MOVE OVER, LAND-ROVER

This confirmed Toyota Land Cruiser obsessive is convinced that the best 4x4xfar comes not from Solihull, but Japan

- WORDS CHARLIE CALDERWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY MAX EDLESTON

There’s something about being in a long-term relationship, that when your wife doesn’t like something... well, maybe it fans the flames,” Thomas Aubrey-Fletcher admits as he attempts to explain his ever-growing collection of Toyota 4x4s. “I started off with the 100-series, which she said she didn’t like, so I bought another 14!”

The setting for Tom’s barn full of Land Cruisers couldn’t be much more establishment, nestling in his family’s expansive and bucolic Buckinghamshire land holdings. In a country obsessed with Land-Rovers – and, indeed, where it’s one of only two remaining native marques still building cars in large quantities – there’s a sense of rebellion to this treasure trove of Japanese off-roaders.

It all started with a simple search for a new car, when three children, a dog and a rural lifestyle required something large with off-road capability. Range Rovers were too flashy, and the muscular lines of the green 100-series Land Cruiser that remains Tom’s daily driver seduced him. After a few months the obsession began to take hold, as he became aware of just how over-engineered these cars are. “I remember driving it in the pouring rain through the night in northern France, and it just felt so secure,” he explains. “Everything on them is scaled up: just look at the air-filter housing, for example – it’s disproportionately big.” In the six years since, Tom has bought Land Cruisers from across the model’s history, and even added a few Hilux pickups along the way.

But what even is a Land Cruiser? Although Toyota has only sold one model under the name in the UK in recent years, that isn’t true in the rest of the world and you are best off thinking of it much like one of its great rivals, the Range Rover. It’s a model name, but also effectively a sub-brand, with diverse cars of different wheelbases, bodywork and prices.