Best used off-road 4x4 for 2024

The 2018 Toyota Landcruiser 200 Series Sahara has ploughed ahead of its rivals to win Australia’s best off-road 4x4 category in the carsales Best Used Cars awards for 2024, proudly presented by Bingle.

It was a long time coming for the LC200, which was overshadowed by its smaller stablemate, the LandCruiser Prado, over the previous four years and without even being named one of our finalists in 2023.

Yet the 200 Series LandCruiser’s off-road credentials have never been in doubt for those who drive to some of Australia’s most remote locations – frequently with the whole family on board and maybe towing a caravan.

The advent of COVID-19 and its impact on the global supply chain, with the consequent effect on the used-car market, has revealed just how prized the LandCruiser was. At a time when Toyota was gearing up to launch the new 300 Series in Australia, the 200 Series was still attracting buyers who would pay well over the odds to get behind the wheel of a vehicle first sold here back in late 2007.

Buyers went nuts once word got out that the new 300 Series LandCruiser would be powered by a V6 turbo-diesel rather than the V8 of the LC200, pushing the price of some used examples well above the new list price of the flagship model.

As we noted in March 2021: “The highest current asking price is $195K for a top-shelf 2021 Toyota LandCruiser Sahara Horizon with 1000km on the clock in South Australia – about $63,000 or 55 per cent above its list price of $131,896 plus on-road costs.”

Remember those innocent days when $70,000 seemed like a lot to pay for a LandCruiser…?

When it comes right down to it, buyers loved what the 200 Series LandCruiser represented and what it could offer: actual off-road prowess, a generous towing capacity, reasonable on-road manners and a strong-performing 4.5-litre diesel V8 coupled to an efficient six-speed automatic transmission.

To illustrate the extent of Australians’ love for the LC200, Toyota sold 10 LandCruisers for every Y62 Nissan Patrol in 2018, and that was pretty typical of the period. Even in the LC200’s final year on sale, Toyota sold over 13,000 units, outselling the Y62 Patrol at a rate of over four to one.

RedBook’s score for the Toyota LandCruiser Sahara was 40.2 points, boosted by the outstanding results for retained value and safety. Currently, a 2018 LandCruiser Sahara will set you back $98,300, according to RedBook. The price for the same variant when new was $120,330. Our judges scored the flagship LC200 a nearly perfect 49 points, for a total of 89.2 out of 100.

In 2018, carsales reviewer Rod Chapman took the family away in a LandCruiser Sahara and returned impressed by the big Toyota. Any downsides, he said, were “nit-picking, not deal-breaking”.

“The Toyota LandCruiser is a giant in the Aussie four-wheel drive landscape and this 200 Series Sahara – with 4.5-litre V8 twin-turbo diesel – represents the pinnacle of the breed. With 200kW/650Nm fed through its six-speed automatic transmission, there's ample grunt for blacktop touring, off-road adventures and primo toy hauling.”

Here’s what one of our judges thinks of the 2018 Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series in 2024:

As capable as the 300 Series LandCruiser is, the 200 Series has been an icon in the LandCruiser story and will remain so for years to come, making it a deserving winner in its category of the 2024 carsales Best Used Car awards, proudly presented by Bingle.

The Ford Everest Titanium scored 36.7 points from RedBook and 42 points from the judges for a total of 78.7.
RedBook value: $44,800

The Toyota LandCruiser Prado Kakadu scored 39.3 points from RedBook and 36.0 points from the judges for a total of 75.3.
RedBook value: $63,350

What makes a car eligible for carsales Best Used Cars awards?
• Less than six years old
• Standard side-curtain airbags
• Standard Bluetooth
• Standard electronic stability control (mandated for Nov 2013)
• Standard reversing camera for SUVs

How did RedBook weight the categories for scoring?
• 10 per cent for resale
• 10 per cent for ANCAP rating
• 20 per cent for cost of ownership
• Five per cent for service intervals
• Five per cent for number of days for vehicle to sell