The landcruiser is an interesting story.
The landcruiser, in fairly short order, completely took over the market for the range rover - that is, the market of a capable off-road but comfortable vehicle, for things like safaris, desert use, prairie use, etc etc. It was massively more reliable and massively cheaper. It's built on a real truck frame, not just a lifted and expanded sedan like most SUVs are.
However, at some point, the landcruiser actually split into two different cars. Today, you have the FJ cruiser, which is a relatively affordable car, and the land cruiser, which is an extremely expensive car, on par with the range rover (though admittedly still far more reliable and cheaper to maintain.)
So if you want to compare old landcruisers to new ones, you should compare old landcruisers to today's FJ cruisers.
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New cars are way more reliable than older cars, they use a lot less gas, they put out a lot more power. On the low end, this actually matters, because you're comparing cars with like 60 horsepower to new ones having more like 120 - 150. The difference between the two is very noticeable; you can actually get up to highway speed on an on-ramp and safely merge onto the highway, whereas on many older cars, not so much. You can do it without jamming the accelerator. You are not constantly driving it near the limits of its capabilities. You can easily get above 55, or 65, or 75, or whatever mph, and you can do it without overheating, and you can drive it at that speed pretty much indefinitely. And considering the reliability of most models, and the much longer warranties on them, you're going to be pretty much mechanically sound for 50 - 100k miles. (Electrically, stupid shit might end up costing you lots of money - avoid certain new tech like infotainment systems if you plan to keep the car for more than eight-ten years.) And as long as you get a tried-and-tested engine and transmission configuration, you're pretty much going to avoid the more costly repairs - the occasional wheel bearing, or whatever, is a lot cheaper than a cylinder losing compression or losing second gear. (With that said, I have a bias towards larger displacement, lower-revving engines when it comes to longevity.)
The resale values of modern cars reflect this. 100k used to mean the car was near death. Now you might only go down a few hundred bucks per ten thousand extra miles, because if things are working at 100k, they're probably more or less going to keep working for another 100k, with just standard maintenance and replacement of parts known to wear out / age out.
