Test drive Toyota Land Cruiser 200
This is ridiculous. How much did the line of updated Toyota Land Cruiser 200 overcome in 12 hours, eight to nine kilometers? At night it poured, snow up to the waist, and the track clearly does not look quite as expected by the expedition that had plowed it in advance. We planned to drive to the famous "Dead Hand" ...
This is ridiculous. How much did the line of updated Toyota Land Cruiser 200 overcome in 12 hours, eight to nine kilometers? At night it poured, snow up to the waist, and the track clearly does not look quite as expected by the expedition that had plowed it in advance. We planned to get to the famous "Dead Hand" hidden in the Kosvinsky stone. It is believed that this is the central element of the Soviet automatic system "Perimeter", which would independently inflict a retaliatory nuclear strike against a hypothetical enemy in the event of the death of the entire command staff. But we never got there. We dug too much.
Maybe the blame for everything is the dashing unwillingness to crawl on the Crawl Control - the "Toyota" prototype of the off-road autopilot, which itself drags the car through the mud, even through the snow. Dragging cool, wisely, only it hurts slowly. We flew over many sections with gas, involuntarily breaking the track for those who followed. Or maybe, to take seriously the difficult area and overcome it was prevented by the subconscious understanding that at any moment you can turn around, as we eventually did. In general, it is our own fault.
On the eve of the night the question was different: there is no turning back, it is necessary to get to the camp, heat and food - without any “or”. The technician prepared for off-road conditions sacrificed the rear axle during the evacuation of the second Prado from the snow captivity and remained in the Ural forest, and there were dramatically few shovels. “It's okay, Lexus LX in the desert, we dug out a box lunch cover,” laughs a fellow crew member.
The diesel roars, the stuck Land Cruiser desperately tears apart the remnants of the track, we rock it with six of us, standing on the footpegs and clinging to the rails, someone in front pulls the cable, others push from the side and rear, and now the three-ton frame SUV finally takes off. You can't stop - it will get bogged down again. The driver understands this, from the heart gives gas, and we scatter in different directions and jump into the snowdrifts, leaving the trajectory. We got out, dust ourselves off, let's go get the next one out. I have a very urban neurosis - my mobile does not catch and it will be like this for three days. This is even more troubling than the prospect of meeting the owner of that chain of footprints going into the impassable forest.
Was it worth it to desperately storm the Northern Urals for the sake of restyling the car, in which, globally, in terms of hardware, nothing has changed since 2007, and only the universal Auto mode appeared in the Multi-terrain Select system from off-road innovations? In the case of any other car, one could doubt this, but the level of popular love for the Land Cruiser 200 in Russia is phenomenally off scale. It was enough to appear on the Internet the first, very bad, scanned from the brochure images of the updated "two hundred" in May this year, as sales of the current generation immediately collapsed - twice in relation to April and three times in relation to March. Toyota was forced to put out the fire with discounts.
"Dvuhsotka" is the only car in the modern history of Russia with a cost of $ 40 and getting into the top 049 best-selling models of the month according to the AEB, even if this happened against the backdrop of a currency shock and a rush of buying everything that moves. However, the reputation of an absolutely indestructible car, coupled with a high residual value, allows the LC25 to collect queues at car dealerships even without "Black Tuesdays". Today Russia is the second market for this model in the world after the countries of the Persian Gulf, and it seems that its audience would be quite satisfied with even a slight external facelift, but Toyota did not stop there. It was not for nothing that the Deputy Chief Engineer of the Land Cruiser 200 Takaki Mizuno, together with us, made his way through the Ural snows and fell into a slight shock from the fact that in such conditions cars can at least somehow drive. By the way, now he thinks that there is no "Snow" mode in Multi-terrain Select and promised to make an effort to fix it. In the meantime, only dirt, stones, large stones and other sand.
