They look like stormtroopers, although the military analogy is misplaced. Endless ranks, tiers and rows of Toyotas, each and everyone a gleaming, pristine white. But these, although tucked away in a secret underground bunker, are armed only with implacable reliability and fearsome durability.
That white Land Cruiser you saw on the news last night? Chances are it came through here. The back of shot cars seen in every report from war zones and aid programmes to disaster relief and third world development projects? At one time they probably called this home. Around 650 vehicles - more specifically 650 white Toyotas - leave here every month destined for global hotspots. Welcome to Toyota Gibraltar Stockholdings (TGS), the world's most remarkable car dealership.
"We don't really think of them as cars," TGS co-chief executive Jonathan Gourlay tells me. "We're just giving our customers a tool that does a job, whether that's feeding children or delivering medicines." You might think, like me, that the 70 Series Land Cruiser is utterly cool and want one very badly, but cool plays no role here - this is transport at its most fundamental. Simplicity, capability and reliability overrule everything. "If you look back 25 years, there were a few players in this market," Gourlay continues. "There was Land Rover, there was Nissan and Mitsubishi, but gradually they've focused on building what I'd call 'first world' vehicles for Europe and North America. But Toyota still builds a 4.2-liter non-turbo diesel. You can't register a new one in Europe because of its emissions, but it doesn't go wrong and any mechanic can fix it in the field because there's no electronics around it. You don't need diagnostic tools, you just need to know how an engine works."
This story is from the October 2022 edition of Top Gear.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 2022 edition of Top Gear.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
FUTURE PROOF
Is perfect the same for one person as the next, asks Horrell. Turns out, it's very unlikely...
THE MIDDLE LANE
A very serious incident involving a toaster and an electric car has got TGTV's Sam Philip thinking
5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE...MCLAREN GTS
McLaren's GT is now the GTS - less weight, but a 30 per cent longer name
TOPGEAR TOP 9
GEEKIEST WEIGHT SAVING IN FAST CARS
PLAY - GAME OF THE MONTH
There appears to be some sort of law, perhaps inscribed on Magna Carta, that if you have a collection of kid-friendly franchises, you must place those characters in a karting video game to battle in the white hot crucible of two-stroke motorsport.
HIP TO BE SQUARE
Watches come in all shapes and sizes, and the square watch has plenty of celeb endorsement
HOTTER HATCH
Rally bred TG hero gets more power and optional eight-soeed auto
JEEP CHEROKEE 2001
Jeep's 'XJ' Cherokee, built between 1984 and 2001, was one of America's great automotive designs: a chisel-edged slab of practicality that arguably set the template for every SUV that followed.
EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT ZERO TO HERO
Hondas you can lust after are back. Allow us to introduce the wonderfully wedgy '0 Series'
Honda ZR-V
WE MUST KICK OFF THIS MONTH'S UPDATE WITH A SMALL ROUND OF applause for the Honda ZR-V. You see, it has slipped into daily life with consummate ease here at TG. It's simply an extremely easy car to live with. The powertrain may sound complex with its twin electric motors, petrol powered motor generator and Honda's 'Linear Shift Control', but from the driver's seat there isn't any real sense of the engineering that's going on underneath. And that's a compliment, honest. The ZR-V is quiet, reasonably refined and actually much more comfortable than I gave it credit for when I first drove this car on the launch in Spain.