Toyota Land Cruisers: move over, Land-Rover!

By Charlie Calderwood

| 22 Apr 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Toyota Land Cruisers: move over, Land-Rover

“There’s something about being in a long-term relationship, that when your wife doesn’t like something… well, maybe it fans the flames,” Thomas Aubrey-Fletcher admits as he attempts to explain his ever-growing collection of Toyota 4x4s.

“I started off with the 100-series, which she said she didn’t like, so I bought another 14!”

The setting for Tom’s barn full of Land Cruisers couldn’t be much more establishment, nestling in his family’s expansive and bucolic Buckinghamshire land holdings.

In a country obsessed with Land-Rovers – and, indeed, where it’s one of only two remaining native marques still building cars in large quantities – there’s a sense of rebellion to this treasure trove of Japanese off-roaders.

Thomas Aubrey-Fletcher’s shrine to Toyota’s rugged Land Cruiser

It all started with a simple search for a new car, when three children, a dog and a rural lifestyle required something large with off-road capability.

Range Rovers were too flashy, and the muscular lines of the green 100-series Land Cruiser that remains Tom’s daily driver seduced him.

After a few months the obsession began to take hold, as he became aware of just how over-engineered these cars are.

“I remember driving it in the pouring rain through the night in northern France, and it just felt so secure,” he explains. “Everything on them is scaled up: just look at the air-filter housing, for example – it’s disproportionately big.”

The Toyota Land Cruiser’s iconic nameplate is a watchword for durability

In the six years since, Tom has bought Land Cruisers from across the model’s history, and even added a few Hilux pick-ups along the way.

But what even is a Land Cruiser? Although Toyota has only sold one model under the name in the UK in recent years, that isn’t true in the rest of the world and you are best off thinking of it much like one of its great rivals, the Range Rover.

It’s a model name, but also effectively a sub-brand, with diverse cars of different wheelbases, bodywork and prices.

It all started as one car, though, with the 1951 Toyota Jeep BJ, a rugged off-roader built for Japan’s National Police Reserve.

This FJ40-series Toyota Land Cruiser wears its patina with pride

The Land Cruiser name wasn’t applied until 1954, at which point exports began, first to Pakistan and soon after Saudi Arabia – where Land Cruisers remain a surrogate national car to this day.

The BJ became the J20 in 1955, which was further updated to the J40 in 1960.

Produced by Toyota in Japan until 1986, but also in Brazil until 2001, the J40 put the Land Cruiser on the map.

With more than a million built, it offered six-cylinder power years before the Land-Rover, but most importantly gained the model its unparalleled reputation for reliability.

The FJ40-series Toyota Land Cruiser’s rugged ability and no-nonsense approach endure

Much of this simply came down to care in construction, but design decisions – such as C-shaped chassis members, rather than the rust-prone, stitch-welded boxes of a contemporary Land-Rover – built in long-term durability.

To this day, few cars resist depreciation quite as well as a Land Cruiser.

Tom’s 1977 FJ40 – the ‘F’ denotes the F-series petrol straight-six engine, the ‘0’ means a short wheelbase – is a real ‘patina car’.

Imported from New Zealand by Tom, it spent most of its life as a market gardener’s runabout.

The Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ40) has a spartan cabin with a simple, painted-metal dashboard

Initially he planned to restore it, but upon seeing it in the metal for the first time decided to keep it as original as possible, refreshing the mechanicals and running it as is, rust holes and all.

It is a remarkably austere vehicle inside, the floors covered only by rubber mats and the body completely unsoundproofed.

Unusually for a Japanese car, the ergonomics have their challenges, too.

One of the hinges for the driver’s seat lies right behind your left foot, such that it can often get in the way when you’re operating the clutch, while the gearchange has a throw that could be measured in miles.

The Toyota Land Cruiser’s F-series straight-six produces 125bhp

That said, the shifter slides into gear smoothly enough once that long throw is negotiated, and its clutch is not overly heavy when your foot is in the right spot.

Typically of a ’60s four-wheel-drive, the helm is a loose-feeling steering box.

The big difference compared to its British rival from behind the wheel is the power on offer.

The 4.2-litre ‘six’ has a third more grunt than even a Series III V8, and delivers that motive effort in a smack of low-down torque.

Toyota’s Land Cruiser (FJ40) is agile off-road

Even on smooth Tarmac the body instantly becomes a cacophony of squeaks and rattles, while the firm leaf springs buck the unloaded rear over the slightest bump.

