Toyota 79 Series 2024 Review

In late 2023 Toyota upgraded the LandCruiser 70 Series and added a HiAce/HiLux/Prado-sourced four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine option, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.

In addition to the borrowed powertrain, the upgraded 70 Series brings refreshed styling, a significant increase in safety technology and comfort and convenience features as well as an upgraded multimedia system.

The optional powertrain is available across the range that includes four body styles and three grades, and joins the V8 turbo-diesel/five-speed manual variants.

The 2.8-litre, four-cylinder engine generates a claimed maximum output of 150kW at 3400rpm and peak torque of 500Nm between 1600rpm and 2800rpm which is some 70Nm greater than the existing V8 diesel engine.

The 4.5-litre V8 turbo-diesel generates a maximum power of 151kW at 3400rpm and peak torque of 430Nm from 1200rpm to 3200rpm.

The 2.8-litre engine is mated only to the six-speed Aisin automatic transmission and is offered in three Single Cab grades, Workmate, GX and GXL – and two grades, Workmate and GXL for the Double Cab, Troop Carrier and Wagon variants.

The V8 is offered in the same grades and body styles as the 2.8-litre powertrain, with the exception of the 76 Wagon that is available in GXL specification and with four-cylinder/auto only.

From a visual perspective, the 2024 LandCruiser 70 Series has a redesigned front end that Toyota reckons ‘references the design of the iconic LandCruiser 40 Series’, but it’s really a squarish box.

The interior of the vehicle has undergone a styling upgrade with the instrument cluster and centre console being redesigned for improved ergonomics, visual ease and practicality with the addition of a multi-information display.

The multimedia system now features a 6.7-inch touchscreen on all grades that is compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. However, the sound quality is absolute rubbish.

Toyota has also improved the safety technology in the LandCruiser 70 Series, with the addition of lane departure alert, road-speed sign display and automatic high beam, as part of the Toyota Safety Sense suite of advanced driver assistance features. However, there’s no tyre pressure monitoring system.

However, we’ve saved the best bit for last: the narrow-track rear axle – the same width as the one on the 75 Series and up to 100mm narrower than the front – carries over on the ‘new’ machine. It’s difficult to believe that the 2024 vehicle will have the same mismatched front and rear axle tracks as the previous models!

Everyone knows that Toyota’s 70 Series has survived way beyond its original planned demise and that’s why Toyota 76, 78 and 79 Series LandCruisers receive ‘band aid’ upgrades from a maker that would rather not continue with this line.

Toyota Japan has tried to phase out the 70 Series, but customer demand just wouldn’t let them. Back in 2012, Toyota Australia made the following statement: “While the 70 Series will finally be available with ABS brakes from October (2012), it will never be fitted with electronic stability control or side curtain airbags, without which it cannot achieve a five-star NCAP rating.”

That turned out to be untrue, because we now know that Toyota was forced to upgrade the 70 Series, despite its intentions to discontinue the model.

Five-star mandated safety items were added to the 79 Series short cab/chassis, but items that were not deemed necessary to rectify were simply ignored.

It’s very easy to be doubly cynical about Toyota’s strategy with the 70 Series. Firstly, achieving ANCAP five-star safety only on the single-cab model that’s most popular with mining companies and governments and then upgrading its GVM to light truck status and thereby avoiding the need to comply with March 2025 ADR 72 side-intrusion requirements for vehicles in the below-3500kg GVM category.

A further complication is that the 2016-granted five-star rating expired in January 2024, so Toyota can’t claim a current ANCAP safety rating for any of its 70 Series variants.

However, Toyota pointed out to trucksales that it substantially improved safety equipment and technologies with the introduction of the 2024 70 Series range.

Added were: lane departure alert; speed-sign assist; and automatic high beam. Four-cylinder variants also scored downhill assist control and wagons gained a reversing camera.
These technologies expanded on existing Toyota Safety Sense features, including the pre-collision safety system, with pedestrian and daytime cyclist detection and intersection assistance.

It will be interesting to see how that plays out with fleets who demand five-star safety ratings in any new vehicle purchases.

Yet another issue is the January 2024 announcement that production of four-cylinder engines for the 70 Series will be halted, following yet another testing scandal at Toyota/Hino/Daihatsu.

Our test machine was a base-model, 79 Series, GX cab/chassis, powered by the four-cylinder/auto powertrain and fitted with a galvanised steel, drop-side body. Full of fuel (130 litres) it tipped the scales at 2497kg, giving it a full tonne of usable payload.

The base model rode on skinny, high-profile 225/95R16 LT tyres that were introduced back in 2017 and were then virtual orphans in the replacement tyre market. Since then, replacement tyre availability has improved.

Lifting the very heavy bonnet was hard work in this age of cheap gas struts, but reflected Toyota’s commitment to do only what’s necessary, not necessarily what’s nice. Speaking of the bonnet, the test vehicle’s skin-stiffening under-panel was attached at its trailing edge by adhesive that had already lost its grip; that wouldn’t have happened in the “good ol’ days”.

The HiLux’s four-cylinder engine fits easily into the large V8-sized 70 Series engine bay, but all its modern ancillary gear means that the volume was necessary. Unlike the V8 that has a large pancake air-to-air intercooler mounted atop the engine, the HiLux has a smaller air-to-coolant intercooler.

