Review: 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser VX.S White Edition V8 5.7.

[105X]

This is a 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser VX.S White Edition V8 5.7.

This review concerns MY2017-18 Land cruisers only. It’ll be separated into a few parts: overview, front, rear, and interior.

I’ll start with the trims offered for the MY2017. The base model has a 4L V6 and 17” rims. The GX.R V6 (one step above) has different 17” rims, LED headlights and stripes. The GX.R V8 (4.6L 1UR) retains the same stripes, but gets different rims, foglights, and can be equipped with leather seats. Starting from 2018, GX.R V8 models can be equipped with a bigger screen than that of the 5.7s. The VX.R V8 5.7 has the same rims, different stripes, and a different speedometer, as well as a different engine (5.7 3UR) and an 8-speed automatic transmission. The VX.S is the top trim in the land cruiser lineup.. It was introduced with the land cruiser facelift in 2016. It adds on to the VXR features. It has different bumpers, 20” rims, hydraulic suspension (AHC), roof racks, and ventilated seats, among other things. It’s basically an LX but in a land cruiser body.
The White Edition trim came out in 2017, as a special edition to sell more land cruisers. It includes tinted headlights, slightly darker rims on the VX.S, White Edition badges, white “accents” on the roof rack, a roof rack on GX.R and VX.R models, and seat stitching on LCs equipped with leather seats, and different stripes. It was sold until 2018, then it was discontinued.
With that out of the way, let’s start the review.

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Front

The White Edition Land Cruisers have tinted headlights, as I previously mentioned. They are quite expensive however. Both headlights cost at least $3000, when they came out. I suspect they’re cheaper now due to the fact that more LCs come with them now. The VX.S also has full LEDs all around. The DRLs are just a light strip, and they turn automatically on. The way you can distinguish a real White Edition headlight from a fake one is the “C” in the headlights. The White Edition gets a different grille, with black and white accents. The front bumper of a VX.S is lower to the ground than other models. The VX.S has a front facing camera, which is found under the Toyota logo, which houses the Brake Assist (BA) function, which brakes automatically when it senses a collision. There’s also adaptive cruise control, and Blind Spot monitors under the side mirrors. It also has Lane Departure Alert, which makes a sound when your car is halfway across the other lane, making it useless. I doubt anyone has it on because it’s so annoying.

(DRLs & foglights on)

(DRLs, low beams & foglights on)

(DRLs, low beams, high beams, & foglights on)

 

[105X]

Rear

Moving on, the VX.S has a lot of badging in the rear. This is what it says: Toyota (well, the logo is there), Land Cruiser, VX.S, White Edition, AAA (official Toyota distributor in Qatar), V8 5.7. That’s a lot of text. In the first picture, I removed the “White Edition” and “AAA” badges. Whereas in the bottom picture, you can see that I removed all those badges, as well as some stickers, and it looks a lot cleaner. In normal models, the roof rack is only available on the VX.S. The VX.S gets a spoiler, which isn’t available on the other trims, and a different rear bumper. It also gets an automatic tailgate. There’s also a function that turns on with BSM (Blind Spot Monitoring), which is called RCTA (Rear Cross Traffic Alert), which works to alert you when a car is coming from either side when backing up. It also gets an exposed tow hook, which is becoming rarer in SUVs, since most of them have a retractable tow hook, even the Lexus LX570.

 

[105X]

Suspension / Wheels

The VX.S gets a different suspension setup than the rest of the lineup. It gets AHC (Active Height Control), which is the hydraulic suspension used in the LX570. There are 3 height modes, low, normal, and high. The suspension is more comfortable than non-AHC equipped Land Cruisers. The rims you see here are 20” rims, wrapped in 285mm tires. Behind the rims, disc brakes can bring the land cruiser to a halt from 70mph in 183 feet. The front wheels have some camber when the car is in low mode and the steering wheel is straight, and they tuck in (last picture). There are multiple drive modes, like the LX570’s, but you don’t have custom. Instead, you have “Eco” mode, “Comfort”, normal, which is what I suspect most people keep it in because the drive modes aren’t actually that different, “Sport S” and “Sport S+”. The sound doesn’t change when you change the drive mode.

