I disagree with this statement. Off road can be defined in many ways. The Land Cruiser has and always will be designed to carry a 1500lb payload over the roughest roads in the middle of the Australian outback at high speed. It was NEVER designed to be a rock crawler (although the 40 series is debatable).
The FJ is designed for more rock crawling than expedition/overland type adventures; HOWEVER, that doesnt mean that the land cruiser cant do exactly what the FJ can do - at least where it fits. The UN is the absolute best example of this. Over the last 5 years they have bought 12000 land cruisers because the payloads that they can carry and the terrain that they drive on are unmatched and because they are absolute tanks. Furthermore, the Land Cruiser is designed to do this for 300+k miles every day all its life. The FJ is meant for an occasional trail here and there - it cannot stand up to the daily abuse that the land cruiser can.
Because the FJ can fit in more places, people view it as a better car off road; however, the over-engineering doesnt even come close to that of a land cruiser. Absolutely everything in the land cruiser is more robust than that of an FJ/4R, people view the lux interior and rationalize that something this nice cant possibly be good off road.
Just look at a LC next time you see it. The front IFS components are about 4x the size of a 4R/FJ. Nothing hangs below the frame rails. Furthermore, the frame is stronger and can take more abuse, the rear diff is larger and thus stronger and some debate it is as strong as a DANA 60.
Here is a cool video about the LC design. I DOUBT the FJ/4R went through all of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOO9ur8HcX4
Here is a sweet Land Cruiser commercial for the middle east:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WBQQJ7Ux9U
Go on the FJ forums, read about how many busted tie-rods etc etc people have to deal with. On iH8mud, nobody has any mechanical/structural failure problems. For heavens sake, 3 reported FJ frames have broken and the countless complaints about the weak front section of the frame leading to fender flare deformation.
Nothing can touch the LC and nothing ever will. It is and always will be the most over engineered car on the planet. I have driven my moms LC as much as I have driven my 4R. The ride is completely different - it doesnt even bat an eye at anything you drive over. The 4R has a tendency to skip around and just doesnt feel as solid.
Yes, I <3 land cruisers!