The 2024 LC70 Series retains the traditional part-time four-wheel drive system and has the automatic front hubs, with a spanner-lock position, that were introduced back in 2017. They’re a pain, because they never lock reliably in ‘auto’ mode and you have to ferret around for the wheel-brace to lock them. They’re more trouble than the simple, manual locking hubs Toyota has had for years.

Interestingly, they’re exactly the same hubs that were fitted to Nissan Patrols 30 years ago, so maybe Toyota picked up some old stock once the ‘real’ Patrol was no more!

I drove the test LC79 on a variety of road surfaces, from narrow gravel tracks to freeways and on steep off-road fire trails. Test loads varied from an empty tray to weights of 600kg-800kg.

The 2024 LandCruiser showed its no-frills heritage in terms of vintage ride and handling, but that was not a surprise. Unlike many of the popular dual-purpose, lighter-duty utes on the market, the LC70 doesn’t pretend to be refined.

‘Square-rigged’ live-axle 4x4s don’t have the more refined road manners of more popular utes, but the LC70 showed the plusses for this layout when the going got tough. It didn’t lift wheels as easily as they do when off-roading and it rode over potholes that might have sent independent front suspension (IFS) utes off to the wheel aligners.

However, it felt far from car-like in town environments, understeering heavily in tight corners and lacking a reverse camera for easier parking manoeuvres. That said, it had some useful driver aids that I liked very much.

The latest steering wheel telescoped and tilted and had button controls for audio and vehicle info displays. Audio and nav data showed up on a small central display screen whose pale readouts were hard to see in poor light. Vehicle and trip info, including fuel consumption and diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration status, was provided beside the instrument cluster, in front of the driver.

Incidentally, the DPF performed automatic regenerations while I was driving, doing two ‘regens’ during this 600-kilometre test. Vehicle performance was unaffected while the DPF burned out soot buildup.

Many drivers hate the lane-keeping function that’s a feature of every new vehicle. The LC70’s lane-keeping function was limited to a subtle ‘beep’ when the front-facing camera detected inadvertent lane crossing, but it wasn’t overly intrusive, nor was there ‘haptic’ or steering action imparted through the wheel rim.

I also liked the current-speed-limit display that changed colour to orange when the vehicle exceeded the posted limit, but there was no ‘nagging’ from the computer.

The auto transmission shifter fell readily to hand and the 4WD transfer case lever was also ergonomically positioned on the driver’s side of the transmission tunnel.

The auto shifted sweetly and could be overridden quickly with a sideways flick into ‘manual’ mode, where it retained any selected ratio. The lack of engine braking from the slush box was made up for with electronic hill descent control (HDC) that was very effective, even at rock-hopping speeds.

Gearing changes with the four cylinder/auto combination saw the rev counter sitting around 1600-2000rpm nearly all the time, when running in ‘D’ mode. That’s a huge improvement over the original V8-powered LC70s that sat around 2600rpm at highway cruising speeds.

The average fuel consumption for this mixed-surface, mixed-freight test worked out at 12.4L/100km, which is about the same as the V8 delivered on a similar test route.

Vision over the now-bulbous bonnet wasn’t as bad as I feared, thanks to the LC70’s traditionally-high seating position. The two bucket seats had more shape than previous iterations that stuck to the 2+1 bucket-plus-bench layout, but their sticky vinyl covering was less welcome.

Speaking of budget, the latest LC 70 cab/chassis range RRP starts at $76,800 for the vehicle we tested, up to $87,600 for the GXL Double Cab. To those figures you’d need to add on-roads, plus at least five grand for a tray body.

The GXL has 265-section tyres, aluminium wheels and diff locks, but the GX doesn’t come with the $1500 diff-lock package that’s optional. The GX also has quarter lights and wind-up windows.

On the diff-lock note, I’d rather have after-market, non-factory diff locks, because they operate immediately the driver selects the switches, whereas the factory diff locks have highly-restrictive safety parameters for engagement.

On several past tests I’ve tried to get the factory diff locks to engage and became more bogged than necessary by the time the protocols were all met and the locks engaged.

So, who’s going to buy the 2024 LandCruiser 70 Series? Back in its early days the LC70 offered significant performance, payload and ruggedness advantages over cheaper, smaller utes. It also had big-bore six-cylinder and, later, V8 power, standard snorkel, plus four-wheel disc brakes and twin fuel tanks.

Now that smaller utes have proved that highly-turbocharged, small-capacity engines, with automatic transmissions, can outperform bigger LandCruisers on-road, the LC70 attraction is less obvious, particularly now that the ‘Cruiser has gone to a four-cylinder 2.8-litre/ six-speed auto powertrain option.

I think that traditional buyers are Toyota’s best continued hope for LC70 sales, headed by mining companies, government departments and private LandCruiser devotees.

Many of the latter will opt to cough up an additional four grand for the V8/manual powertrain option that’s available on all models, other than the 76 Series wagon that is four-cylinder only.

Quick specs:
Engine: Toyota 2GD 2.8-litre diesel, turbocharged and intercooled, four-cylinder, DOHC
GVM: 3510kg
GCM: 7000kg
Power: 150kW
Torque: 500Nm
Fuel: 130-litre tank
Transmission: Aisin six-speed torque converter automatic, with two-speed transfer case
Brakes: Four discs
Wheelbase: 3180mm