Photo: Toyota / Kolesa / Instagram
The 2023 US automotive market's sales are already at halftime, and the situation isn't looking pink like Barbie's Corvette for Toyota because General Motors has kept its lead.
That is despite the Japanese automaker's best efforts. If we look at what happened during the past six to eight months, we'll see the carmaker brought to market or is preparing to send many novelties to dealerships – way more than what GM had in store during the same period.
The 2023 Toyota Crown is a novel kind of crossover-sedan that seeks to live a quirky life now that it has finally returned to the US market. The Toyota Prius 'Hybrid Reborn' rocks (paper, scissor) the same traditional liftback attributes as before but with a much cooler design and way better powertrains – including the 220-hp Prius Prime plug-in hybrid that kicks off at an affordable price of $32,350.
The entire Corolla family will soon become available with Nightshade style, and most other passenger cars (Camry, GR Supra, GR Corolla) have received their 2024MY updates already. Speaking of Gazoo Racing, there's a trio of special editions – GR Corolla Circuit, GR86 Trueno Edition, and GR Supra 45th Anniversary in the pipeline, and we only finished with the updates for passenger cars.
Crossover SUVs weren't neglected, either, given the arrival of the 2023 Corolla Cross Hybrid as a spiritual successor for the departing subcompact C-HR, the introduction of the 2024 Grand Highlander family-oriented three-row model, and the upcoming introduction of the regular 2024 Highlander with a subtle facelift. Then there's also the absolute superstar of the truck space – the latest (fourth) iteration of the best-selling Tacoma mid-size pickup.
But the Japanese automaker will not relent. Instead, back in the middle of June, they dropped the bomb in the form of a few vintage badges – the Land Cruiser nameplate is returning to America after a short hiatus caused by dwindling sales of the previous iteration. Back then, Toyota decided the cool J300 Land Cruiser made on the TNGA-F (body-on-frame version of the global platform) was improper for America and only allowed the related J310 Lexus LX to arrive in the United States.
Luckily, it seems that Toyota listened to the voice of the people – as diehard fans have constantly petitioned the automaker for the Land Cruiser's fabled comeback on social media. Now, a couple of additional teasers later – one with a silhouette of the off-road SUV on top of a mountain facing a decades-old FJ40 forebear in the limelight and another with just a hint of the design details while sharing the trail with an FJ62 – we officially know that Toyota has secured the presentation slot for Land Cruiser on August 1, 9:20 PM EDT (6:20 PM PDT).
Given how GM beat Toyota's sales for the half-year crown, even though the latter brand did everything it could to hype up its lineup, it is eloquent to the fact that the Japanese automaker needs true heroes to remain competitive. While GM buyers go to Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, and the rest of the group's brands because they're used to it, Toyota and Lexus have to fight their way into the soul of customers who always expect the very best in terms of reliability and on or off-road prowess.
So, they really need the return of the Land Cruiser to represent a stepping stone – perhaps one even greater than the arrival of the 2024 Tacoma. Think about it for a second – Toyota stopped the Land Cruiser nameplate because of lackluster deliveries. At the same time, the 2023 Tacoma remained on top of the mid-size pickup truck charts even though everyone knew a new one was just around the corner. But the premise is healthy, it seems.
As far as we can tell from the teasers and with help from the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser for America (possibly named Prado or 250 elsewhere) will share the same vision as the newly introduced 2024 Lexus GX based on the TNGA-F platform. Alas, the mighty Land Cruiser will slot below the GX 550, which has access to a 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 as the rumor mill reports only four-pot engines for the 250 series – including the hybrid mill with 326 hp from the 2024 Tacoma TRD Pro i-Force Max.
Additionally, the company will make sure anyone will recognize the two of them as separate entities – even if they may seem the same from the profile, thanks to a custom design for the front and rear fascia. And, as far as we can tell, the brand will spearhead a vintage style that harks back to many of its ruggedly handsome ancestors. That's not bad at all, considering that one of the most important foes – Land Rover's Defender – is a statement of classic yet modern design nowadays.
