Johannesburg - If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as the old saying goes, so Toyota has limited the 2018 updates to its big seven-seater Land Cruiser 200 beetle-crusher to cosmetic tweaks, mostly aimed at making the two derivatives available in South Africa more distinct from each other.
But first, the entry-level GX has been rebadged as the GX-R, just to line up with the naming convention with its more upmarket VX-R sibling.
Then the VX-R has been (literally) facelifted with a new grille featuring two chunky horizontal slats in place of the previous multi-slat design, while the Bi-LED headlight clusters (incorporating auto high beam and daytime running lights) and the foglights now have smoked lenses.
Inside, there’s a new brown trim colour available, giving VX-R customrs a choice of three trim options - beige, brown and black.
Same engine
Both grades are mechanically unchanged, powered by the familiar 4.5-litre D-4D V8 turbodiesel, rated for 195kW at 3400 revs and 650Nm from 1600-2600rpm.
The same cannot be said for pricing, however. Adding “-R” to the GX’s badges has added R10 000 to the sticker price, taking it up to R1 020 900, while the VX-R will now set you back R1 405 600 - R32 800 more than before.
In each case that includes a three-year or 100 000km warranty and nine free services, at 10 000km or one-year intervals, whichever comes first.