I Regret buying the new Toyota Land Cruiser

This is likely to be my last video with the 250 Land Cruiser. There is a 99% chance that I am getting rid of this in the next week or so. So I'm gonna go over why I have decided to get rid of this after only a year and about 10,000 miles. Now I'm going to split this up into minor issues and major issues. We will start with the minor issues. The first minor issue is the plastics. They do not hold up well so far. You can see here on the front ends, the top layer is already starting to peel. And I don't keep the Land Cruiser in the sun all day. I have it in this giant shed, so it's in the shade. While we're talking about plastics, the plastics show scratches like crazy. You should have used this more durable plastic that's on the Grenadier that just doesn't show stuff as much. The next minor annoyance is the tire offset fitment setup. I've gone up to 34s on my 250 Land Cruiser and I had to do this to have enough clearance for off-roading. You have to do the stock offset, which is a plus 65 if I remember right, so super positive offset. Jeep and Ford with the Wrangler and the Bronco, respectively, allow you to have larger tires with not a crazy aggressive offset, but with a more flush offset. And again, this is quite minor, but to have big tires in the Land Cruiser, you gotta have kind of a dorkier look, unless you're willing to cut stuff up. The next thing is just how cheap a lot of the materials sound and feel with this new Land Cruiser. As long as they are durable in the long run, it won't be that big of a deal, but for a vehicle that starts at $55,000 and can go up to over $70,000, you think they could have used slightly more premium materials. Most of the off-road tech with the new Land Cruiser is standard across most of the packages, but stuff like the stabilizer bar disconnect as an option, I think they should just make all of it standardized. Because again, this starts at well over $50,000 for a 1958, and the fact that a 1958 doesn't have, if I remember right, multi-terrain select and the stabilizer bar disconnect is a little bit disappointing. Toyota should offer more off-road tech for less money with the new Land Cruiser. That's all for the minor annoyances with the Land Cruiser. Let's get into the more major ones. First of which is the ground clearance. I have 34-inch tall tires on this 250 Land Cruiser, so you think it would have really good clearance. I mean, a Wrangler or a Bronco with 34-inch tall tires has crazy clearance. But after doing more off-roading with it, what I've discovered is it still has slightly less clearance than the Grenadier, which has 32s, they're almost 33s. And the 200 Series Land Cruiser has even smaller tires than the Grenadier, but it still has more clearance than the 250. So I think that Toyota needs to just slightly change the packaging underneath to tuck things up a little bit more to help out with those clearance issues. No 250 Land Cruiser video is complete without complaining about the cargo area. The packaging is and will always be extremely obnoxious and not great to use whatsoever. And the seats don't even fold flat. Like they could have at least given us that if they're going to rob us of a few inches of cargo below. You could have at least made the seats fold flat. The next item is the bumper setup. All around the Land Cruiser, we've got lots of plastic cladding and plastic bumpers. Both Jeep, Ford, and Ineos offer steel bumpers at this price point. It is beyond me as to why Toyota did not put steel bumpers on this new Land Cruiser. And I'd like to remind you that a big part of the marketing with this new Land Cruiser is not only is it more affordable, but it's more of an off-road type vehicle. Now the 200 Series does not have steel bumpers from the factory, obviously, but they at least painted them to match. So they should have at least done this with the 250. And before you tell me, well, the 250 is a more affordable vehicle. That's why it doesn't have the painted elements. Again, starting price, well over $50,000 with the loaded up price being well over $70,000. A Mazda CX-5 is sub $40,000 and it has painted fender flares and everything else painted. So I think Toyota has enough money to be able to paint more elements on the Land Cruiser. I think that Toyota has kind of forgotten that it is 2025, it's not 2005. This reminds me of like the Nissan Xterra with all the plastic cladding. Like that was okay over 20 years ago when cars were a lot more affordable, but now the cars are expensive. Yeah, this doesn't fly. Fuel range and fuel economy is still an issue. Over the course of my ownership, I have averaged just over 200 miles per tank. And my fuel economy has ranged between about 15 miles per gallon, sometimes even 14 miles per gallon, upwards of 20 to 21 miles per gallon. Essentially, if it's nice and warm, so between 60 to maybe 80 degrees, this thing will get good fuel economy. But if it's hotter than that or colder than that, the fuel economy drops massively. Now I've had a lot of Toyota people accuse me of driving like a maniac, and that's why I'm not getting good fuel economy in my Land Cruiser. I don't drive like a maniac. I drive like a grandpa. Again, I'm married, I have two kids, like I got stuff to live for. And so I don't drive crazy whatsoever. And on top of that, most of my driving is on either country roads, which there's not a lot of stop and go there because there's no traffic, or on the interstate. So hypothetically, I should be getting the best possible fuel economy in the new Land Cruiser considering I'm not in some crazy congested city all the time. My two cents on why the fuel economy's been so bad for me is first off, the climate I live in. Utah's an extreme climate, so it's gonna put a little bit more stress on any powertrain. And then also the fact this is a hybrid. I've tested a bunch of hybrids and EVs, and all of them massively suffer here in Utah. I just don't think that hybrids and electric cars can handle an extreme climate like Utah. Again, it could get up to 80 degrees at one part of the day, and then it could drop all the way down to 40. Now that doesn't happen every single day, but we do have big temperature swings, and Utah is at higher elevation. Most of my time, I'm spending at between 5,000 to 7,000 feet above sea level. And so it's gonna push the powertrain a little bit more than if you are at sea level. And I will mention the Land Cruiser with the V8 and the Grenadier are very consistent with their fuel economy and with their powertrain performance. But I think the simple fix here is for Toyota to just