Toyota LandCruiser 2008 Review

Oh dear! Or another four-letter expletive. Scrambling up a daunting widow-maker climb outside Alice Springs, the new petrol V8 Landcruiser heads towards the desert skyline in feet-off crawler mode. No problem, until I miss steering away from a sizeable snag. Chunky tyres momentarily protest with a spray of dirt and gravel, then pause.

After a fraught split second, and without any input from me, the crawl computer susses the situation accurately. Like an expert rockhopper finding cliffside toeholds, it then expertly levers us out of trouble. With various combinations of wheels doing the driving, we continue up, up and over the top. Amazing. For an equally impressive encore, the Cruiser shuffles down a very demanding descent, with nothing more than steering required.

After experiencing such feats, you can appreciate that Crawl Control brings serious off-roading driveability to another, somewhat automated, level. However, driver sensibility permitting, Crawl mode allows the Cruiser 200 to negotiate all sorts of adverse conditions that may otherwise exceed the limits of skill and traction.

Exclusive to the petrol Cruiser 200, Crawl mode operates only in low range and at speeds below 10km/h. It utilises the Cruiser's wheel-speed sensors, ABS actuator, G-sensor and electronic throttle to automatically maintain a steady low speed while minimising both wheelspin and wheel lock-up.

The diesel does its thing a bit differently. Hill-start assistance and slip-limiting Torsen centre diff are standard (with the petrol engine also). But instead of a specific crawler faculty, the diesel relies on humungous hill-dwarfing torque while invoking sophisticated traction control and stability systems to keep directing the drive where it has best effect.

For demandingly steep descents, the diesel's feet-off DAC (downhill assist control) employs low-range gearing, steady light throttle and selective (very audible) brake applications to limit the Cruiser's speed and maintain steering. Works like a beauty, too.

Not sure the same can be said for Toyota's newly developed All-Terrain ABS, which promises shorter stops than regular ABS on gravel, sand and such, but still doesn't have as much bite in those conditions as locked non-ABS brakes.

The 200's other notable technical inclusion is the Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System. It's standard on all models except the diesel GXL, where it's a $2500 option. Confirmation of the KDSS's benefits will have to wait, as the long, open roads of Alice Springs reveal very little about a vehicle's handling characteristics.

What such highways do make patently clear is that you'd need to forage deep within the luxury car market to cruise as comfortably and quietly as in the LC200.

Credit for this pervasive sense of opulence is shared between the outstandingly refined drivetrains, and well-developed body and running gear.

The front suspension replaces the former torsion bars with coil springs. A coil-sprung, four-link live rear axle remains, as does separate body-chassis construction. However, torsional resistance is up a claimed 40 percent over the outgoing model, and bending stiffness by 20 percent. The whole package feels and sounds tight, and its suspension's insulation/isolation is remarkable; punishing washboard corrugations are overridden with negligible noise and few if any jitters.

The 200 has grown by 60mm in length, 30mm in width, and the cabin length has been extended by 130mm - making the interior an even more realistic eight-seater proposition.

Even so, considering that growth and the added features, Toyota has done well to contain the weight increase to just 70kg in the heaviest petrol model.

Summary? The Landcruiser 200 continues to offer supreme off-road ability but, now, with impressive on-road touring capability.

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