy a big BMW SUV? You’re paying a similar price for this. The 20-inch wheels and 265/55 tyres (fairly low profile for a rugged SUV) on the Sahara ZX are not going to get you anywhere serious.
As for the GR Sport? Well, this is basically Toyota showing off its full expertise in the land-cruising world. It comes with everything to battle serious conditions, as well as some sporty highlights like dark trimmings. Front and rear diff locks, adaptive variable suspension, and a unique five-mode drive select system means this is set up for proper exploring. But it does come at a price; around $142,000 (before on-roads). Unless you’re going to use all of this gear, I wouldn’t recommend it. Not because it’s a bad product but because it’s probably going to be overkill for what you intend to do with it.
Accommodation
This is a big vehicle, there is no doubt about it. Overall length comes in at around five metres, and it stands almost two metres wide and tall. Adding roof racks will cause problems in some underground car parks… it’s that kind of size. As a result, the interior is massive. Toyota offers five- (GX and Sahara ZX) and seven-seat configurations, and all feature a comprehensive touch-screen system measuring either 9.0 or 12.3 inches. Twin 11.6-inch screens are also added in the back seat area for the top ZX.
Toyota touch-screens are usually pretty basic in operation, and lack fancy apps or vibrant graphics. And unfortunately it’s the same here. But this has always been Toyota’s philosophy to be practical and user-friendly.
Headroom is not going to be an issue unless you’re a giant. Even then, you’ll probably be fine. However, legroom isn’t as roomy in the back as you might expect. The distance between the rear bench and the front seat is endless, but due to the way the body literally sits on top of the frame, the floor is quite high. This obviously helps with ground clearance underneath but it pushes the floor up, and pushes your knees up as well.
There are various amenities available for rear passengers, perhaps applied as a distraction to the high floor. Unless you’re in the GX, the rear has its own charging ports and semi-adjustable climate control (full control in VX and above), cup holders, and a rear centre arm rest for the VX and above. The Sahara models add heated/cooled outer rear seats, power-folding third-row seats, and a centre cool box (almost a fridge).
Toyota’s third-row seat system has improved over previous generations, so boot volume is optimised with the third row down. In the three-row layout you’re left with 175L. And Toyota says an extra 92mm of legroom has been wedged into the back row. Fold them down, now nice and flush with the floor, and you have 1004L at your disposal. Five-seat models offer 1131L.
Downsizing
Yes, Toyota has downsized from a 4.5L V8 to a 3.3L V6. If you’re an avid ‘Cruiser fan that’s owned one for donkeys’ years, then look away now. Because I’ll never change your mind. But to everyone else, this is a better engine. Believe me.
It’s more powerful, offers more torque and is more economical (official average from 9.5 to 8.9L/100km). Peak torque is spread over the same window, from 1600-2600rpm. And according to my tests, it is quicker across the 0-100km/h sprint than the old 200 Series. By around two full seconds as well, depending on the variant and its weight.
The only reason to dislike this engine is because it’s new. And by that I mean there could be teething issues, like with any all-new product. What else? Well, the only other excuse I’ll take is that it is worse for towing. Slightly.
With a lower compression ratio of 15.4:1 compared with 16.8:1 in the V8, and obviously fewer cylinders and a smaller capacity, engine braking is not going to be as effective as the old V8. With 10 speeds though, engine braking is smoother, because each ratio change isn’t as extravagant as with the old six-speed gearbox.
The new V6 is reasonably quiet on the road, for a diesel, particularly at highway speeds. It hums instead of chugs. Accelerating up to speed produces a somewhat off-beat churn, but it does sound more refined than the old V8 and it is smoother.
The sequential turbocharging means the first one is working at low speed take-offs before the energetic exhaust flow spools up the second unit at 2600 revs and speed picks up surprisingly rapidly.
I wouldn’t recommend taking the big girl on a spirited drive down a mountain road, purely because it is so big and the suspension is not primarily designed for this style of driving. It leans into corners, albeit less than before, and the tall tyres roll and provide a slow response time between your hands and the wheel.
It is nice to drive on a country road, however. The long-range suspension easily soaks up even the harshest of surfaces, and the wheels tend to bounce and skip across corrugations less than before.
Off road performance is, as you’d expect, outstanding. With a running clearance of 245mm (up from 230mm) and a good approach angle of 32 degrees, the chances of coming across terrain that you can’t cross is very limited. In terms of moderately maintained tracks, anyway. This beast barges over mounds, carves through sand, and churns through thick mud like a military on a mission. It’s definitely great at this sort of stuff.
Should you buy one?
Look, if all you want to do is prance around the suburbs and pretend you need one because you’re a ‘country’ person at heart and you have a horse box to tow, then I think you’re missing the point. LandCruisers are about dependability, in all environments. Something you can heavily rely on because there is little else that comes close.
Although Toyota has clearly evolved the nameplate for the next generation of buyers, adding fancy tech inside and improving comfort and on-road refinement, this is still a heavy-duty, very large, very expensive but highly capable all-terrain machine. You’re not going to get your money's worth unless you really need it, and use it.
