Toyota upgrades Land Cruiser

Toyota has revealed its revamped Land Cruiser 200 Series – with an upgraded engine, new safety technology and revised styling – ahead of its launch in Australia in October.

According to Toyota, the Cruiser’s V8 twin-turbo diesel will have more power and better fuel efficiency, while a facelift will make the series appear more aggressive.

Available as a five-seater, seven-seater and eight-seater, the updated Land Cruiser range will join the new Fortuna and the reworked Prado and Hilux on showroom floors before the year’s end.

Full pricing and specifications will be announced at the upgraded range’s official launch in October.

Engine

Engine upgrades include new injectors for the 4.5-litre twin-turbo diesel engine, revised mapping and a diesel particulate filter (DPF) fitted with a guard to protect it over rough roads.

Power output has increased in the common-rail diesel by 5kW (up 2.5 per cent) to 200kW, while peak torque remains 650Nm.

The petrol engine will maintain its peak outputs of 227kW and 439Nm with variable valve timing on the inlet and exhaust ports.

The GX is diesel only, while the GXL, VX and Sahara are available in petrol and diesel and are driven through an electronically controlled six-speed automatic transmission.

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Styling

The exterior is more modern and aggressive. There’s a new front mask, a restyled grille, headlamps, bumper, fenders and bonnet.

The new grille, with a hexagonal frame and triple horizontal bars, looks masculine and prominent. Convex shapes that extend to the front of the vehicle flank the scooping in the centre of the bonnet. Headlamps and front corners of the vehicle are set back from the grille to complete the three-dimensional look.

Bars from the grille frame are integrated with the new projector-style headlamps to give them a thinner appearance.

The headlights are more protected in off road driving because of their rearward placement, while the lower grille is wider, extending to the foglamp area, which is also set back to help prevent damage.

Side protection mouldings and door handles have been revised and a new bumper, upper tailgate panel, combination lamps, reflectors and mudguards have been added.

The tailgate is also now fitted with a more prominent panel between the restyled combination lamps, while the wider licence-plate garnish extends into the lamps to emphasise width and unify the rear design.

Two new colours, Copper Brown and Onyx Blue, are available on all grades except GX, bringing the total palette to 10 colours.

Inside, there is now soft-touch surfaces, revised instruments and controls.

The soft padding has been added to areas that directly contact occupants' limbs and support their bodies.

The GX is trimmed with grey fabric and GXL with grey or beige fabric, while VX and Sahara offer the choice of black or beige for their leather-accented interiors.

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Fuel economy

Fuel economy and emissions will improve by about eight per cent, with combined-cycle consumption at about 9.5 litres/100km, which is compliant with Euro 5 emissions regulations.

The air-injection system in the 4.6-litre petrol V8 engine has been adapted to reduce emissions by inducing secondary air through the exhaust ports for faster catalyst warm-up from a cold start.

Safety

Toyota has expanded the safety features of the Sahara, the premier model Land Cruiser. The features now include radar and front camera, as well as other sensors to detect and monitor road users and lane markings.

Safety features include:

• A Pre-Collision Safety System to warn the driver of a possible collision and automatically apply the brakes.
• A Lane Departure Alert to help avoid collisions by warning the driver if the vehicle is about to move unintentionally across lanes without using the turn signals.
• Dynamic Radar Cruise Control to help the driver keep a safe distance from the car in front. It also monitors vehicles merging into or out of the lane ahead to support smooth acceleration and deceleration.
• Automatic High Beamto detect the headlights of oncoming vehicles and the taillights of preceding vehicles, switching automatically between high and low beam to avoid dazzling other drivers. More frequent use of high beam also helps with earlier detection of pedestrians and obstacles.

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Other features

Switches and displays for audio, air-conditioning and driver-related functions have been grouped more logically, while dials and switches have been reshaped to make them easier to use.

The centre cluster has a storage area and a 12V outlet for all grades plus a wireless charger for Sahara. VX and Sahara grades get a new Optitron instrument cluster with 4.2-inch thin-film transistor colour Multi Information Display.

The Land Cruiser’s two top models are also fitted with new Electro Multi Vision and Navigation units with a nine-inch display screen (previously eight inch) for improved visibility. The Sahara will also get air-conditioned seats.

The GX is a 5-seater, the diesel VX and Sahara are seven-seaters and all other grades are eight seaters.

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