Taking to an unsurfaced track at as little as 20mph conjures imaginings of frantic, Blood Diamond-style off-road car chases, where you’re sawing at the large wheel to keep it in a straight line while being thrown up and down on the seat.

For the enthusiast community in the western world, however, the Land Cruiser we generally think of is a much more comfortable car that’s better known as the Station Wagon – a line that began in 1967 with the 50-series.

This 60-series Toyota Land Cruiser’s lift kit means plenty of lean

Inspired perhaps by Jeep’s Wagoneer, and predating the Range Rover, the 50-series put a proper car body on top of an extended version of the 40-series chassis.

It was an estate car that could go anywhere.

Despite a near-13-year production run, the 50-series is now the rarest of all Land Cruisers, the so-called ‘iron pig’ today being the one major gap in Tom’s collection.

The 60-series that succeeded it was the first of the Station Wagons to make an impact in Britain, with even Roger Moore buying one at the peak of his fame.

The Toyota Land Cruiser (HJ61) has fabulous decals

Tom has two, but is particularly proud of the 1989 turbodiesel you see here, a machine featuring some of the finest decals to ever grace an automobile.

With full carpeting, a proper plastic dashboard, electric door-mirror adjustment, air conditioning and not a bit of exposed metalwork inside, it’s hard to imagine that this car sat alongside the 40-series in showrooms for six years.

The 60-series was an even more luxurious move, bringing the car closer to Range Rover levels of comfort – although most examples sold in the UK were the naturally aspirated diesel version, cheaper and slower than this high-spec import from Japan.

The 60-series Toyota Land Cruiser’s torquey ‘six’ makes 232lb ft at just 1800rpm

As an early turbodiesel, this Land Cruiser – an HJ61 to true Toyota nerds – offers a narrow powerband, doing its best work between 1500 and 3500rpm (with its redline just 500rpm later).

As a result, it doesn’t feel as rapid as the earlier 40-series – the engine’s output is nearly identical and the car weighs a whole lot more – but nor does it feel outrageously slow, either.

Tom’s example, like many of his cars, has been fitted with a lift kit and larger off-road tyres – something he generally tries to reverse when parts supply allows – which does give the car wallowy handling, but it’s a much more usable road car, with the ride far better than the 40-series and greater refinement.

The Toyota Land Cruiser (HJ61) has an altimeter for serious off-roading fans

The 60 pushed the Land Cruiser forward just as much in its design, however, turning the previously awkward, dumpy 50-series into a handsome vehicle full of neat details such as its simple but distinctive grille, its ceiling-mounted altimeter and pop-out windows in the boot area that continue to make it a favourite with overlanders.

It might just be the most handsome of all Land Cruisers, and laid the template for all subsequent models.

Eventually Toyota did replace the 40-series, midway through the 60’s life, with the J70.

The 60-series Toyota Land Cruiser’s cabin offers more car-like comfort and refinement

Confusingly, though, the Land Cruiser then split into three models: the ‘heavy-duty’ J70, the true successor to the 40, remaining an austere, work-focused vehicle; the Station Wagon; and a new, ‘light-duty’ model that was compact, coil-sprung and powered by smaller engines.

Though still capable off-road, this model line, later labelled Prado (Colorado in the UK), was aimed primarily at the European and Japanese markets, where existing Land Cruisers were proving overbuilt for many users.

For most aficionados – including Tom – it’s the Station Wagon models that represented the Land Cruiser in its purest form from this point on.

The 80-series Toyota Land Cruiser blends modern comforts with familiar ruggedness

The heavy-duty model was frozen in time, remaining in production today with significant modification to be sold in Australia, Latin America, Africa and many Asian markets, while the light duty has always suffered in reputation for its deliberate inferiority.

The 80-series of 1990, meanwhile, is to many the definitive modern-era Land Cruiser.

For a model surrounded by legends of reliability, the 80-series is the peak – when fuel injection and other advancements came on board, but before the advent of more complex electronic systems.

“If you are in the Philippines and you break down, there’s bound to be someone who can fix it,” says Tom of the 80’s appeal.

This low-mileage Toyota Land Cruiser (HDJ80) is pristine inside

Turbodiesel 80s in good condition and with a sub-100,000 mileage are among the most valuable Land Cruisers going.

