Toyota Land Cruiser200 a balance between style, luxury and simplicity

How tough are you? Is your idea of fun driving through darkest Africa without navigation? Do you brush your teeth with a grasshopper and use a Piranha to trim your beard? If you’re anything like Bear Grylls, the cars that will make your short list are: The Land Rover Defender, Nissan Patrol, The Mercedes-Benz G-wagon, and the Toyota Land Cruiser, also known as The Master of Africa. We recently attended the launch of the Land Cruiser 200 in the Eastern Free State to see how it has been improved.

The Land Cruiser’s chrome-embellished, glamorous new face is not just pretty, but also functional: Restyled front headlamps are deep-set to prevent damage during serious bundu-bashing. On VX models, the headlights feature Bi-LED technology with Auto High Beam. From the side, you’ll notice 18-inch alloys on the VX models and 17-inch wheels on the GX models. The rear light clusters have been extended and enlarged. Personally I find the back-end a little boring - perhaps by modernising the utilitarian look, the revised rear has resulted in being nondescript.

The inside of the Land Cruiser 200 has been completely redesigned and is more suave 
than ever. Toyota says it’s “a balance between style, luxury and simplicity”. This translates to quite a Swedish look - the large 9-inch touch screen in the centre dash with vertical air vents on either side, is very Volvo XC90. Brushed aluminium, leather, chrome, wood inserts and a square interior layout all contribute to making this car feel like the R1 141 700 you’re paying for it. Leather inserts on either side of the centre dash, serve as knee pads during bumpy rides. 

Our first journey would be on tar, through Golden Gate National Park. My co-driver  driving the white Land Cruiser 200 4.5 VX 6AT first. The Cruiser is a big, heavy vehicle, and if you’re a driving enthusiast, driving it in Sport mode is recommended. The 4.5 litre, V8 turbodiesel engine moves quietly along, but is a glutton in the diesel department. When the tar road turned to dirt and it was my turn to drive, I got a feeling of uncertainty, as the Cruiser didn’t feel too sure-footed on this section. The ride quality was harsh too, which made us wonder whether the tyre pressure in our particular model was higher than the others. Later that evening, we found out that

Upon our arrival at the 4 x 4 track, we looked at the array of dumbfounding buttons on the centre tunnel. The new Land Cruiser 200 is fitted with an array of high tech off-roading systems, and I almost had to grab the manual in the cubby hole as everything was looking unfamiliar. The all-new Multi-Terrain Select system makes easy meat of every possible road surface. Rock, Rock & Dirt, Mogul, Loose Rock,Mud & Sand and Auto can be selected via a rotary knob. We soon came to a very steep, rocky section and activated the Crawl Control feature. When the Cruiser started making its way down, suddenly there were clanky thudding noises. At first I thought there was something wrong, because it felt like I was riding a mechanical bull. But it’s just all the systems working together to keep the Cruiser exactly where it should be. I should mention that my selectable Crawling Speed was set to 1, which is the jerkiest of the lot, and meant for the more hair-raising descents that call for extreme measures. Still, it gave us a good idea of how effective the system is. Other technology include the Multi-Terrain Monitor, to give you a 360-degree picture of your surrounds, in case there’s a nasty rock rock or tree that wants to harm your new wheels. A nifty feature is the “underfloor” view, which allows you to see what’s happening on the underside of your Cruiser as well, with regards to obstacles and wheel position.

We then proceeded to the track, where various obstacles were waiting to be traversed. Instructors told us when to engage the various systems, so we could safely