Brian Carless, Gleaner Writer
The Toyota Land Cruiser is one of the premier 4x4 vehicles around. Toyota Jamaica brought one to the ADA motor show last year and we were eager to get our hands on it. So when we heard that they were having a test day on a remote area in off-road conditions two Saturdays ago, we jumped at the chance. The place was Greenwich Farm, Newcastle, and the track was a precipitous trail called BRUCKNAIL that was used as a route for carrying produce on four-legged animals. Two strapping journalists were about to button themselves into this 'voluminous' vehicle.
Actually, there was more on offer; the public was invited as well, with a Hilux Vigo, RAV4, Prado and two models of the Cruiser ('07 and '08) to be sampled. The upstart Terios was there too. Getting there was half the fun; the climb through the Blue Mountains from Papine really reminds one of how beautiful this country is. Columbus' poignant parallel of crushing up a piece of paper and throwing it in front of Queen Isabella to describe our hilly interior is quite apt.
On our arrival at the barracks, we were escorted to the farm where we greeted by the Toyota team and our gracious hosts, Mr & Mrs Douglas Graham. After a little training on off-road etiquette and the dos and don'ts of the Land Cruiser, we were given a few lessons about driving off-road and there was a video display showing what the 2008 Toyota Land Cruiser could do. This is what the Automotives crew wanted to get their hands on. Toyota Jamaica pulled out all the stops to make sure that all guests were well taken care of; we were given wind breakers to put on due the weather conditions of Newcastle. FAME FM was doing a live outside broadcast, with the food catered by the Pantry.
The new Cruiser's design is much different from the older models, but has all the bells and whistles you can find in an SUV of this size and cost. This most modern Cruiser has a 5.7-litre EFI V8 32 valve DOHC VVT-I engine putting out 302 ft lb, and 270hp. The engine is mated to a four-speed tiptronic transmission and each wheel is fitted with quad piston caliper ABS. Braking is not a problem. With a fuel tank capacity of 138 litres, the gross vehicle weight is a whopping 7275 lb wet! Cruiser is around six feet in length and height, and is some 16-feet long; with these exterior dimensions, the interior can only be described as cavernous.
Some other features that are on this palace on wheels are multi-terrain abs, crawl control, vehicle-stability control and vehicle descent. The switch gear such as door locks, air conditioning and stereo controls as well as the lights and turn signals have an esoteric feel to them. The interior has quite a lot of leg and head room; it should seat eight people comfortably. It has a split tailgate as an added feature and the whole shebang sits on 285/65/18 wheels. The 15 air-bags onboard should make prospective owners of this plush SUV drive with a little more peace of mind. However, with a vehicle of this size and weight, fuel economy will suffer. Toyota claims that the cruiser will get about 13mpg city and 18mpg on the highway.
The Automotives staff were not given the opportunity to actually drive the $16-million four-tonner; we were instead chauffeured down the now infamous 2.2 km BRUCKNAIL trail down on the Graham property. The Cruiser handled the trail quite well, well enough for Automotives to say that it's the best riding SUV we have ever tested. The gradient of some of these trails were like 35-38 per cent, really steep, but the driver didn't have to engage any of the hill descent modes that the Cruiser is equipped with. It just did its thing; engage drive and press, and it does the rest. On the way back up it showed its true mettle with the A/C on full blast and five 'girthy' souls aboard it went up these gradients with ease, no wheel-spin at all. At no point on the trail we were ever nervous, even when looking down at some precarious two-hundred-foot falls. And with Toyota having 50 years of building 4x4s, this latest version of the Cruiser shows the true heritage and build quality of Toyota. Automotives was quite impressed.
Good experience
All in all, it was a good experience. This is not a SUV for everyone, and not many owners will ever put their vundervagen in a situation like what the Automotives team encountered. But if they did, it wouldn't be a problem at all. It raises the bar on comfort, and with all the gadgetry included on the option list, such as the multi-terrain abs and the 15 airbags, it is a helluva machine. There is even a diesel option which has a lot more torque. There is a price to be paid for all this technological wizardry, though, and that puts the Cruiser in sharp relief with its contemporaries, the Mercedes M Class, Range Rover and Audi Q7. At $16 million, it stands head and shoulders above the competition, not to mention being a bit pricey for the average Joe Public.
But for that coffee farmer who needs to get to his farm without breaking sweat in the cool country hills of our little rock, this might be the SUV for you. It has the ruggedness to go off road and still look good at the cocktail scene. Definitely a standout in the company of other SUVs, Toyota Jamaica's slogan, Today, Tomorrow, Together, says you are bound to get where you are going all in one piece. Automotives gives Land Cruiser two thumbs up.
