Page 6 - Motoring Autumn 2022

COMPARATIVE TEST TOYOTA vs LAND ROVER

Toyota Land Cruiser meets

Land Rover Defender

iven a rare opportunity to have two spec model. In contrast, the Defender is fully to the ADA Off-Road Training Centre to spend
iconic off-road biased vehicles on specced and has a multitude of electronic time putting both vehicles through their paces.
Gtest during the same week, I decided aids to assist when off-roading. As a start, the Land Cruiser only requires
to pitch them head-to-head where it truly The deciding question is whether you the pressing of a few buttons to ensure that
counts - at a real off-road facility. prefer to trust old-fashioned dependence on it’s ready to tackle the tough stuff. Once low-
Although the two contenders do not the driver or whether you prefer to rely on range has been selected, a single push of a
match physically in every respect, the advanced electronic aids for assistance when button activates Crawl Mode. This functions
interesting factor is the similar price tags the going gets really tough and you are far as hill descent and ascent control, enabling
that they carry, so it’s a case of smaller with away from civilisation. the vehicle to simply idle its way around the
full specification or bigger with fewer bells To answer this question, we headed off course.
and whistles.
The new Land Rover Defender is the
shorter 3-door model powered by a 3l
6-cylinder turbodiesel motor. The power
of 221kW and 650Nm is very close to the
225kW and 700Nm of theToyota Land
Cruiser’s 3.3l V6 turbodiesel engine. The
Land Cruiser uses a 10-speed automatic
transmission, whereas the Defender has an
8-speed, but both are equally smooth and
comfortable in operation on and off-road.
The Land Cruiser is the base specification
GX-R model so it does without many of the
electronics and gizmos that you get on the
upper models in the range. The plus side is
a saving of around R500 000 over the full

MOTORING | Autumn 2022 | 4