GWM Tank 500 vs Toyota LandCruiser 300

They're the same class of vehicle, and the numbers sit closer than the badges suggest. Both ride a 2,850mm wheelbase and both turn inside 11.8 metres. At 5,078mm the Tank 500 is actually 98mm longer than the LandCruiser 300, though the Toyota is wider at 1,980mm to 1,934mm and taller at 1,955mm to 1,905mm. Both are body-on-frame wagons running dual-range four-wheel drive rather than car-based crossovers, and both are built to carry seven. So whatever separates these two, it isn't footprint, and it isn't the amount of metal on your driveway. The differences that matter are the tow rating, the fuel range and the price.

The Tank 500, on every line we can measure. As of July 2026 it opens around $75,000 driveaway in New South Wales against more than $107,000 for the LandCruiser 300. Servicing is the quieter gap: the Toyota falls due every six months or 10,000km and the GWM every 12 months or 15,000km, so across five years the capped-price schedules read $4,200 against $2,000. Warranty runs seven years to Toyota's five. One honest caveat for big-distance drivers, because the kilometre caps arrive well before the time caps and that narrows the servicing gap without closing it. Fuel is close enough to be noise, at a claimed 8.4L/100km against 8.9.

No, and it's the clearest gap on the page. The LandCruiser 300 is rated to 3,500kg braked on every grade; the Tank 500 tops out at 3,000kg. Both pull 750kg unbraked. Tow-ball limits are 350kg and 300kg, each exactly a tenth of the braked rating. The surprise is the gross combination mass, which is nearly identical at 6,750kg for the Toyota and 6,705kg for the GWM, so what you can legally carry while towing sits much closer than the headline gap suggests. If your van sits near 3,500kg, the LandCruiser 300 is the only one of the two that can legally take it, and no saving fixes a rating.

Both hold five stars, so start with what splits them. The LandCruiser 300 scores 89 per cent for adult occupant protection to the Tank 500's 85, the Tank 500 leads child occupant protection 93 to 88, and vulnerable road user protection ties at 81. The ratings aren't the same vintage: the Tank 500 was assessed in 2024 against tougher criteria than the LandCruiser's 2022 result, so the percentages aren't a clean like-for-like. One caveat matters more than any of that. Toyota has never submitted the GR Sport for assessment, so the dearest LandCruiser in the range holds no ANCAP rating of its own. Check the badge if a star count is driving your choice.

Both, and the price of entry is the story. The Tank 500's hybrid grades seat seven from around $75,000 driveaway. The LandCruiser 300 splits its range: GXL, VX and Sahara seat seven, while the GX, Sahara ZX and GR Sport seat five, and no option box adds a third row to those. That puts the cheapest seven-seat LandCruiser at $120,415, roughly $45,000 above the Tank 500's. Both ranges drop back to five at the top, though for different reasons: the Tank 500's plug-in hybrid trades its third row for the battery pack, while Toyota's five-seaters are packaged that way on purpose. Neither third row is the one you'd put adults in for a long haul.

Depends which Tank 500. The hybrid grades make 255kW to the LandCruiser's 227kW, so they win on power, but the diesel's 700Nm beats their 648Nm, and torque is what shifts a loaded wagon. The Hi4-T plug-in hybrid settles it with 300kW and 750Nm, plus a 37.11kWh battery good for about 120km of electric running and a 2.1L/100km combined claim, at the cost of the third row. The diesel's counter is range and a 110-litre tank, and it tows 500kg more whichever Tank you line up against it. Toyota has announced a 341kW petrol-electric LandCruiser, but it isn't on sale yet, so it can't count today.

The LandCruiser 300, on tank size. It carries 110 litres, more than the Tank 500 holds, and claims 8.9L/100km against the hybrid's 8.4L/100km, so the economy figures are close enough that capacity decides it. That matters most where the distance between servos is the constraint rather than the fuel bill. The Tank 500's plug-in hybrid is the awkward case: its 2.1L/100km combined claim assumes you start with a charged battery, which is realistic for a commute and much less so at the far end of a remote trip. Both claims are the laboratory ADR figures, so treat them as a ranking rather than a promise. For long-haul touring, the diesel wins on range alone.