What a Toyota V8 can and cannot do?

From a pious Sunday morning, fast forward to a controversial Tuesday noon and still galloping, we have been within the space of 48 hours, inundated with media reports whether audio, video or online of exactly how a brand new Toyota V8 Land Cruiser could lose its two front tyres as easily as an octogenarian could lose his teeth.

Conspiracies about Dr. Bawumia’s Toyota V8 Land Cruiser have gone viral. Its dependability is at the heart of Sir John’s claim and this same dependability is the crux of Hon Agalga’s counter-claim that a V8 is not the pope of automobiles. So is the V8 such as toothless bull dog or a drugged security service agent as Sir John is conjecturing? Myjoyonline finds out from Tom Ford, a motoring journalist and contributing Editor of Top Gear Magazine.

The V8–The UN’s automobile sweetheart

You see, the United Nations have bought some 12,000 Toyota Land Cruisers over the years, and you’ll invariably see one on any Middle-East crisis newscast, storming cheerfully down a desert track or prowling through a village Swiss-cheesed with mortar fire.They get painted Daz white, hammered to hell and back, and still the UN has an insatiable passion for this full-size SUV from Toyota.

Why? Because they never break; there’s a reason why the outback is littered with the carcasses of old Land Rovers and not broken Toyotas.

There’s a reason why, every time you trek to some inaccessible part of the world using helicopters and specialist equipment, you will arrive to find a family having a picnic on the tailgate of their 1980s Land Cruiser. It’s true. Travel to the Earth’s core and there will be a fossilized Land Cruiser down there somewhere. Put some diesel in it, slap on a new battery and it’ll probably start.

That reputation is pure gold. It comes from a long history – the first Land Cruiser was in 1954, and it was pretty much the car that Toyota itself was founded on. Luckily, that proud heritage is kept right on in the new car, because when it comes to out-and-out reliability, off-road ability and manufacturing quality, the Land Cruiser is seriously good.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was involved in an accident while riding in a brand new V8

Somehow, a big Toyota doesn’t make you flinch when you hear the underside bang and scrape like you do in a Range Rover. There’s a real feeling of inevitability to the whole thing – you are in a Land Cruiser, so nothing short of actually getting strafed from space is going to stop you getting there. Adjustable ride height (AHC – Active Height Control) keeps you off the rocks, sensors at the wheels assess what surface you might be on (mud/sand/slope etc.) and enables adaptive Anti-lock Braking System(ABS) if a wheel spins.

There’s even that variable adaptive suspension (AVS) that, as well as attempting to iron out any road-wobble, tries as hard as possible to use the Cruiser’s impressive wheel articulation to keep the tyres in contact with the floor and maintain forward progress.

V8- The feel

But you wouldn’t know – you just sit there and look at the view unfolding. Here, in its more natural element off-road, the Land Cruiser makes infinitely more sense. The car clicks and bumps and grumbles, but never, ever feels like stopping.

It even has pads around your knees should you bump a little too violently. And all you do is sit back, listen to the stereo and fiddle with the heated seats. I tried to get it stuck. Short of driving it off a cliff or into the sea, it was impossible.

V8 – The Price

The V8 costs between £58,860 and £60,860. As you’d expect for a throat-tightening price tag, the Cruiser comes equipped with pretty much everything; four-zone climate, 14 airbags (yes, you did read that right), six-disc CD, reversing camera, leather, satnav, cooler box in the centre console, the whole nine yards.

Let’s face it, The Toyota Land Cruiser V8 is not stylish, no. This is the anti-Range Rover Sport – no bling, little drive-by street cred, but the big daddy to those who value getting there over looking good and who couldn’t give two hoots about street racing or what the neighbours think. It’s a good car. Not for everyone and the last of a dying breed, but still good.

V8- The politics

So you can understand why the V8 is in big trouble. Its UN-wide reputation is suffering a local reputation inquiry. First, it was former majority Leader Cletus Avoka whose version crashed on the Navrongo-Zabila road leaving the Zebilla MP hospitalized after the accident with cuts and bruises. One of the tyres of the vehicle exploded and caused the car to flip over several times resulting in its total damage.

Next, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, then former Presidential Spokesperson was bed-ridden after his official vehicle – another V8- crashed into a stationary car, between Tamale and Walewale, at a village called Nasia in the West Mamprusi District.

In every one of these accidents, the occupants survived. The Toyota V8 Land Cruiser may have saved lives, but as this vehicle gets it latest taste of Ghana politics, it may well find itself in need of a savior too.