Why the Land Cruiser 1958 Edition Is Toyota’s Best Off-Road SUV

Toyota has been building Land Cruisers for six and a half decades and has garnered quite a few fans along the way. Motor Trend’s Editor-at-Large Edward Loh is one such fan, with two older Land Cruisers in his stable. So, he was chosen to review the new Land Cruiser 1958 Edition. This Land Cruiser fan has plenty of positive things to say about the 1958 Edition, and Valley Hi Toyota gives you the highlights.

With its round headlights and a few other retro details, the 1958 pays homage to the first Land Cruiser (guess which year it came out) and other early Land Cruiser models. It is the entry-level and least-equipped grade of the new Land Cruiser line, which rings appropriate to anyone familiar with the content of those early Land Cruiser models.

While the 1958 Edition is nowhere near as spartan as those models, with a mix of old and new, it does keep things relatively simple and low-key. For instance, both the front seats and steering wheel are heated but are also manually adjusted with levers instead of electronic controls. The center touchscreen is also just 8 inches, which is large enough to view and operate what you need without dominating the dash as Loh thinks the larger 12.3 display on upper-level Land Cruisers does.

Loh also appreciates the low-key interior controls: “In particular, the 1958 Land Cruiser trim turns the volume down on all the OFFROAD BRO styling, with lots of real, normal-sized dials and buttons and levers, free from notches, knurling, and diamond plating. That there are low-key physical controls for air-conditioning, radio, and off-road modes (center/rear locking diffs) is another old-school blessing, befitting this entry level Land Cruiser.”

Loh owns a 60-series Land Cruiser, which he describes as the last model without a third–row seat, and a 200-series, which was the last Land Cruiser sold in the US before its 2024 re-introduction.

That last model was powered by a 5.7-liter V8. By contrast, the new Land Cruiser is powered by a 2.4-liter turbocharged inline-4 engine with Toyota’s hybrid system. Loh approves: “It’s more than fine, propelling the truck down the road with grace, pace, and frankly astonishing horsepower (326 hp), torque (426-lb-ft), and fuel economy numbers V8 LC owners could only dream about at 22/25 mpg city/highway.

Loh admits that the new powerplant is notably more complex than the relatively low-tech V8, but given the Toyota brand’s nearly 30 years of producing hybrid drivetrains for a variety of vehicles, “If anyone is going to build a dead-nuts reliable hybrid system, you gotta believe it would be Toyota.”

The Land Cruiser 1958 edition has a starting MSRP of $57,900, and the one Loh sampled stickered at $60,790. Those are not economy car prices, but Loh points out that the last Land Cruiser sold in the US sold for $85,665.

Maybe not everyone appreciates the back-to-basics approach as much as Ed Loh, but that is why the 1958 is at the entry-level end of a full Land Cruiser lineup. If you appreciate a true off-road machine that has the goods without swaggering with either posh luxury or overt masculinity, the Land Cruiser is calling to you. We suggest you respond to the call at Valley Hi Toyota, where we keep a good assortment of Land Cruisers in inventory for you to sample.