Ford Everest Platinum V6 vs Toyota LandCruiser 300 GX

On paper the Everest Platinum is the better buy. At $92,162 driveaway it undercuts the $107,315 GX by about $15,000 (both NSW driveaway, July 2026) and adds seven seats, a panoramic sunroof, twin large screens, a 360-degree camera, navigation and blind-spot monitoring the Toyota goes without. The GX answers with a stronger 227kW/700Nm engine, a 110-litre tank, a higher 6,750kg combined mass and the Cruiser's resale legend. Read the Everest as the value and comfort pick. Read the GX as the choice when durability, touring range and badge equity matter more than showroom kit.

Braked towing is a dead heat at 3500kg, with matching 750kg unbraked and 350kg tow-ball limits. The LandCruiser 300 GX pulls ahead where it counts for long hauls: a 6750kg gross combination mass gives 500kg more headroom than the Everest's 6250kg when you load the vehicle and the trailer together, and its 110-litre tank stretches touring range well past the Everest's 80 litres. The Everest tows comfortably and rides better unladen, but for crossing the country with a van the GX holds the deeper reserves.

The Everest Platinum. It seats seven to the GX's five, and its cabin is far better equipped: heated and ventilated front seats, a panoramic sunroof, a 360-degree camera, wireless phone mirroring on a 12-inch screen and a 12.4-inch driver display. The GX is a deliberately plain five-seater on cloth with an 8-inch screen. The Toyota's flat load bay behind the second row is huge for gear, but for carrying people and keeping them comfortable the loaded, seven-seat Everest is the family choice, and it costs less.

For many buyers, yes. The GX is pitched at fleets and touring builds, so it runs cloth seats, steel wheels, an 8-inch touchscreen and a 7-inch cluster, and it omits keyless entry, push-button start, a sunroof, navigation, a 360-degree camera and blind-spot monitoring. Against a $92,162 Everest Platinum that has all of it, the cabin feels a generation behind. The counter-argument is that GX buyers pay for the driveline, the tank and the resale, not the trim, and many prefer hard-wearing surfaces for outback work. If you want plush, step up the Cruiser range or take the Everest.

Both carry a five-star ANCAP rating tested in 2022, so neither is unsafe. They trade blows on the detail. The LandCruiser scores higher for adult occupant protection (89 versus 86 per cent) and vulnerable road users (81 versus 74), and packs 10 airbags to the Everest's nine. The Everest hits back on active safety, with a higher safety-assist score (86 versus 77 per cent) and standard blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert the base GX lacks. Read the GX as the stronger structure, the Everest as the better-equipped for driver aids.

The LandCruiser 300 asks for a service every six months or 10,000km, at about $420 a visit and roughly $4200 over five years. Australian owners have long flagged that cadence as a running-cost gripe. Fuel use is close, at 8.5L/100km for the Everest against 8.9 for the heavier Cruiser, so neither runs away on economy. The bigger running-cost swing is the purchase price: the Everest Platinum lands about $15,000 under the GX. On the figures we hold, the Everest is the cheaper vehicle to buy, and its longer service cadence helps too; the Cruiser recovers ground at trade-in through stronger resale.

Both are real off-roaders rather than soft-roaders, and this is closer than the badges suggest. The Everest Platinum publishes a 30.2-degree approach angle, 25-degree departure, 800mm wading depth, a rear diff lock, terrain modes and hill descent control. The LandCruiser 300 GX counters with more ground clearance (245mm to 226mm) and a marginally steeper 31-degree approach, plus the low-range hardware and touring pedigree the 300 Series is built around. The full GX off-road specification is not catalogued here, so treat this as a capability call rather than a spec duel: both will go a long way past a formed road.

The LandCruiser 300, comfortably. Strong resale is central to the Cruiser story in Australia, where the nameplate is the default remote-area vehicle and used demand stays high, so a chunk of the GX's premium comes back at trade-in. The Everest holds value well for a mainstream large SUV, helped by its popularity, but it does not match the Cruiser's near-legendary residuals. If you change vehicles often, factor the Toyota's resale into the $15,000 gap; if you keep cars a long time, the Everest's lower entry price and richer standard kit do more of the work. We do not publish residual percentages, so weigh this alongside the hard numbers.