Toyota Land Cruiser 200 Series 2019 off-road review: VX

Included is a 9.0-inch central touchscreen.
This is the VX, the second-from-top-spec 200 Series, in a four-variant range. Price as tested is $100,865 (plus on-road costs). That's a lot of cash, even for a large luxury SUV wagon, but it does get a reasonable line-up of standard features, including a 9.0-inch central touch-screen with satnav, Bluetooth connectivity, steering-wheel-mounted controls for everything, power leather-accented seats, woodgrain-look interior highlights, a moonroof, Bi-LED headlamps (with dynamic auto-levelling), LED daytime running lights, rain-sensing wipers, 18-inch alloy wheels, black anodised side steps and more.

The 200 series features power leather-accented seats.

Decent changes have come in terms of safety tech because the VX benefitted from the last round of range updates, gaining what were up to then only on the top-spec Sahara, including a multi-terrain monitor (based on four cameras mounted to the Cruiser's exterior), auto-dimming interior and exterior mirrors, and blind-spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert.

KDSS (Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System), which varies sway bar tension to suit the terrain you’re on, is also standard.

From the outside, the 200 is a big imposing unit, and its squared-off appearance is one that's changed little over the years. It’s a basic, blocky large SUV, which looks a bit like what you'd imagine a family-friendly weekend-adventure machine would resemble. So, what’s not to like about that?

The 200 is a big imposing unit.

On gravel, it drives supremely well. Steering remains pretty sharp on loose uneven surfaces, with a nice weight about it, and, despite its bulk, the 200 is reasonably easy to manoeuvre. It sits nice and solid on the track and even sharp corrugations and surprise potholes don't unsettle it.

The coil-spring suspension yields a spongy, comfortable ride even through lumpier gravel stretches, with minimal body roll through corners, no matter how big and ponderous it seems.

The coil-spring suspension yields a spongy, comfortable ride.

The Cruiser’s KDSS, part of the overall comfort-focussed suspension set-up, works pretty well to yield a softer ride off-road and a firmer on-road state of affairs.

The 200 feels even more at home tackling low-speed 4WDing. For a vehicle to excel at this sort of stuff it helps to, among other things, have a seamless balance of old-school mechanicals and high-tech driver-assist aids – and the Cruiser strikes a pretty good balance between the two.

And, though it's a big unit, the 200's off-road measures are decent enough all-round. Approach, departure, and ramp-over angles are claimed as 32, 24 and 21 respectively. The 200 has a listed ground clearance of 225mm, which is only 5mm more than something like a Subaru Forester, and the LandCruiser often feels even lower than that, so it has to be driven with extra concentration and consideration. It has a wading depth of 700mm.

Low-range gearing is gutsy, traction control is efficient and the Cruiser’s Multi-Terrain Select (MTS) system has five settings – Mud & Sand, Loose Rock, Mogul, Rock & Dirt, and Rock – with each designed to adjust grip assistance, throttle input, gear changes and shift times to suit the terrain. MTS is effective, and it's an added weapon in the Cruiser’s off-road arsenal, but make sure you don't rely on this or any other driver-assist tech, for that matter.

The 200's off-road measures are decent enough all-round.

The Multi-Terrain Monitor (MTM) uses four cameras mounted on the Cruiser’s exterior to show the driver obstacles you might otherwise not be able to see. It’s effective and offers the driver greater visibility but, for me, it was a bit glitchy and tricky to get properly working and, besides, I reckon nothing beats sticking your head out the window or, even better, getting out of the vehicle and walking a hill, track or water crossing before taking it on. Because that's when you want to discover the track needs clearing or building, before you've committed to driving it, not while you're actually trying to drive it. 

Tech does have its place though and, when tracks become tight and tree-ed in, the Cruiser’s turn-assist system, which applies the brakes to your inside rear wheel at low speeds to help reduce your turning circle, comes in pretty handy.

It was never troubled through deep mud-holes or wheel ruts. It has decent wheel travel but its KDSS also helps to deliver even more suspension flex as you go through ruts.

A hill-climb is a good challenge for any off-roader, so it’s a top spot to test the 200’s all-round capability – but we bit off more than we could chew this time.

On a very steep hill consisting of loose gravel, then a sharp rock crest leading into a deep wash-out and, higher up the slope, even steeper, smooth, slippery rock, the Cruiser failed to get even half-way up the incline. In the 200's defence, it was riding on Dunlop Grandtrek AT25 tyres, which (though marketed as an off-road tyre) lack efficacy in the rough stuff, and those were left at a gravel-road-friendly 34 psi rather than a lower rock-crawling-suited psi measure, for this 200, like 20-25 psi. Also, the hill looks like it's only ever been successfully attempted by heavily modified 4WDs.

It was riding on Dunlop Grandtrek AT25 tyres.

We shifted our challenge to a nearby hill that had a short steep section and the 200, with its great low-range gearing in action as well as crawl control engaged, tackled it without any strife; up and then down in a safe, steady, controlled fashion as a result of strong engine braking and traction control. You can cycle through crawl control's fixed low speeds on a centre console dial to minimise loss of traction or wheel slip in order to adjust the vehicle's momentum to suit the severity of the terrain's slope.

It’s all quite effective tech, especially when used to complement each other, but nothing beats a proper recon of the route ahead and safe, controlled driving when you’re actually driving it.

A bit of a dent in the 200's potential as a realistic off-road tourer has nothing to do with its 4WD capability, but everything to do with its packability, as it loses valuable cargo space to those third-row seats that, when stowed away, protrude into the cargo area.

It has a 750kg unbraked towing capacity and 3500g braked towing capacity.

But there's denying the 200 is a heavy hauler – so much so that we'd used it as the control vehicle during a recent Tesla Model X tow test. It has a 750kg unbraked towing capacity and 3500g braked towing capacity.

A full-sized spare tyre is mounted under the Cruiser.

The 200 has plenty of driver-assist tech (including blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, trailer-sway control and that multi-terrain monitor), as well as 10 airbags.

It has a five-star ANCAP rating from testing conducted in 2011.