Having said that, there’s also the brawny Nissan Patrol to consider here, because it’s got a $30,000 price advantage over the LandCruiser. That’s $30,000 worth of fuel you’ll struggle to buy over the lifespan of your Patrol, even if you used it as a daily driver. Patrol might be as old as the hills, but it still works out, it’s just a reliable, just as tough and capable, more comfortable and more affordable.
The Y62 Patrol Ti-L has incrementally risen in price over the last five years, but that hasn’t slowed sales - in fact it’s probably managed to steal sales from the unfaithful, discerning Toyota LandCruiser buyers, especially those who knew what was coming with that ‘Hot Vee’ engine layout.
The Ti-L is currently $97,900 before adding on-road costs, making it now a $100,000+ driveaway luxury off-road weapon, trading blows with the supposedly superior new LandCruiser 300, despite having the same key driveline features like centre differential, rock crawling, big tyres, over 240mm of ground clearance and solid hardcore underpinnings. (Although Patrol has 275mm of ground clearance versus 245mm in LC300 GX, GXL and Sahara model grades.)
Despite its age, a Patrol will absolutely keep up with the LandCruiser in the dirty stuff. But spec-for-spec, you’ll be sitting on heated, electrically adjusted leather seats in all three rows in your Patrol, while your mate in his poverty pack LandCruiser GX ($94,300 + ORC) will be injecting his farts into cloth seats, with the poor-man’s 6-speaker stereo (versus your kickarse 13-speaker Bose boombox with DVD player, row-2 LCD screens with headphones). You get a 360-degree camera system and seat-position memory, your LandCruiser mate is sliding forward doing the dog-with-worms shuffle.
You can easily spot the GX LandCruiser by its tiny, cheap-looking 17-inch steel wheels which will certainly contrast against your 18-inch machine-faced alloys (with matching spare). You’ll have curtain airbags protecting occupants in row 3 while nobody will have the same in the GX because it’s strictly a five-seater.
If you want a seven-seat 300, you’ll be stumping up an additional $8000 over the top-shelf Patrol, just to get row 3 in a GXL for $106,000 - before you’ve even paid on-road costs. But at least Toyota has stuffed a couple of curtain airbags either side up there for row 3. They’ll still be listening to the pov-pack stereo, with no climate control, sitting on thin cloth seats and heaving the tailgate open manually.
One distinct advantage of a bare-bones GX LC300 over a top-spec Patrol is superior outright payload which is 785kg, with a full 110-litre tank of diesel. Payload goes down sightly as you go up the range (700kg in GXL, 650kg in Sahara), but unfortunately for LandCruiser, payload limit in a base model Ti Patrol also goes up as you go down in price - levelling 785kg in GX, meaning you can get more fruit in a base Ti Patrol for just $92,500 driveaway. That’s a $10,000 saving, with greater payload, and it’s still a seven-seater to GX’s five.
And the towing argument for LC300 starts to lose out against Patrol as well, because both are limited to 3500kg of maximum braked capacity, with 350kg of towball download on all model grades - but Patrol is going to be the more dynamically stable vehicle under extreme towing assignments due to its greater overall mass. (Just remember to subtract towball download from your payload if you’re towing and taking people, luggage etc.)
Patrol Ti-L, with a full 140-litre tank of 95 RON unleaded weighing about 105kg, comes in at 2863kg - yes, 2.86 tonnes, before the driver is even aboard. The also-heavy LandCruiser 300 Sahara ‘only’ comes in at 2630kg full of diesel, pre driver onboarding. That’s a 233kg advantage to the Patrol but only in the context of an extra-heavy towing mission, between 3000-3500kg.
It’s this primary reason LandCruiser 300 and Nissan Patrol are being recommended here, because anybody needing to tow horse floats, bobcats, car trailers, dual-axle caravans and tour endlessly this big brown land - these two vehicles are king in terms of dynamic stability at highway speeds when the loads get extreme.
It’s the flipside of the same coin, why towing 3500kg with a dual-cab ute is dangerous >> So buying a Ford Ranger to tow 3.5 tonnes is sketchy at best >>
I'll help you save thousands on a new Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series here
Just fill in this form. No more car dealership rip-offs. Greater transparency. Less stress.
THE PROBLEM WITH BUYING A LANDCRUISER 300
If you want to be well informed about what you’re getting yourself into when it comes to buying a Toyota LandCruiser in 2024, because that’s how long you should expect to wait for yours to arrive, it’s a good idea to understand what ‘foibles’ you might come across.
Check out Everything wrong with the LandCruiser 300 here >> and go into detail about Why the LC300 Hot Vee engine design sucks >>
PRICE
There’s no easy way to swallow this pill, other than brutal honesty. The 300 Series is bloody expensive why you consider driveaway pricing: $102,700 - $156,600 in Victoria, for example.
You’ll be paying over $4500 in Luxury Car Tax, even for a base model GX with cloth seats. Want a Sahara? That’s roughly $147,000 thanks - including $14K in LCT - straight into federal consolidated revenue.
