Hi, I just traded in my trusty 11 1/2 year old FJ for a new (to me) 2016 Land Cruiser. I looked for a long time for a new vehicle and considered the GX, the LX 570 and the LC. I also looked at some 15-16 Q7 diesels leftover from "diesel gate" but ultimately decided against it because I already have a BMW and that's enough bull**** maintenance costs for me. Found this one at a Toyota stealership in Columbus so I only had to drive an hour and a half and spend one at my inlaws to get it! Got a pretty decent deal and it is CPO till Feb 2023. I paid $1500 extra to extend the full warranty until then as well so I feel pretty good about never needing it lol.
I won't be making an extreme off road overland vehicle out of it. Those are super cool but just not what we do for fun. I will use mine for mostly commuting, towing the motorcycle trailer to the race track and going on dirtbike/camping trips. When it needs tires i'll upgrade the wheels and after a massive paint correcting detail it will get the front windows tinted and a full set of Weather Tech mats.
Looking forward to reading through all the info on here and learning more about these things!
That boat is a 2016 Yamaha AR240 (twin engine jet boat) with a dry weight of ~3,600lbs. I'm estimating the combo (w/trailer) to be in the 5,000-5,500lbs range based on information in jetboaters.net.
The Q7 TDI is an unbelievable tow machine, w/magical traction control and unsurpassed highway towing fuel economy.
That said, the LC200 is great and can do things in "Crawl" mode that still just baffle me...! Especially in reverse that can be particularly useful on some tricky boat ramps.
More recently, I've been fueling up with premium 93 octane and like it very much especially when towing, as it holds higher gears longer ont he highway.
I'm only pointing this out because you asked.
(not to start anything here - please feel free to point me to a discussion thread of best octanes, that can be a messy topic, lol)
Here is my experience with the LC200, as compared to the Q7 TDI
The Q7 traction is nothing short of magical - when going forward. On a highway - it is nothing short of amazing. Pulling up on even the most slippery ramps - never an issue, not even any hesitation, no need to switch to low range gear (it does exist) or anything just put it in Drive and go - again - moving forward. So, the Q7 is fantastic for pulling out, however in reverse - when launching, I would still need to use good old fashioned parking brake technique to minimize the slippage in places like that unpaved "ramp" in picture below- when descending with the boat/trailer in reverse.
I have successfully launched and retrieved with both Q7 and LC200, and they are very different, the Landy takes the crown.
The Crawl Control in LC is just a completely different beast!
Toyota's ATRAC is plenty awesome in all kinds of driving and the wheels are almost impossible to spin on any surface, but what separates those systems is how the Crawl works under extreme conditions (both forward AND reverse).