add a bigger fuel tank to the 250 Land Cruiser. It needs to have at least 24 gallons of capacity. Horrible lighting with this shot, but the next thing is actually the solid rear axle. The 200 Series Land Cruiser stays nice and planted both on-road and off-road with the front and rear suspension. Both the 250 Land Cruiser and the GX bounce all over the place with the rear end. Now, it's not this crazy uncontrollable mess, but there is some real nasty body-on-frame solid axle shutter, and I don't understand why both the 250 and the Lexus GX do this. The GX even has EKDSS, which is supposed to be superior to the KDSS that I have in my 200 Series. But either way, the rear end needs to be recalibrated in both the 250 and the Lexus GX. Now, finally, the biggest issue of all is, again, related to the powertrain. The hybrid four-cylinder with this 250, like I said, varies massively with its performance based on what's happening outside temperature-wise. And also, I've noticed a little bit of a change when it comes to the humidity as well. And when you add the horrible fuel economy on top of that for a four-cylinder turbo hybrid, it's not an appealing powertrain. I will give credit where credit is due. I have had zero issues with my four-cylinder turbo hybrid. Lots of people have had issues with their GXs with the V6. And so, so far, it actually seems like the four-cylinder, for some reason, is more reliable than the six-cylinder. But reliability aside, people just don't want this powertrain in this vehicle. I think that it's great to have it as an option, but it should not be the only option in the Toyota truck lineup for the Land Cruiser, 4Runner, and Tacoma. And I think that resale value makes my point for me. 4Runner TRD Pros, fifth gens, are now selling for more money than used one-year-old Land Cruisers. Lexus GX 550s with the twin-turbo V6 that's problematic are selling for over-original MSRP used, whereas these Land Cruisers are selling for under-original MSRP used. So the market has made its decision, Toyota. They value V6s in vehicles like this. They don't want four-cylinder turbo hybrids. Now, the best way to do this, in my opinion, is to ditch the non-hybrid four-cylinder and offer the V6 as an upcharge. So basically make the four-cylinder hybrid the standard powertrain for the new Toyota trucks, and then offer the V6 as an upgrade for an extra $2,000, maybe $3,000. Many people will still go for the four-cylinder hybrid because it'll be more affordable, and on paper, it'll be more fuel efficient. And so Toyota will still be able to most likely keep their overall company fuel economy rating they need to keep so they don't get fined a bunch by the US government. But that's kind of my two cents on the powertrain thing. Now, of course, this isn't to say that I don't like the new 250 Land Cruiser. There are many things that I do like. For example, the new multi-terrain select system, the 360 camera, the camera rear view mirror. I absolutely love these seats. And the interior layout. Like, everything was really well done when it comes to the interior of the 250 Land Cruiser. And I love the exterior styling. Despite the plastic bumpers, it's a good-looking car. But yeah, it definitely feels like a half-baked cookie. Like, it's good-tasting, right? The dough's good, but it needs to sit in the oven for a little bit longer. Now, I haven't officially sold the Land Cruiser. I'm currently working on a deal to trade in the Land Cruiser and the Grenadier. There are chances that that deal might not go through. There's a lot of moving parts within that deal. But if everything works out, then yes, I will be saying goodbye to the Land Cruiser and also to the Ineos Grenadier. And I know that people think that I hate the Land Cruiser. I have really enjoyed my time with this Land Cruiser. Like I said, I just think that Toyota needs to make some changes to it. And I'm very optimistic that Toyota will make changes because they do listen to their customers. They have a history of that. And they also have a history of just making their product better over the course of the production run. I mean, look at the 200 Series Land Cruiser for example. It changed massively over its production run. I mean, look at the 200 Series that came out versus this Heritage Edition that was the second to last year of production. I've reviewed the first iteration of the 200 Series and I think it's a really good product. It's not as good as the second variation of the 200 Series. Again, the changes they made over the production of this vehicle massively improved it and turned it into what is in my opinion still the best off-road SUV ever made. This vehicle provides so much off-road capability, luxury, daily drivability, features. Like it literally has it, all the packaging with this vehicle. I mean, the space you get in the back, everything, it's just perfect. So I'm actually very optimistic about the 250 Land Cruiser and the Lexus GX550 sibling. Toyota has many years to fine tune things with these vehicles. And I think by the time these are at the end of their production run, it's gonna be a similar situation to the 200 Series Land Cruiser where they are just fantastic. And they'll probably go down in history as being some of the best Prados that Toyota has ever made because of the modern tech that they provide, the luxury, and then hopefully the off-road capability. Again, the off-road capability is really good. They just need to improve that packaging a little bit so it doesn't bottom out on literally everything. So it is most likely time to say farewell to the 250 Land Cruiser. If the deal falls through, then we'll obviously be keeping the Land Cruiser and the Ineos Grenadier, and I'll have to look to a different option. So we'll see what happens there. And just like I said in the Grenadier video, if Toyota makes meaningful changes with this new Land Cruiser, it's likely that I will purchase another one and do another long-term test on it. With the Grenadier, I basically said that they need to add the ability to fit larger tires with that from the factory, add a V8 option, add a sway bar disconnect. If they did that, I'd get another Grenadier. With the 250 Land Cruiser, if they added a V6 option, larger fuel tank, and again, fixed everything underneath to where it's tucked up a little bit higher, I would 100% buy one of these. And if it was packaged like that, just like if the Grenadier was packaged like that, I probably wouldn't want to buy another car ever again. I mean, this styling with a V6, EKDSS, good fuel range, good ground clearance, what more could you want in life?