Having said this, the fact you’re here, considering a 300 Series, you’ve probably already come to terms with the high pricetag. If you’re reading this particular paragraph, you’re probably not put-off by all the zeroes, in which case you have the budget and there is a specific heavy-towing, family touring working life coming up for your prospective ‘Cruiser. So let’s move onto the next objective hurdle you need to overcome in order to make friends with the 300 Series.
ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY OIL CONSUMPTION
The 3.3-litre ‘hot-vee’ twin-turbo V6 engine is, according to leaked Toyota Nunawading dealer documentation, burning about 1.7 litres of oil between service. The sump holds 6.6 litres of engine oil, activating the engine oil warning light when the sump reaches 4.4 litres.
This is happening inside the manufacturer’s scheduled service interval, where about 30 per cent of the engine oil is being burnt and blown out the exhaust. You can watch my full report on the oil-hungry LC300 hot-vee engine here >>
Heat rises from the hot-vee exhaust manifold, but is possibly getting trapped under the bonnet, staying in the engine bay, causing temps to spike and oil to burn.
And how do you resolve this alleged oil consumption issue? Take it into your local Toyota dealership in between services.
How often are the service intervals? Every six months or every 10,000km, whichever occurs first. This is ridiculous. Some potential buyers are going to be a quarter of the way into their Big Lap of the continent and they’re going to be expected to stop in at a Toyota dealership, sit in the service department and wait for this to be sorted out. Some holiday. And too bad if you’re in the dead centre of the Great Australian Bugger All, two days from the nearest dealer.
Being 30% below your required oil level anywhere out here could be bad: best take a top-up or three.
Do you really think it’s satisfactory to be bringing in your $100,000+ Toyota every three months for additional servicing because it drinks a third of its oil every 12-18 weeks? This might not be an issue for you, but for those whom it is problematic, at least you’re aware of what you might be up against here.
For balance here, modern engines are allowed to burn small amounts of oil as a result of tight clearances between piston rings and cylinder walls, in the pursuit of fuel economy and efficiency. it’s okay for modern engines to require low-level periodic topping up. But there’s a point at which too much becomes exactly that. We just don’t know to what extent this issue will metastasize throughout the 300 Series. Will it become a serious long-term reliability concern, or will it become a known characteristic of this engine that becomes manageable over time? We don’t yet know the answers to these kinds of questions.
Does this make the 300 Series some kind of lemon in an apple’s clothing? No, not really. The jury’s still out on exactly how Toyota Australia will handle this, from a customer care and Australian Consumer Law point of view. Hopefully the outcome of the 2.8 DPF saga was lesson enough to get on the front foot and solve the issue, or at the very least be transparent with customers. Sorry, ‘guests’.
It’s worth noting here that Toyota Australia managed to orchestrate a DPF burn-off switch for its troubled 2.8 diesel when they were pressured enough to acknowledge the first fuel of Automotive Fight Club: be straight with the customer.
Toyota Aus absolutely has the budget and technical capability to come up with an in-service fix for the oil consumption issue if it worsens. And you also should be aware that there’s no such thing as a perfect vehicle, and certainly no new vehicle (with such a complicated new engine) is ever perfect straight out of the blocks. Carmakers are always issuing service bulletins and repair notices for vehicles in-service - which is what will likely happen for the 300.
CONCLUSION
Overall, the LC300 is not a lemon, and it’s not exactly going to be a Land Rover Defender in terms of poor reliability and abhorrent customer service. Toyota has trouble coming clean when it makes mistakes, but it’s absolutely not Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz or Land Rover in regards to throwing your consumer rights under the bus - they just have room to improve.
And certainly, having the biggest dealer network in the country does mean there is some kind of help even in the remotest corners of ‘Straya. Not to mention virtually any Toyota enjoys awesome resale value, so your 300 is still going to be worth good coin after you’ve tipped gallons of oil into it and clocked 200,000kms. Chances are it’ll still be ready to do another 200-thou.
If you have heavy towing in your future and you need a vehicle that flat-out refuses to be pushed around by horse floats, car trailers or heavy duty machinery, and LandCruiser 300 is going to be a good choice.
Regarding the oil consumption issue, it needs to be said that some oil consumption is not entirely, unspeakably reprehensible for a modern vehicle, particularly a twin-turbo V6 diesel. But you need to be aware there is a chance, however slim, that it might be higher consumption than you expect.
Overall, however, it’s not guaranteed that your vehicle is going to have this issue, especially if this is a second-car type occasional-use ownership arrangement. Toyota is also quite capable of in-service fixes for things of this nature, so don’t scrub it off your shortlist at the first sign of imperfect operation - no new vehicle is free of faults in the first phase out of the blocks.
And burning oil is not going to stop your LC300 from performing those hard yakka tasks like serious low-range off-roading, pulling heavy stuff and taking the family out on the road for months at a time, packing all but the kitchen sink.
The new Triton is a 4x4 ute that offers excellent value, benchmark towing capacity and off-road capability that puts more expensive utes to shame. Here’s what you need to know about Mitsubishi’s tougher, smarter, comfier pick-up.