New look for Toyota LandCruiser

TOYOTA has ripped the covers off its facelifted LandCruiser 200 that will roll into showrooms across Australia in mid-October bringing subtle styling tweaks and new safety tech to the eight-year old series.

Pricing and full specification is yet to be confirmed for Toyota's off-roading hero, but the updated go-anywhere wagon comes with improvements to its diesel and petrol powertrains.

The 4.5-litre twin-turbo diesel engine features new injectors, as well as revised mapping and diesel particulate filter with a guard for protection over rougher surfaces. Toyota says these changes have made for a 5kW power boost to 200kW, while torque remains at 650Nm.

Fuel economy has also improved in the diesel, dropping from 10.3 litres per 100 kilometres to 9.5L/100km on the combined cycle, while also bringing the car into line with Euro 5 emissions regulations.

The 4.6-litre V8 maintains its power and torque outputs of 227kW and 439Nm respectively, and it also achieves Euro 5 compatibility. While Toyota did not confirm updated fuel use figures for the petrol, the company said in a release that fuel economy “has improved on all measures”.

The petrol unit's air-injection system has been tweaked, according to Toyota, to lower emissions by “inducing secondary air through the exhaust ports for faster catalyst warm-up from a cold start”.

Both the petrol and the diesel are matched with a six-speed automatic transmission, and the variant line-up remains as before, kicking off with the diesel-only GX, followed by petrol and diesel versions of the GXL, VX and range-topping Sahara.

The GX remains a five-seat only proposition, diesel VX and Sahara variants offer seven seats and all other versions come with eight seats.

In terms of the exterior design, the LandCruiser gets a refreshed front end with a new three-bar grille, that extends the middle bar through the lower part of the new and narrower projector-style headlight design. The front end is slightly reminiscent of Ford's Australian designed and developed Everest SUV that also arrives in October.

Toyota says the rearward placement of the headlights ensures greater protection when off-roading, while the wider lower grille that extends to the newly designed fog-light area is also set back to avoid damage.

The bonnet features scooping and convex shapes for a more “aggressive and prominent look,” according to the car-maker, while at the rear the LandCruiser gains a restyled bumper, tailgate panel, tail-lights reflectors and mudguards.

Two new colours – Copper Brown and Onyx Blue are available on all variants except GX.

More soft-touch materials have been included in the cabin, switches have been reshaped for ease of use, while driver-related functions and air-con controls have been more logically re-grouped.

New tech inside includes an Optitron instrument cluster with a 4.2-inch multi-information display in VX and Sahara which also gain a new nine-inch display housing sat-nav and other functions.

The Sahara adds safety tech including a new Pre-Collision Safety System that automatically applies the brakes to avoid a crash, lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise control and automatic high-beam.

The LandCruiser 200 Series arrives in October, shortly after the launch of the new-gen HiLux pick-up, and about the same time as the Fortuner HiLux-based SUV.

It also follows last week's reveal of the refreshed Lexus LX570 that is based on the LandCruiser.