After 10 faithful years I have switched to the new Landcruiser VX, I have been a faithful driver of the Landcruiser for 10 years at this point and my Landcruiser has held on strong and it has been the perfect car for all situations and managing to take a beating without so much as squeak from the car. I have to say that I do drive hard but I take to its maintenance schedule and change all the parts necessary. But now I have change cars to the new Landcruiser and I have pretty much all that I wanted except for a manual car instead of an automatic and this is due to Toyota’s belt tightening scheme with very little modified orders, you can only ask for so many specific items and if the dealers want something very specific they have to have a minimum order of 250 cars before making a change to their manufacturing line.

The first thing I did as soon as I got the car was take to Huper Optik in Al Rai for a nice semi-dark tint to go with the color of the car and a nice big GulfRun sticker on the rear tire. After trying out multiple tint places across Kuwait and really checking out the real heat protection and putting it to the test, I was surprised that the results didn’t match what these places quoted and Llumar was really doing a lot false advertising and I would avoid Ibtikar, VKool and Zeibart are decent but Huper Optik turned out to be the best and their tint is ceramic not metallic such as all the other tinting companies. Two reasons I went with Huper Optik there resistance to heat was the highest by far and the tint doesn’t interfere with the GPS strength. I’m going to go into a detailed post about tinting in Kuwait at a later point.

I have to say that I am very happy with the new Landcruiser, after 5000 + KMs on the odometer it really does have everything. If you are looking for a fast SUV then this is not it, but if you are looking for roomy, comfortable, solid handling, powerful, amazing sound, reliability, great air conditioning and aggressive looks then this car is for you. I asked for the rear tire option as I don’t like the under carriage tire option so with that option I lost out on have a back up camera and extra sensors, but my old land cruiser didn’t have a back up camera or sensors until very late in its age so I could live without it. I went for a dark grey interior and exterior with the dark tint I think it looks pretty good. Three main improvements over the 99-2007 Landcruiser, the gearing is smoother and peppier, the suspension is much better handling, the brakes a world of differences it really stops because they are all disc brakes now not drum brakes, the interior is roomier and the sound system is nice unlike the old one. Two points which were a bit annoying the engine is the 4.7 Liter and not the 5.7 Liter which is available in the US and the new Lexus LX 570 so its the same engine the older model but they have geared it right with a lot more torque, there is no iPod integration because Japan considers it to be a luxury option which shouldn’t be in the Landcruiser. Other then that I have to say that I am extremely happy with the Landcruiser and love driving it every day, plus I have the remote start which cools the car before I get into it and it has work from 10 floors up in a building but steel structures can get in the way sometimes.