Whether you want to cross continents or forge entirely new roads for others to follow, the Toyota Land Cruiser 70-series will probably be your vehicle of choice. It’s been around for ages, but regular updates through the years have kept its mechanical bits up to date. One consistent feature of this range is their rugged dependability, and this includes the selection of three available engines. But which one works best from an efficiency point of view?
Catering for a very wide section of buyers, the Toyota Land Cruiser can be had with one petrol engine or two flavours of diesel power. Most of the engine choices are available with a variety of body shapes (except the station wagon, which only comes with diesel engines), but the one thing they all have in common is longevity. The rest of their drivelines are similar, with selectable four-wheel drive and 5-speed manual gearboxes across the board. Let’s investigate the three engines on offer and how they compare in the bid for the best fuel efficiency.
Toyota Land Cruiser 79 4.0 V6
This well-regarded (but rather thirsty) petrol mill is the entry-level engine and can be had with either a single- or double-cab body configuration. It produces 170 kW and 360 Nm in this application and is offered in various other Toyota bakkies and SUVs. We’ll only consider the double cab for this comparison to compensate for the various body styles and engines available.
Average fuel consumption – combined cycle (manufacturer’s claim): 13.6 L/100 km
Estimated fuel range: 955 km
Toyota Land Cruiser 79 4.2D
This engine has been under Land Cruiser bonnets for decades and is well-known for its robust characteristics. It’s also quite infamous for its sluggish performance, with only 96 kW and 285 Nm on offer from its 4.2-litre diesel engine. Because it lacks modern refinements such as turbocharging or common-rail diesel injection, it’s also surprisingly thirsty for the performance.
Average fuel consumption – combined cycle (manufacturer’s claim): 13.0 L/100 km
Estimated fuel range: 1000 km
Toyota Land Cruiser 79 4.5D-4D LX V8
The range-topping 70-series engine has a mountain of torque, but it’s still tuned for durability rather than outright power. Under the bonnet is a single-turbo version of the V8 twin-turbo diesel, which serves in the 200-series luxury SUVs, which means an inevitable drop in outputs. Still, its 151 kW and 430 Nm move the hefty Cruiser with reasonable enthusiasm without paying too much penalty at the pumps.
Average fuel consumption – combined cycle (manufacturer’s claim): 11.9 L/100 km
Estimated fuel range: 1092 km
Verdict:
All 70-series Land Cruisers are rather thirsty beasts, but there are definite advantages and downsides to each of their available engines. The V6 petrol is likely to have the liveliest performance, but its profligate drinking habits mean that it’s an expensive animal to keep around. The old-stager 4.2 diesel used to have the lowest claimed official fuel consumption and the longest estimated fuel range, but this has changed recently. While it remains one of the more efficient engines in the range, the advantage over the more modern V8 turbodiesel isn’t really large enough to justify the performance penalties.
The 4.2D will really start to lose out when a roof rack and chunky tyres get added, or when the owner loads it to the hilt, too: because it has a lot less torque available to start off with, it will have to work even harder to shift a heavy load or maintain an acceptable cruising speed, whilst the V8’s added oomph will make it easier to climb every mountain and ford every stream without guzzling a lot more fuel.
For this reason, we hand the efficiency crown to the Land Cruiser 4.5D-4D V8 in whichever body style you prefer. It’s nicer to live with (and not much thirstier) than the grumbly old 4.2 and approaches the 4.0 V6 petrol’s performance without demanding quite as much attention at the service station.
Keyword: We compared Toyota Land Cruiser 70-series engines, and the efficiency crown goes to…