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By
EWAN KENNEDY and MURRAY HUBBARD
28 November 2011
Already seen as one of the toughest 4WDs in Australia, Toyota’s
LandCruiser 200 has just been made even more robust to cater for
those who really mean business. This Toyota is not for those who
want to drop kids at school or swan around the cafe strips, this
new version is aimed at the harsh needs of the mining and farming
communities, as well as those doing serious off-road driving to
experience what this great land down under offers.
Toyota’s
new turbo-diesel LandCruiser GX is based on the current Cruiser
GXL wagon and is a worthy successor to the much trusted
LandCruiser 100 Series Standard Grade.
Toyota’s
decision to produce a torture-proof LandCruiser 200 was prompted
by the mining boom in Western Australia and Queensland. Built for
demanding, dusty work, the GX Toyota LandCruiser 200 has vinyl
floor covering, vertically hinged twin ‘barn’ doors at the
back, 17-inch steel wheels, snorkel, 93-litre main fuel tank,
45-litre auxiliary tank, five seats, under-body protection plates
and uses a standard key, rather than a fancy electronic one.
While
Toyota has built the GX LandCruiser for the working environment
not all modern luxuries have been deleted. There’s still a CD
player (but with a capacity of just one disc), manual
air-conditioning, power windows with auto up-and-down for the
driver, and power-operated exterior rear view mirrors.
With
occupational health and safety a major issue at mining sites the
Toyota LandCruiser GX keeps all the GXL safety equipment including
driver and front-passenger airbags, curtain-shield airbags,
stability control, active traction control, hill-start assist,
multi-terrain anti-skid brakes and Toyota Crawl, the latter being
an off road version of cruise control aimed at very slow speeds on
difficult terrain. The spare wheel is mounted under the cargo
floor.
Handy
features include a 60/40 split fold rear seat with adjustable back
recline and adjustable head restraints and tilt and telescopic
steering column adjustment. Audio controls are included on the
four-spoke steering wheel for the four speaker CD tuner. Toyota
has included a fascia-mounted audio head unit with AUX/USB input,
MP3/WMA compatibility and Bluetooth hands-free plus audio
streaming capability.
Powered
by a twin-turbo 4.5-litre V8 diesel engine the GX has 195 kW of
power and 650 Nm of torque running through a six-speed automatic
transmission. It uses full time 4WD with a Torsen limited-slip
differential plus a two-speed transfer case.
The
recommended retail price for the Toyota LandCruiser GX is $77,900,
this does not include dealer or government charges.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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