Our New 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Has a Lot to Live Up to

The Land Cruiser is, without question, my favorite Toyota product. I’ve been lucky enough to drive every generation sold in the U.S. (someday, 70 Series), and the unbroken spirit of grit and capability just speaks to me. Fortunate for me, then, that I’ll be chaperoning our 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser for the next 12 months.

The New Land Cruiser

For the uninitiated, the new Land Cruiser is new in almost every way. Critically for nerds like me, it’s technically the Land Cruiser Prado, a smaller version of the full-size Land Cruiser we used to get and is still sold globally. The Prado has been around since the ’70s and was actually sold here as the Lexus GX for many years.

Smaller is a relative term, though. Compared to the big 300 Series Land Cruiser sold overseas, this 250 Series is the same width, just 1.2 inches shorter in length, and 2.1 inches shorter in height. Most of the height difference comes from reducing our 250 Series Land Cruiser’s ground clearance by 0.8 inch to 8.3 inches. It rides on the same frame as the bigger one and retains the same 112.2-inch wheelbase and therefore keeps the vaunted “golden ratio” of wheelbase and total length. Inside, it’s basically the same size as the big one. So far as I can tell, they just put the body in a big vacuum bag and compressed the sheetmetal to make it look smaller.

Indisputably smaller is the engine. The old, understressed V-8 of the previous full-size truck and Lexus GX is gone, replaced with a turbocharged I-4 and hybrid system. Tuned for power, it makes 55 horsepower less than the V-8 but 64 more lb-ft of torque for a total of 326 hp and 465 lb-ft. It also bumps the EPA-rated fuel economy from 13/18/15 mpg city/highway/combined to 22/25/23 mpg, an enormous difference.

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What We Got

The Land Cruiser comes in two flavors these days, which is twice as many as it used to. This one you see here is called Land Cruiser and is the fully loaded model. The base model is called the Land Cruiser 1958 Edition (referencing the year it was introduced). Don’t ask us to explain the naming convention—even Toyota employees can’t.

This means ours came standard with upgrades like the big 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, 12.3-inch infotainment screen, powered liftgate, heated and cooled front seats, and Multi Terrain Select system with six off-road modes. Base price: $62,920.

To that, we added nearly the entire options catalog, which isn’t hard to do because it isn’t big. Starting with the big one, we popped for the Premium package and got a 14-speaker JBL stereo with subwoofer, power moonroof, leather seats, wireless phone charger, a head-up display, memory functions for the driver’s seat, center console “cool box” (refrigerator), video rearview mirror, and a bunch of additional active safety features like lane change assist, front cross-traffic alert, traffic jab assist (stop-and-go cruise control), and a one-year free trial for 4G connected services like navigation and digital phone key.

From there, we kept the 18-inch wheels but went with the more off-road-capable Michelin LTX Trail tires. They don’t look like much, but in an off-road comparison against the Ford Bronco Sasquatch and Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, the Land Cruiser went everywhere the other two did and never got stuck.

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Helping in that department is the skidplate package, which added protection for the transmission and rear differential to the standard front skidplate. Rounding out the off-road features are rock rails, which are essential for serious rock crawling.

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned the front anti-roll bar disconnect system. It used to be standard equipment on this trim, but now it’s an option. A Toyota representative told me the company is having trouble sourcing enough from the supplier, and adding it to the build would’ve delayed delivery. I’ll have to hit the trails and see how essential it is or isn’t and whether we should’ve waited for it.

To stand out in the parking lot, we went for one of the two-tone paint options, called Trail Dust and Grayscape. On the inside, we upped our connected services trial to three years in case this long-term vehicle sticks around in our fleet longer than normal, then we popped for carpeted floormats and cargo mat, plus a rear bumper guard and a light on the liftgate for nighttime loading and unloading. All-in, that’s an MSRP of $70,559.

“Small” Land Cruiser, Big Plans

I couldn’t wait for this story to publish, so I’ve already put more than 2,200 miles on the thing. In addition to the off-road test I mentioned, I also plan to take it camping, on road trips, and maybe an extra special trip or two. I know someone who owns a 60 Series Land Cruiser I could compare it to, and I’m curious to see if the hybrid drivetrain can really deliver on those EPA ratings. I was really hoping to do a step-by-step guide on swapping the lame rectangular headlights for the much cooler “Heritage” round headlights on the 1958 Edition, but this SUV technically belongs to Toyota, who said no. Maybe we’ll get a different answer if we keep asking.