New 2008 Land Cruiser

[BDL]

Have you tried playing a DVD with Dolby 5.1? It sounds great.

I haven't - really haven't focused on the audiovisual system yet. I did start playing with the XM radio and discovered I really like it. No ads and you can pick what you want to hear in pretty narrow slices - there's a channel for 80s and 90s country music I like.

Sometime I'll get around to the DVD thing. My wife and I are 28, no kids, none on the horizon, so the rear seat entertainment system was not really a consideration for us. But it might be fun to use a remote control in the car, once...

 

[hubbabubba]

I haven't - really haven't focused on the audiovisual system yet. I did start playing with the XM radio and discovered I really like it. No ads and you can pick what you want to hear in pretty narrow slices - there's a channel for 80s and 90s country music I like.

Sometime I'll get around to the DVD thing. My wife and I are 28, no kids, none on the horizon, so the rear seat entertainment system was not really a consideration for us. But it might be fun to use a remote control in the car, once...

28??!! Okay, I'm gonna sit in my LC, tune to XM's 40s channel, and take my Geritol...

 

[BDL]

28??!! Okay, I'm gonna sit in my LC, tune to XM's 40s channel, and take my Geritol...

Yup, 28 but not very technologically inclined. I got the bluetooth thing working today, though, and if you haven't done that it's great. Something I didn't know I wanted until I had it.

 

[hubbabubba]

Yup, 28 but not very technologically inclined. I got the bluetooth thing working today, though, and if you haven't done that it's great. Something I didn't know I wanted until I had it.

Yeah, that's one thing I use a lot. The microphone on the LC seems to be a bit clearer than the mic on my old LR3 (according to the people I call). With my iPhone, I can even merge 2 calls together. About the only thing I don't like is how many of the functions are unavailable when the car is not in Park.

By the way, does your LC have the Remote Start feature? Just wondering.

 

[BDL]

Yeah, that's one thing I use a lot. The microphone on the LC seems to be a bit clearer than the mic on my old LR3 (according to the people I call). With my iPhone, I can even merge 2 calls together. About the only thing I don't like is how many of the functions are unavailable when the car is not in Park.

By the way, does your LC have the Remote Start feature? Just wondering.

Nope, no remote start. What do you mean when you say 'merge two calls together'?

I tried playing with the voice recognition tonight. It interpreted 'call voicemail' as 'show golf courses'. I'm not making this up. I may be from Texas, but I'm not that hard to understand...

 

[hubbabubba]

Nope, no remote start. What do you mean when you say 'merge two calls together'?

I tried playing with the voice recognition tonight. It interpreted 'call voicemail' as 'show golf courses'. I'm not making this up. I may be from Texas, but I'm not that hard to understand...

It's kind of like a conference call for 3 people. If I'm talking with one person, and another one calls, I can "merge" the calls so the 3 of us can talk.

Yeah, that voice recognition just doesn't work very well. I'm originally from the Midwest so I don't think I'm hard to understand.

Another example of how it doesn't work: when I was test driving the Range Rover, the salesman was a British dude. He was all excited to show me the voice recognition of the RR. So he calls up some commands and the computer responds (in a British female accent), "Sorry, command not recognized". I told the guy that your own people don't recognize you. He kept trying but it just wouldn't recognize his commands.
Same story with my LR3 - it had the same voice recognition as the RR and it was just infuriating to get a proper response.

 

[BDL]

If you're interested, there's a short review from Car and Driver:

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...2008_toyota_land_cruiser_short_take_road_test

Stats seem pretty impressive. They got to 60 in 6.5 seconds (same as MT), through the quarter in 15.1 (versus 14.9 for MT) and 0.75g skidpad (versus 0.72 for MT).

Mine still has less than 500 miles, so the motor's never been above 4,000 RPM, but I'm looking forward to passing slow-moving 18-wheelers on two-lane roads...

 

[hubbabubba]

Mine still has less than 500 miles, so the motor's never been above 4,000 RPM, but I'm looking forward to passing slow-moving 18-wheelers on two-lane roads...

My personal favorite was a guy in a Ford F150 Harley Davidson Edition, next to me at a traffic light: pulls out fast at the greenlight, then looks over at me because I'm still next to him at around 70mph. The LC is a great Sleeper - most people don't expect much.