Toyota Land Cruiser TroopCarrier 2019 off-road review: GXL

The Troopie is available in entry-level two-seater WorkMate spec and top-spec five-seat GXL, which is what I drove on test.

Don't go looking for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto – it's not here.

At $67,990 (plus on-road costs), a Troopie hits your wallet hard – like a surprise gut punch. And it's a massive price-tag for what you actually get... which is not a lot.

If you go looking for in-cabin gear such as Apple CarPlay or Android Auto then you'll be sorely disappointed because none of it is here.

Over and above the WorkMate, it has front fog lamps, aluminium side steps, power windows and antenna, four-speaker audio system, central locking/keyless entry, cruise control plus – and these came in very handy on our test – front and rear diff locks as standard. At least airconditioning – which was a $2761 option up until about two years ago – is also now standard.

The GXL Troopie gets 16-inch steel wheels, rather than alloys.

It has a 4.5-litre turbo-diesel V8 engine – producing 151kW at 3400rpm and 430Nm at 1200-3200rpm – and that is matched to a five-speed manual gearbox.

The Troopie's 4.5-litre V8 is a growly beast.

Fifth gear is pretty tall on this thing – yielding solid power-on at higher speeds – but it could still do with another gear.

It has a part-time 4WD system with high and low range.

Pretty bloody good because that's what it's been designed and engineered for. It's tall and square (so is easy to fill with camping gear, work equipment, backpackers), it has a tough interior (so is able to cop a bashing inside day to day), and it has a robust drivetrain and 4WD system (so is able to drive over, across, and through most terrain).

The Troopie – with its live axles, coils at the front and leaf springs at the rear – will never feel like a sports car. It's noisy and no matter how refined Toyota claims to have made the V8 and its five-speed manual gearbox, it will always feel gruff and agricultural – and cough up more wind-rush roar over the big wing mirrors – compared to pretty much everything else.

The Troopie becomes a bit of a rough rider on chopped-up back-country bitumen and corrugated gravel tracks, tending to skip around, especially with very little onboard, but that's not unforgivable and it settles substantially with a stack of gear inside.

But it was much more at home during prolonged sections of slow-going 4WDing.

It felt solid and settled on sand – it's no zippy dune buggy but it trucks through fine. The river sand was coarse and packed firm and we dropped tyre pressures to 20psi all round to suit. The Troopie's uneven wheel track – 1515mm at the front (to accommodate the V8), 1420mm at the rear – doesn't help its cause in sand as you tend to plow along through your own tracks, but it's not a deal-breaker.

With a wading depth of 700mm and 235mm ground clearance, enough to clear most submerged obstacles, this Toyota was never fazed during any water crossings. It has a snorkel as standard.

The Troopie's low-range gearing is so very low that it's able to crawl up the steepest of driveable inclines with no difficulty – even those criss-crossed by deep ruts. Generally, 4WD Low first gear was enough to get the Troopie up anything, but we took on a few very difficult hills so we engaged front and rear diff locks to give us extra traction. It has auto locking hubs.

Engine braking held the Troopie firm on the steep rocky downslopes ward.

Its 16-inch skinny tyres – Bridgestone Dueler A/Ts (225/95R 16) – aren't ideal for bush-touring so we get rid of those for some you'd be more likely to find all over the place.

Even though it is a natural born off-roader, its bulk sometimes works against: the long wheelbase can prove to be a burden through deeply rutted hills or inclines/declines lumpy with sharply angled rocks or pitted by steep-sided potholes.

It's tall and blocky so may pose a tip-over risk if driven through deep ruts or sideways across the face of a steep slope – which you should never do anyway.

Strong winds, abrupt shifts in onboard load, abrupt or severe changes in gradient can upset the tall Troopie.

It remains a great touring prospect though – it's capable of swallowing a ton of people, dogs, camping gear and more – well, not literally a ton but a lot. Also, it has a 90-litre main and a 90-litre sub tank.

Towing capacity is 750kg (unbraked) and 3500kg (braked). It has a 975kg payload, a GVM of 3330kg and a GCM of 6800kg.

The TroopCarrier has no ANCAP rating because it has not been tested yet. It does have Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Hill-start Assist Control (HAC), Electronic Brake-force Distribution and Active Traction Control (A-TRAC) but it is still missing a lot of high-tech safety aids that are now standard in most other 4WDs. A major sin: it has a lap seatbelt for the middle back-seat passenger.