Ultimately, we hope that all mysteries will be unraveled as soon as possible – and that Toyota will not linger much before putting the 2024 Land Cruiser into production and starting its first sales. Oh, and hopefully, the pricing is correct – not too much because it would be too close to the Lexus GX 550 and not too low either because the upcoming 4Runner needs to slot beneath it, too.
The 2023 Toyota Crown is a novel kind of crossover-sedan that seeks to live a quirky life now that it has finally returned to the US market. The Toyota Prius 'Hybrid Reborn' rocks (paper, scissor) the same traditional liftback attributes as before but with a much cooler design and way better powertrains – including the 220-hp Prius Prime plug-in hybrid that kicks off at an affordable price of $32,350.
The entire Corolla family will soon become available with Nightshade style, and most other passenger cars (Camry, GR Supra, GR Corolla) have received their 2024MY updates already. Speaking of Gazoo Racing, there's a trio of special editions – GR Corolla Circuit, GR86 Trueno Edition, and GR Supra 45th Anniversary in the pipeline, and we only finished with the updates for passenger cars.
Crossover SUVs weren't neglected, either, given the arrival of the 2023 Corolla Cross Hybrid as a spiritual successor for the departing subcompact C-HR, the introduction of the 2024 Grand Highlander family-oriented three-row model, and the upcoming introduction of the regular 2024 Highlander with a subtle facelift. Then there's also the absolute superstar of the truck space – the latest (fourth) iteration of the best-selling Tacoma mid-size pickup.
But the Japanese automaker will not relent. Instead, back in the middle of June, they dropped the bomb in the form of a few vintage badges – the Land Cruiser nameplate is returning to America after a short hiatus caused by dwindling sales of the previous iteration. Back then, Toyota decided the cool J300 Land Cruiser made on the TNGA-F (body-on-frame version of the global platform) was improper for America and only allowed the related J310 Lexus LX to arrive in the United States.
Luckily, it seems that Toyota listened to the voice of the people – as diehard fans have constantly petitioned the automaker for the Land Cruiser's fabled comeback on social media. Now, a couple of additional teasers later – one with a silhouette of the off-road SUV on top of a mountain facing a decades-old FJ40 forebear in the limelight and another with just a hint of the design details while sharing the trail with an FJ62 – we officially know that Toyota has secured the presentation slot for Land Cruiser on August 1, 9:20 PM EDT (6:20 PM PDT).
Given how GM beat Toyota's sales for the half-year crown, even though the latter brand did everything it could to hype up its lineup, it is eloquent to the fact that the Japanese automaker needs true heroes to remain competitive. While GM buyers go to Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, and the rest of the group's brands because they're used to it, Toyota and Lexus have to fight their way into the soul of customers who always expect the very best in terms of reliability and on or off-road prowess.
So, they really need the return of the Land Cruiser to represent a stepping stone – perhaps one even greater than the arrival of the 2024 Tacoma. Think about it for a second – Toyota stopped the Land Cruiser nameplate because of lackluster deliveries. At the same time, the 2023 Tacoma remained on top of the mid-size pickup truck charts even though everyone knew a new one was just around the corner. But the premise is healthy, it seems.
As far as we can tell from the teasers and with help from the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser for America (possibly named Prado or 250 elsewhere) will share the same vision as the newly introduced 2024 Lexus GX based on the TNGA-F platform. Alas, the mighty Land Cruiser will slot below the GX 550, which has access to a 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 as the rumor mill reports only four-pot engines for the 250 series – including the hybrid mill with 326 hp from the 2024 Tacoma TRD Pro i-Force Max.
Additionally, the company will make sure anyone will recognize the two of them as separate entities – even if they may seem the same from the profile, thanks to a custom design for the front and rear fascia. And, as far as we can tell, the brand will spearhead a vintage style that harks back to many of its ruggedly handsome ancestors. That's not bad at all, considering that one of the most important foes – Land Rover's Defender – is a statement of classic yet modern design nowadays.
Ultimately, we hope that all mysteries will be unraveled as soon as possible – and that Toyota will not linger much before putting the 2024 Land Cruiser into production and starting its first sales. Oh, and hopefully, the pricing is correct – not too much because it would be too close to the Lexus GX 550 and not too low either because the upcoming 4Runner needs to slot beneath it, too.
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