Hagerty Discovers the Best Toyota Land Cruiser Is a Lexus

Of course you’ve heard that Toyota brought the Land Cruiser name back to America. The badge isn’t attached to the LC 300 series the rest of the world gets, the genuine successor to the J200 Land Cruiser that left our market at the end of 2021. Ours is a rebadged version of the new Lexus GX, meaning a blocky four-wheel drive with a four-cylinder hybrid powering all kinds of high-tech off-road technologies. This switcheroo begs investigation and a verdict: Is this a Land Cruiser or not?

Jason Camissa at Hagerty went to Cruiser heaven to find out. In doing so, he provides a thorough lesson in Land Cruiser history going back to the origins, when the US military settled in Japan after World War II. The military requested a proper 4x4 service vehicle for troops stationed on the islands, Toyota tried to win the contract in 1951 with what it called the Toyota Jeep BJ—the “B” standing for the Chevrolet Stovebolt straight-six engine Toyota used as inspiration for its inline-six, the “J” standing for “Jeep.”

When military leaders chose a Willys product instead, Toyota decided to put its truck into production anyway. And when Willys trademarked the name “Jeep,” Toyota went fishing for another name, drawing Land Cruiser out of the marketing hat. Following an intense development program, Toyota debuted the FJ40 in 1960, launching one of the most rugged 4x4 trucks on the market and a global off-roading dynasty.

Oh, but there’s so much more to the story, and this is one of those vids where the journey is even better than the destination. We suspect that Toyota execs who had the heart to watch to the end asked their assistants to get the nearest burn unit on the line.

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