wordplay: Greg Bloom
image: David Zartman/4WD Toyota Owner Magazine

It was a 48 hour tour de force of checking things off “the list”. You know what I mean. Many people, men more so than women, have a checklist of “things” we want to do before we die. Some are silly and, in some cases, down right stupid, but that’s what makes us men, right? (Grunt, grunt) This particular press preview retreat fulfilled not one, but three of my check list items in just two days. I accomplished a Trip to Big Sky Montana, 4-Wheeled on a ski slope and visited Yellowstone Nat’l Park. Although I failed to see a moose or Yogi Bear and missed Old Faithful’s timely eruption by four minutes, it was an amazing short trip through the park. We did catch glimpses of a grip of other wildlife and meandered through the natural steam emissions from some of the smaller geysers in the park.

This, all in the unprecedented 50th Anniversary edition of the Land Cruiser, the 1st vehicle ever produced by Toyota. I could ramble for hours about the new Crawl Control feature if I thought it would interest you, but you honestly have to experience it yourselves. Words won’t justify the extent to which Toyota went with this new facet. In short, when you encounter hairy terrain which demands your undivided attention at the helm… let the wheels, supported by their independent suspension and automatic throttle and break, in one of the three set speeds, handle the rest. At one to three miles per hour, the Land Cruiser will literally crawl over the most rugged, rocky landscape and up or down the steepest grades imaginable in a family SUV…and you never have to touch the gas or break.

Never intended to be marketed to the masses, high production volume is being traded off to make room for twice the development time and field testing of the average automobile. In fact, over 250,000 miles of field testing and stress tests were done to insure the uncommon owner of this ride get his or her $63k plus worth of quality standard performance and safety features without a hitch. For instance, the frame is now 40% stronger and it boasts a Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS) similar to that of the Lexus GX 470, their flagship luxury tank. Its 5.7 Liter V-8 has more power and better fuel economy than the previous model, getting 13 mpg in the city and 18 on the highway (previously 12 and 15). Again, if you’re putting this kind of money up because you gotta have the big fancy SUV, who are you to kvetch about fuel efficiency?

Some other fun bells and whistles are the Land Cruiser’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System, which give an accurate reading of all fours and the spare, new under-the-dash panels added this year to minimize engine sound and a cooler box in the standard center console for keeping your food and NON-alcoholic beverages cold. Smart key system, ten standard airbags, a 14 speaker 605 watt Standard JBL 6-Disk Audio package and a Gen 5 software navigation system complete with rear-view monitor and sonar on all 4 corners land the Land Cruiser in its highest game ever and give it rugged mountaineer and soccer mom approvals alike.

Based on personal experience, I was sold in ’03 when we were hit with 3.5 ft of snow in D-town. You remember…when Vinyl’s roof collapsed. I was stranded in a house for a couple days with four women and three tots, but I had my boy Tommy’s Land Cruiser to stock up on food right as the storm began and once it dissipated almost three days later I spent the next few days helping get neighbors and friends out of snow banks, driveways and parking lots.
There’s more than one reason why 42% of Land Cruiser owners are return customers.

Overall, though Big Sky fell a little short of supplying me with nightlife stories as have press preview retreats in my past, the extensive on and off road courses and the treat of being able to push the ’08 Land Cruiser to its limits gave me plenty to squawk about. Toyota has done it again!

Toyota.com