Tom has four in his collection, but his dark-green 1995 VX is his favourite find of all his Toyotas.

“I just love that car,” he says of the pristine low-miler, the second Land Cruiser he got his hands on.

An original UK model that was used sparingly for most of its life, it is unusually clean and original for a car beloved by off-roading enthusiasts.

The 80-series Toyota Land Cruiser’s handling is secure

Giving a debut to a new engine with a small boost in capacity and four valves per cylinder, the 80-series is a much more ‘normal’ car to drive on modern roads.

The rev range is only slightly broader than its predecessor’s, but it feels much more sprightly, with a greater sense of security in the corners.

The interior is a more luxurious place, too, with leather, wood and a dashboard with soft, moulded curves rather than the boxy right-angles of the 60.

Yet it retains a manual gearbox (now much more precise in its change) and other old-school details such as sliding D-pillar windows.

The Toyota Land Cruiser (HDJ80) got an all-new, 24-valve, straight-six engine

For all of Tom’s love for the 80, however, it’s his sole 100, the first car he bought, that he still runs as his daily driver.

“The 100 just has that little bit more on the road,” he says, referring to its independent front suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and adjustable ride height.

The 100 also introduced a V8 to the Land Cruiser for the first time, though UK cars – badged Amazon for this generation – were more commonly sold with an updated turbodiesel ‘six’.

The exterior is an evolution of the 80-series, but inside it’s a clear jump towards modernity, with a central infotainment screen, rounded surfaces and more stylised buttons.

The Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon (HDJ100) has independent front suspension for a smoother ride

Automatic gearboxes had been available on Land Cruisers before, but the four-speed self-shifter in Tom’s late-model 100 reflects the growing rarity of manuals in all but stripped-out United Nations-spec vehicles.

It is a less charismatic drive as a result, but its ride is more comfortable and refinement is much better, the interior damped as if it’s stuffed with kilos of soundproofing.

Reflecting this plusher specification, Toyota offered an almost identical 105-series that was the same car, but with the 80’s older, simpler suspension, for those who remained suspicious of independent suspension on a true off-road vehicle; it never came to the UK officially.

The 100-series Toyota Land Cruiser’s plush interior

In addition to his Land Cruiser obsession, Tom’s collection extends to that other Toyota with legendary durability: the Hilux pick-up.

Compared to the cockroach for its resilience, and so beloved by low-budget military forces that the Chad-Libya border conflict was named the ‘Great Toyota War’ in 1987 because of its prevalence, the Hilux has provided a lighter, cheaper-to-run and more utilitarian alternative to the Land Cruiser since 1968.

Tom’s particular preference is for the Surf model – so called because the fully enclosed body on the pick-up chassis features a roll-down rear window, allowing it to carry surfboards.

The Toyota Hilux’s light weight and short gearing result in a lively feel

While in the UK the model is best known as a relatively cheap tow vehicle for rural types, the American version – the 4Runner – has developed a cult following all of its own Stateside.

“I just think they’re good cars, even though I don’t surf and have never put a surfboard in,” says Tom.

“I took the whole family to London in one of my Surfs the other day and it was great, M25 traffic and all. It’s a really usable car.”

Though he initially focused on British-market vehicles, Tom has since imported cars from Northern Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand, while he has eyed up plenty in the Middle East, too.

This South African-built Toyota Hilux Raider was a rare find

“What’s really nice is that everyone I deal with who suggests a car to me is not doing it for any personal gain,” says Tom of how he finds many of his Toyotas.

“They are simply saying, ‘Tom, I know you’re on the hunt for a really nice 80-series, so check out this one I found on a website in Dubai.’”

Tom’s final Hilux is a little bit special. A four-door ‘Raider’ model, this fourth-generation Hilux is one of the lesser-known examples of a car that lived an extended life in South Africa.

Replaced in the rest of the world markets back in 1988, this ‘bakkie’ remained in production until 1997 on the Cape.

The Toyota Hilux feels indestructible

It is a remarkably sporty drive, despite being powered by just a 2.2-litre, four-cylinder engine; short gearing, a manual gearbox and the truck’s light weight combine to make it the quickest off the mark of all the vehicles in Tom’s barn.

While the obligatory lift kit makes its steering feel quite vague, it’s a fun thing to chuck around on a twisty farm track, though its relatively firm ride must have been punishing on South African roads.

“None of these was bought as an investment,” says Tom of the future for his ever-growing collection, which is threatening to spill into a nearby second barn soon.

