Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Ready for anything.
- The Toyota Land Cruiser dates back to the 1950s. Once a pure offroader, the full-size SUV became popular with suburbanites in the 1990s.
- The 2018 Land Cruiser I tested hasn't been redesigned since 2007. But you have to ask yourself, "Does it need to be?"
- It doesn't. This classic three-row beast might not be the fanciest SUV in the land, and Toyota is charging a lot for it. But if you can afford the sticker and the fuel, the Land Cruiser won't let you down.
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The Toyota Land Cruiser is something of a dinosaur - even when compared with other hulking SUVs, such as the Cadillac Escalade and the Lincoln Navigator. It's been around since the 1950s, although the earliest examples were built and used for hardcore expeditions.
Much later, Toyota domesticated the truck a bit, without sacrificing its heritage. The timing was excellent, as the Land Cruiser was able to catch the 1990s SUV wave, appealing to suburban families and Explorers Club members alike. It's still around, and it's still perhaps the most rugged full-size, proper four-wheel-drive vehicle you can find to make soccer-practice runs.
It tends to be the SUV that pops to mind and Business Insider when we discuss what we'd drive to face down the apocalypse. We don't much care that the current generation has been in production since 2007. Why fix - or revamp - what ain't broke?
Toyota loaned us a 2018 Land Cruiser that, at $86,000, was very well-equipped. Yes, that sounds like a lot of money. But read on to find out why it's probably worth it.
Photos by Hollis Johnson.