The New Toyota Land Cruiser’s Screens Make Us Scream
The Land Cruiser’s cumbersome screens are a constant source of frustration, but it’s not all bad.
Screens have never been a Land Cruiser strong point. Toyota’s propensity to wait until a technology is fully matured before installing it in a vehicle meant its screens and software were always behind the curve. This continues to be the case on our yearlong review 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser, though I’m happy to say they’re not as out of date as usual this time, and there’s hope on the horizon.
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Up to Date but Not Cutting Edge
To be entirely fair to the Land Cruiser, its screens are the same as those found in multiple other contemporary Toyota products. In that regard, it’s not behind the times. The problem is, these screens aren’t the latest and greatest Toyota makes, nor are they the best on the market. I also have to note the Land Cruiser’s abundant physical controls, some of them redundant to the on-screen controls, is a mitigating factor to some of our frustrations with Toyota’s infotainment system. At the end of the day, though, there’s no getting around using the screens, and if you have to use them, they ought to be good.
Land Cruiser Infotainment Weak Spots
If you have an eye for design, the mismatched graphics on the infotainment screen and instrument cluster screen is annoying right off the bat. Not the colors, the fonts, nor images. They’re all different. Plenty of $70,000 vehicles get this right, so it’s noticeable this one (and most other Toyotas) doesn’t.
Far and away the biggest issue is how many vehicle functions and systems are controlled not through the big, central touchscreen but through the smaller instrument cluster screen and the associated D-pad controller on the steering wheel. The result is endless layers of menus full of inscrutable acronyms with no explanation, all of which can only be accessed by scrolling with the D-pad and pressing and holding the central OK button.
This is a problem right at face value. Changing any setting should be done at a stop, because trying to find it with the D-pad while driving requires you to divert your attention from the road to the cluster’s menus. It’s not like you can ask a passenger to do it for you, either. It also requires you, in many cases, to know the Toyota-specific acronym of the function you’re looking for because most of them don’t provide a full name or description, even when you click into them. Better check the manual or the internet.
But hey, it could be worse. Our Land Cruiser could be a base model with an even smaller screen.
Over on the infotainment screen, it’s the opposite situation. Its layout and functions are wildly oversimplified in most cases, so much so I’ve long taken to calling it the Jitterbug flip-phone of infotainment systems (though I need to update that reference, since Jitterbug rebranded as Consumer Cellular). With the odd exception of the needlessly layered radio interface, the other three primary functions are all very basic by today’s standards. I’m sure Ted Danson approves, but younger buyers will be underwhelmed. Thank goodness it does wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
What We Like About The Land Cruiser’s Infotainment System
Spend enough time banging your head against this unergonomic wall, and you’ll find a high degree of customizability in the instrument cluster, and that’s something I love. At the top level, there are multiple layouts to choose from, displaying more or less information with various graphics packages.
Once you’ve selected your favorite graphics, you typically have three home screens you can customize. Each one looks basically the same but alters which additional information is displayed in the center of the screen and at the centers of the two round gauges (when selected). If you’re like me and you want different information in different environments with minimal fuss, it’s actually pretty handy. I have one set up for my daily drive with only the information I want the most, another with driver aid information I use when adaptive cruise control and lane centering are engaged, and one strictly dedicated to off-road-specific information.
There’s also, technically, a third screen in the head-up display. Some people find them distracting, but I love them. Having my speed right there on the windshield keeps my eyes on the road more often, as I’m checking that more than anything else. I don’t get a lot of other use out of the limited number of things the main screens can display, especially because I use my phone for navigation, but I like having it all the same.
Hope on the Horizon
There’s reason to hope future Land Cruiser owners will have it better. I recently tested the new Toyota bZ fresh off its midcycle update, which endowed it with, among other things, a new infotainment screen with way more functions. All those vehicle controls previously buried in menus in the instrument cluster have been moved over to the big touchscreen, where they’re easily located by tapping a dedicated icon. This change alone makes the touchscreen way more useful and the safety systems far easier to access. It also moves the climate controls to the screen with neat physical knobs attached to the surface of the screen, which I’m neutral on. They look cool, but I’m fine with the climate controls it has now.
Based on how Toyota usually does things, there’s reason to hope that new screen strategy will eventually propagate across the lineup. If so, it stands to reason the Land Cruiser could get this screen in its own midcycle refresh in a few years. Toyota isn’t commenting on future product, so this is all speculation and wishful thinking, but it’s also entirely plausible. Let’s hope.
For More On Our Long-Term 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser:
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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