Toyota Land Cruisers are revered all over the world

“I’ve never sold one of my toys,” he adds. “There’s no motivation for flipping one and squeezing out a few grand – I just think that’s pointless at this level.

“That’s the weird thing about having a collection: if I’m lying in bed in another country, I take enormous joy from knowing that back in England, in a barn under covers, are these things that are mine.”

“Compare it with the Porsche 911,” he says, suggesting perhaps the world’s oddest twin test, “strip one down and the reason so many people love them, after the beauty, is because they’re really well engineered.

“The nerds did a good job at the beginning. I think it’s the same with Land Cruisers; you can’t help but build up a following over time because of that.”

The Land Cruiser name has endured for more than seven decades

Relatively content during our visit having recently picked up a fourth 80-series, Tom reckons that it will probably take six months to gather the time, money and motivation to add further to his menagerie.

A 70-series Troop Carrier is high on the shopping list, while the ultimate find would be a Mega Cruiser, the rare, Toyota-built Humvee.

A few months later, however, a message comes through to say that he has picked up two more 80s and a J70 Prado ‘semi-long’ – so by now the second barn must definitely have come into play.

Images: Max Edleston

Factfiles

Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ40)

Sold/number built 1960-’86/c1.1m
Construction steel ladder chassis, steel body
Engine all-iron, ohv 4230cc ‘six’, twin-choke Aisan carburettor
Max power 125bhp @ 3600rpm
Max torque 200lb ft @ 1800rpm
Transmission three/four-speed manual, 4WD
Suspension live axle, leaf springs, telescopic dampers f/r
Steering worm and roller
Brakes drums, with servo
Length 12ft 7in (3840mm)
Width 5ft 6in (1665mm)
Height 6ft 4in (1930mm)
Wheelbase 7ft 6in (2285mm)
Weight 3650lb (1655kg)
0-60mph 18.7 secs
Top speed 84mph
Mpg 16
Price new £3215 (1976)
Price now £15-45,000*

Toyota Land Cruiser (HJ61)

Sold/number built 1980-’92/406,700
Construction steel ladder chassis, steel body
Engine all-iron, ohv 3980cc diesel ‘six’, with turbocharger and mechanical fuel injection
Max power 134bhp @ 3500rpm
Max torque 232lb ft @ 1800rpm
Transmission four-speed manual, 4WD
Suspension live axle, leaf springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted recirculating ball
Brakes discs front, drums rear, with servo
Length 15ft 7in (4750mm)
Width 5ft 11in (1800mm)
Height 5ft 11½in (1815mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 11in (2730mm)
Weight 4188lb (1900kg)
0-60mph 18 secs
Top speed 75mph
Mpg 22
Price new n/a
Price now £20-60,000*

Toyota Land Cruiser (HDJ80)

Sold/number built 1990-’97/550,000
Construction steel ladder chassis, steel body
Engine all-iron, ohc 4164cc diesel ‘six’, with turbocharger and mechanical fuel injection
Max power 168bhp @ 3600rpm
Max torque 280lb ft @ 2500rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, 4WD
Suspension live axle, coil springs, telescopic dampers f/r; front anti-roll bar
Steering power-assisted recirculating ball
Brakes discs, with servo and optional ABS
Length 15ft 10in (4820mm)
Width 6ft 3in (1900mm)
Height 6ft 3in (1900mm)
Wheelbase 9ft 4in (2850mm)
Weight 4784lb (2170kg)
0-60mph 15 secs
Top speed 103mph
Mpg 25
Price new £30,866 (1996)
Price now £10-50,000*

Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon (HDJ100)

Construction steel ladder chassis, steel body
Engine all-iron, ohc 4164cc diesel ‘six’, with turbocharger, intercooler and electronic fuel injection
Max power 202bhp @ 3400rpm
Max torque 317lb ft @ 1200rpm
Transmission four-speed automatic, 4WD
Suspension: front independent, by double wishbones, torsion bars rear live axle, coil springs; telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes discs, with servo and ABS
Length 16ft (4890mm)
Width 6ft 4in (1940mm)
Height 6ft 1in (1860mm)
Wheelbase 9ft 4in (2850mm)
Weight 5489lb (2490kg)
0-60mph 13.6 secs
Top speed 106mph
Mpg 25
Price new £48,160 (2006)
Now £10-45,000*