The Cold Never Bothered Our 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser, Anyway
We took our Land Cruiser to the mountains to test its winter weather capability, and it barely noticed.
In Southern California, most of us pay the weather tax to avoid the cold, so when we need to test a vehicle in wintry conditions, it’s time for a road trip. I took our yearlong review 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser 500 miles north to Lake Tahoe in the middle of January to see how it handles ice and snow.
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California Winter
Ideally, there would be inches or even feet of snow on the ground, or at the very least freshly plowed roads to test its grip. Unfortunately for this story, it hadn’t snowed in a few weeks, and the roads were mostly clear, but warm days in the upper 40s and cold nights in the low 20s made for snowmelt on the roads during the day and fresh ice forming overnight. And although the area surrounding Lake Tahoe is mostly private property, there are a few public parking lots and forest service roads open and unplowed in the winter for me to play on.
The Right Tires?
We ordered our Land Cruiser set up for off-roading, so we kept the standard 18-inch wheels and Michelin LTX Trail all-terrain, all-season tires. They’re not the most aggressive off-road tire on the market by any means, but in our testing they performed shockingly well climbing trails in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. They’re mud and snow rated (M+S), so they have some winter capability, but they’re not 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMS) rated, and they’re not winter tires. (3PMS-rated tires are considered nearly as good as winter tires, but winter tires are by far the best.) If we were stopped by the Highway Patrol at a chain checkpoint, we’d be required to chain up, so we brought some along, just in case.
It goes without saying, if you live in an area that gets snow in the winter, 3PMS-rated tires or preferably proper winter tires are a must. For those of us who just visit, an M+S rating will suffice in good winter weather but will need to be supplemented by chains if the snow starts falling on your drive.
The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway
Despite its tires just being OK for the conditions, the Land Cruiser was almost unfazed by the snow and ice. Icy patches running across the roads and parking lots never caused me to slide around or set off the traction and stability control. The sipes—thin channels cut into the tire tread blocks—dug into the ice and kept the Toyota sure-footed all over town. To be sure, I made a point of coming to a full stop on any icy patch I could and then taking off again. Under normal acceleration, the tires bit, and only aggressive acceleration caused a slight bit of tire slip before the traction control kicked in and stopped it.
In fact, the combination of good tires and the Land Cruiser’s full-time four-wheel-drive system meant I never had to use any of the other tools at my disposal. At minimum, there’s a Snow driving mode, which would adjust the throttle response and traction and stability control, but Auto mode worked just fine. If things got really bad, I could’ve locked the center and rear differentials to manually shift power away from slipping wheels to ones with traction, but it never came up.
To be sure, though, I needed snow, so I went and found some. An unplowed trailhead dirt parking lot provided several inches of snow over large patches of ice, all of it bumpy and uneven. I drove the Land Cruiser all over it, stopping, turning, and backing up, and it barely broke a sweat. Any wheel slip was immediately remedied by the traction control clamping down the brake on the offending wheel and sending the power elsewhere. No special modes or low range or lockers needed.
For my final test, I found a steep dirt access road for some powerlines all covered in snow. Again in Auto mode with no special tools engaged, the Land Cruiser trundled right up the hill, even stopping and restarting in the steepest part. It took some extra throttle to plow through the snow, and there was a hint of wheel slip here and there, but the Land Cruiser drove right through it. Again, no modes or lockers or chains required.
Coming back down, though, I was reminded of the important difference between all-season tires and winter tires. On the steep descent, hitting the brakes too sharply caused the Toyota to break traction and slide a few feet while the ABS system furiously worked to regain traction. When the tires don’t have grip, though, there’s only so much the computers can do. In this case, the chains would’ve helped, and if I were driving a longer distance in those conditions, I would’ve installed them.
