2025 Toyota Land Cruiser: Everything We Know About the SUV's Return

It's an iconic 4x4, and Toyota executives have dropped several hints regarding its reintroduction here—only it won't take the form you're expecting. The full-size J300 is out, largely for the same reasons it wasn't brought here in the first place: It's too expensive, sold in too few numbers, and overlaps rather heavily with its Lexus LX sibling (which, you'll notice, is still sold here). No, for the Land Cruiser nameplate's return, Toyota is hoping to widen its appeal with a more wieldy size and a more palatable MSRP.

Toyota will likely also assign this smaller Land Cruiser variant a different chassis code (maybe J150 or J200) and adapt a smaller-footprint version of the TNGA-F bones for its use. If you're looking for an idea of where such a Land Cruiser Lite might fall in Toyota's increasingly crowded body-on-frame lineup, figure on it landing above the Tacoma pickup and 4Runner SUV but below the three-row, full-size Sequoia.

It's a pretty good guess the next-generation 4Runner, which is switching to the Taco's TNGA-F architecture, will stay roughly the same size and drop its available third-row seat while more directly attacking adventure vehicles such as the four-door Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco (perhaps like a modern-day FJ Cruiser). This would open up just enough airspace for the Land Cruiser, which would be adapted from the global Toyota Prado—another soon-to-be-redesigned future TNGA-F adoptee—much like the 2024 Lexus GX. A vestigial third-row seat option is almost a given, along with the Prado's stadium-style seating, where each successive row of seats sits slightly higher than those ahead.

Certain versions of the new Tacoma pickup ride on an old-school leaf-spring rear suspension, but the new Land Cruiser will get the multilink, coil-sprung setup with a live axle from the off-road variants. The more powerful 326-hp hybridized turbo I-4 engine might also be borrowed from the Tacoma, at least for entry-level Land Cruisers, though it's also possible Toyota could install the twin-turbo V-6 from the Tundra and Sequoia, again with or without hybridization for close to 400 hp. Four-wheel drive will be standard.

Expect the next Land Cruiser to come in at a price quite a bit lower than what the last generation model  stickered at to start (the 2020 Heritage model pictured here rang in at almost $90,000). Somewhere in the $55,000-$65,000 range is a good bet for the new model.

EXPECTED ON-SALE DATE Summer 2024

When the latest generation Land Cruiser (pictured) when on sale in global markets in 2021, it market the first time the model hadn't been offered here in the U.S. for some 60 years. At the time, when Toyota announced that the new model wouldn't be coming to the U.S., it left the door open a crack that it would return at some point, but was very vague.

The 2022 Lexus LX looked as though it would be the only vehicle sold here in the U.S. that would be Land Cruiser-like, given that it shares its platform and much of its mechanicals with the present, global Land Cruiser. The Lexus LX is also priced in a range at the low end that is close to that of the last Land Cruiser sold here, around $90,000 to start.

The new-generation Lexus GX is another vehicle that's essentially built on the same rugged body-on-frame platform that's expected to underpin the new Land Cruiser. It's also expected to be priced at the low end in a similar range to the coming Toyota-badged version, at around $60,000 to start.