The floodgates are open. A trickle of Toyota LandCruiser leaks has turned into a torrent, revealing all the sordid details about Toyota’s new off-road flagship.
New images published on Instagram by shomegranbill offer a closer look at the new LandCruiser in flagship Sahara trim, along with lower-end GX and GXL models.
Expect to see the new LandCruiser in Australia during the first quarter of 2022. A global reveal is likely in August 2021.
The bluff nose, bold grille, and flat sides of the new Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series all represent an evolution of the current car.
The new off-roader is a little more squared off than before, while there’s a sharper up-kick in the belt line aft of the C-pillar.
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Overseas reports have indicated the new ‘Cruiser has been delayed slightly.
In January, a dealer source told BestCarWeb the product outline would be released in March, reservations would open in April, and it would be officially released in May.
The recent shortage of semiconductors has pushed out those timeframes, with Japanese reservations now reportedly set to open in May and deliveries beginning in August.
The most recent overseas report, from Japanese site Creative311, suggests it won’t launch initially with hybrid power as was originally thought.
Instead, it’ll reportedly launch with one petrol and one diesel powertrain.
The diesel is said to be a new 3.3-litre turbo-diesel six-cylinder engine producing 230kW of power and 687Nm of torque, mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission.
Unlike previous overseas reports, Creative311 says the engine isn’t a four-cylinder mill, nor is it an inline-six being developed by Mazda and shared with Toyota.
The petrol engine is a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 producing 313kW of power and 589Nm of torque, also mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission.
The twin-turbo V6 is reportedly a version of the Lexus LS500’s engine.
A hybrid 3.5-litre V6 will follow in 2022 or later, and may be a version of the LS500h’s powertrain.
The 300 Series will reportedly be the first LandCruiser to feature a GR Sport, which will be styled more as an off-road bruiser than boulevard cruiser.
It’s said to feature large diameter tyres on 18-inch wheels and various off-road styling tweaks.
The new LandCruiser should see a significant upgrade in terms of safety equipment, with reports indicating the entire model range will come standard with Toyota’s Safety Sense suite of active safety technology.
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That means standard equipment should include autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane-departure warning.
Creative311 also reports blind-spot monitoring and a surround-view camera will be standard across the range, while up-spec models will add a 3D multi-terrain monitor and fingerprint detection to start the car.
Touchscreens will measure 9.0 or 12.3 inches.
Leaks earlier this year gave us a close look of the centre stack in what appears to be range-topping Sahara guise, with heated and ventilated seat controls located just below the touchscreen and a row of hard buttons below those for the sound system.
There are also new features like a heated steering wheel and a Qi wireless charging pad on the centre console, as well as a larger screen within the instrument cluster flanked by analogue gauges.
The LandCruiser 300 Series will also add an idle stop/start system.
The new diesel six is set to replace the current car’s 4.5-litre twin-turbo diesel V8 engine, which produces 200kW of power and 650Nm of torque.
The twin-turbo V6 petrol replaces the naturally-aspirated 5.7-litre V8 offered in markets like the US, though the 4.0-litre V6 offered in some markets is expected to continue.