(High mode)

(Normal / neutral mode)

(Low mode)

(Low mode, note the front camber)

 

[105X]

Interior

The last part of this review is the interior. The “White Edition” Land Cruisers get stitching if the seats are leather, which is standard on the VX.S. (On MY2019+ models, the VX.S gets different seat stitching as standard). You can get black leather (yuck), beige leather (pictured here), or brown leather. There are 3 memory settings for the driver’s seat. The door handle has an aluminum like look, and it’s really nice. To the left of the steering wheel, there are a few buttons. For example, you’ll find the headlight wipers, the parking sensors, and a button called “RSCA OFF”. What that buttons does is turn off the airbags for dune bashing. Toyota knows that most people who buy Land Cruisers will add accessories, which is why (I assume) there are blank switches there. What surprised me is the fact that the mirror controls are also down there. There’s also a card holder. The speedometer is analog, but has a 4.2” digital screen in the middle (TFT), which shows the drive mode, suspension height, tire pressure, speed, and much more. The 5.7 Land Cruisers rev to 6000RPMs, and are limited to around 230kph. Since this is a Land Cruiser, the controls for everything are simple. The handbrake is a lever you pull, the cooled seats are buttons near the center console. However, the climate control settings are hidden in the screen. You buy a Land Cruiser to go offroad, and this one can do that without encountering many problems, the main one would be the lower bumpers and smaller sidewall. It has a center locking differential, MTS (Multi Terrain Select), and a switch called CRAWL, which is basically offroad cruise control, all you’d have to do is steer the car. There are 5 speeds to choose from. To turn it on, you have to put the car in neutral, put it into low gear, then put the car in either drive or reverse, then choose the speed, then press the “on” button above it. The VX.S has a 5.7L Naturally Aspirated V8 making 362hp, which is 19 less than the US models. It’s mated to an 8-speed torque converter automatic transmission. One feature that the US spec land cruiser has that the Qatar specs don’t is heated seats and steering wheel, because we live in a country where the temperature reaches 50°C+ in summer.

There’s also a “Black Edition” Land Cruiser, which is the same as this one but is black and has black accents, just as you’d expect. And it’s a lot rarer.
One more thing to note before I end this review, the 2018 VX.S White Editions are more common than 2017 ones, I have no idea why. The only difference is a stripe.
Thanks for reading!

(Please note that this is mostly copy pasted from a review I wrote on kinja, but I slightly changed it. // I’m sure there are many wrong details here but it’s almost midnight and I’m tired —> that’s my excuse anyway.)

 

[Vtc fanboi]

Interior

The last part of this review is the interior. The “White Edition” Land Cruisers get stitching if the seats are leather, which is standard on the VX.S. (On MY2019+ models, the VX.S gets different seat stitching as standard). You can get black leather (yuck), beige leather (pictured here), or brown leather. There are 3 memory settings for the driver’s seat. The door handle has an aluminum like look, and it’s really nice. To the left of the steering wheel, there are a few buttons. For example, you’ll find the headlight wipers, the parking sensors, and a button called “RSCA OFF”. What that buttons does is turn off the airbags for dune bashing. Toyota knows that most people who buy Land Cruisers will add accessories, which is why (I assume) there are blank switches there. What surprised me is the fact that the mirror controls are also down there. There’s also a card holder. The speedometer is analog, but has a 4.2” digital screen in the middle (TFT), which shows the drive mode, suspension height, tire pressure, speed, and much more. The 5.7 Land Cruisers rev to 6000RPMs, and are limited to around 230kph. Since this is a Land Cruiser, the controls for everything are simple. The handbrake is a lever you pull, the cooled seats are buttons near the center console. However, the climate control settings are hidden in the screen. You buy a Land Cruiser to go offroad, and this one can do that without encountering many problems, the main one would be the lower bumpers and smaller sidewall. It has a center locking differential, MTS (Multi Terrain Select), and a switch called CRAWL, which is basically offroad cruise control, all you’d have to do is steer the car. There are 5 speeds to choose from. To turn it on, you have to put the car in neutral, put it into low gear, then put the car in either drive or reverse, then choose the speed, then press the “on” button above it. The VX.S has a 5.7L Naturally Aspirated V8 making 362hp, which is 19 less than the US models. It’s mated to an 8-speed torque converter automatic transmission. One feature that the US spec land cruiser has that the Qatar specs don’t is heated seats and steering wheel, because we live in a country where the temperature reaches 50°C+ in summer.

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View attachment 2153618

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There’s also a “Black Edition” Land Cruiser, which is the same as this one but is black and has black accents, just as you’d expect. And it’s a lot rarer.
One more thing to note before I end this review, the 2018 VX.S White Editions are more common than 2017 ones, I have no idea why. The only difference is a stripe.
Thanks for reading!

(Please note that this is mostly copy pasted from a review I wrote on kinja, but I slightly changed it. // I’m sure there are many wrong details here but it’s almost midnight and I’m tired —> that’s my excuse anyway.)

Amazingly detailed

 

[105X]

Amazingly detailed

Thank you haha.
You’re brave for having that username on a site that heavily favors Toyotas.