2024 Toyota Land Cruiser: Full-Time 4WD & More for Bears
Your ultimate 4-Wheel Drive vehicle that isn’t as big as a shipping container? How about the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser, a sturdy, handsome beast that gets the love but also needs you to pay attention to it. Especially while driving.
Situated in the Toyota lineup, right in between the 4Runner and the Sequoia, the completely-redesigned Land Cruiser is considered a midsized SUV, but never be fooled by labels (on cars or on people). This is a tall, truck-based SUV that in some circles is seen as a Luxury SUV.
(Specifically, I tested the 1958 trim. Still not sure why Toyota calls it ‘1958’.)
U.S News and World Report says the 2024 Land Cruiser has “stout, all-terrain prowess”. Indeed it does, proving itself to be high and mighty out on the open range. It’s also high and mighty in the city, and that can be of concern in parking garages and in traffic congestion.
Thus, make sure all-time 4WD is really what you want, and that you can shelter it properly. Like anything else you have tried, this may be too big for you. And yet – it may be just right, so please test-drive first.
This ‘truck’ is also a hybrid, so you might think the average miles per gallon of 23 is a little shy of fantastic. But honestly, given its turbo / 2.4-liter engine that offers 326 horses (hey, when you are big, you need more of everything), that mileage is pretty decent.
And as with any beast this size, there are some considerations (some would call them drawbacks).
This Baby Huey is big; you can’t just stop it on a dime. Maneuvering can be a challenge, again because it’s big. We’ve all had those big boys named Land Cruiser who just take up a lot of room and can be clunky no matter how gentle you are… and yet, they are still gorgeous.
Toyota offers one of the easiest tech / infotainment systems out there. No need for an advanced degree in Way-Back Machines just so you can sync your phone and go, or to figure out how to cool down or power up. Many buttons and knobs are on the dash, just like your father had on his old reliable FM-radio in-dash music system. No sliding scales or spoken miscues on this in-dash teleprompter when all you want to do is adjust something. I love it!
And as men, we all have needed to adjust and want to do it with a gentle touch, not through memorization of commands.
Mission Accomplished. Now we can run the banner over the aircraft carrier.
And now – a post-election postmortem of sorts.
‘It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day,’ sang Nina Simone way back in the 1960s in her song Feeling Good.
She sang of hard times and hope (most notably in a song called Mississippi Goddamn) and her career suffered because she could not keep her mouth shut.
We here at Bear World would never ask you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. But we do ask that you to do one thing, just for your own Bear World: Do not censor yourself.
There are too many of our enemies are actively trying to silence us. Let them try. Do not do their work for them.
In the meantime, please continue to enjoy Bear World – and the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser.
And continue to live with confidence. Confidence is what it will take – and we will all need plenty of that going forward.
I did not serve my country just so people who did not serve can blow it up.
I did not serve just so those who avoided service could call me a sucker and a loser.
Happy Belated (US) Veterans Day. Thank you to all Bears, in uniform and out.
