Toyota Land Cruiser 200 (URJ202W) 2016 Facelift

2016 Toyota Land Cruiser

Sheiks of the world, rejoice. It's the new Land Cruiser...well, sorta. Anyway, this is the second time Toyota's full-size SUV, popular among the oil kings and the sheiks of the desert regions, has been given a facelift but the latest facelift has more treats in store so let's dig in.

2016 Toyota Land Cruiser

2016 Toyota Land Cruiser interior

2016 Toyota Land Cruiser interior

For the 2016 facelift, the Land Cruiser 200's exterior has been modestly revised with a new front design as well as a mildly refreshed rear view that keeps this flagship SUV updated for big things to come but some might react that the new design might look unpleasant for a normal driver but at least that's how big SUVs are made of. The design has to be big, chunky, and unpleasant to the eyes of ordinary drivers because having one of these is like you're in charge of the hacienda or a town or whatever you're ruling at. The interior's heavily revised as well with new paneling, a new instrumental panel, a new steering wheel, a dual-screen rear entertainment system, a media player that plays CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays, an HDMI port, available Toyota Premium Sound System, and of course, integrated with Toyota's T-Connect telematics service. Even though this eight-seater SUV is made with rich and powerful playboys in mind, it's still usable as a family car and seating arrangements are still on the LC200's list. Just think of the lifestyles people would do if they had one of these.

2016 Toyota Land Cruiser

Because all Land Cruisers are made to tackle the rough terrains drivers are traversing with, the Land Cruiser 200 comes with the Multi-Terrain Select with five different modes based on terrain responses such as ROCK, ROCK & DIRT, MOGUL, LOOSE ROCK, and MUD & SAND. It even features Crawl Control, Variable Gear Ratio Steering, Active Height Control Suspension with an Adaptive Variable Suspension System, and the most basic feature of them all is KDSS (Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System). The Multi-Terrain Monitor has been updated so it now comes with an Under Floor View and a Front View Rotation Display along with many other views suitable to check its offroad situations. You may now check what's going on if you ran into something muddy or whatever.

It's still powered by the 1UR-FE (4.6L V8) engine that produces 318PS of power and 460Nm of torque. With its Dual VVT-i (Variable Valve Timing-intelligent) and 6-speed Super ECT, it is capable of achieving a fuel economy of 6.9km/L based on Japan's JC08 Test Cycle.

For the 2016 Land Cruiser, Toyota introduced the new Toyota Safety Sense P and because this is an all-new safety tech, it might be best to talk about this one. The Toyota Safety Sense P features a more high-tech millimeter-wave radar that detects pedestrians and vehicles alike. If it senses a potential collision with pedestrians, it will slow down by 30kph. With cars, the speed reduction goes up to 40kph. It even comes with Radar Cruise Control which detects preceding vehicles and determines their speed. It will adjust its speed accordingly to maintain a safe distance between the cars. There are many other safety techs featured in the new Toyota Safety Sense P but it's best to leave it for a while.

The 2016 Land Cruiser is available in ZX, AX, AX G Selection, and GX trim models and prices start from 4,728,437 to 6,825,600 Japanese Yen.

Available Colors: White Pearl Crystal Shine, Silver Metallic, Grey Metallic, Black, Attitude Black Mica, Dark Red Mica Metallic, Copper Brown Mica, Beige Mica Metallic, and Dark Blue Mica.

Photo: Toyota Motor Corporation