But the LC200 is prettier inside and out, and also received normal brakes. This was one of the few owners' complaints about the LC200 before the upgrade, and it was solved by increasing the diameter of the front brake discs by 14 mm and improving the hydraulic system. We checked both on a frozen grader road, where braking in general must be extremely fine, and on normal asphalt - a heavy Land Cruiser now responds more adequately and clearly to the pedal. On the one hand, the feeling of lack of braking effort was gone, on the other hand, it did not come to excessive, sharp "pecks". The eight-speed "automatic", available in the USA with the purchase of the 5,7-liter LC200, did not reach us. The box remained the same, an automatic six-speed, but the eight-cylinder turbodiesel was slightly modernized and transferred to the Euro-5 class. After flashing, the torque increased from 615 to 650 Nm at 1800-2200 rpm, and the power increased from 235 to 249 horsepower. In addition, a particulate filter was added to the design. A gasoline engine is also available, which remained unchanged - the same V-shaped 309-horsepower "eight", but off-road the diesel looked preferable. This was the case before, and now, due to the increased torque, it forgives much more mistakes, while one careless pressing of the gas pedal on the gasoline version leads to another trip to the trunk for a shovel.
On tarmac, the petrol LC200 is the favorite in everything except fuel costs and vehicle tax. However, with both engine options, the "two-hundred" rides, as always, imposingly, waddling, therefore, the functionality of the adaptive cruise control is absolutely logically inscribed here. But, alas, it will not work in Moscow traffic jams - the system that independently maintains the distance to the car in front works only at speeds of 40 km per hour. Also, the Land Cruiser is now able to urgently decelerate (but not completely stop) in the event of a collision hazard, recognize road signs and monitor the level of driver fatigue.
Despite its overwhelming popularity within the Garden, the Land Cruiser is a car for going far and for a long time. Therefore, it can be equipped with an additional 45-liter gas tank, but only in a five-seater version, and in the case of a diesel engine, you will also have to abandon the hatch. The reason is the legislative limitation of the mass of passenger cars. But the law that it is impossible to hide from people the buttons most needed at night in the Urals has not yet been printed.
We have already seen this from the Japanese. Take the Lexus GX: to turn on the heated windshield, first you need to press the climate control button located at the top right of the multimedia screen, then find the ellipsis on the touch screen, become interested in its secret, guess press and find the desired function inside. The situation is the same in the LC200, and you cannot even change the ventilation level from the button - only through the touch menu. Not Mitsubishi with its significant Stuka sub-item on the menu, but that Asian puzzle.
Apart from this nuance, everything became much more logical: the controls were streamlined, depriving the central panel of the chaotic jumble of buttons from the previous version, and arranged according to functional zones - climate control, multimedia and off-road functionality. The touch screen is now available in two versions, 8 and 9 inches, and the dashboard has acquired a color display. The Japanese cleaned up the whole interior, slightly refined the elements and finishing materials, which obviously went to the "two hundred" good. Also, there are more useful little things typical of the French, such as a tablet holder on the backs of the front seats and nets for small luggage in the trunk and, of course, the same as in Camry, a wireless charger for a mobile phone.
But in these parts, where only the deserted village of Kytlym with the always closed bar "Courage" is blown away for the whole world civilization, the updated "two hundred" breaks all templates and impresses, first of all, with its appearance. It would seem that there is nowhere, but the Land Cruiser has become even more aggressive due to a new radiator grille, all-LED optics and a hood with two deep notches, which, like the fenders, as well as the upper part of the fifth door, are now made of metal. The hood, by the way, has learned to become "transparent". Shooting is carried out from a familiar camera, after which the picture is processed by a computer and displayed on the screen with a delay of several seconds. It turns out such a glimpse into the very near future.
Otherwise, the Land Cruiser with all four wheels firmly stands in the present and faithfully preserves the traditions of the past - a frame, an honest four-wheel drive, a V-shaped "eight", a rigid rear axle. In Russia, changed and dumbfounded by the crisis, he feels more confident than many of us, because he has experienced something else. An officer of the well-fed empire of the XNUMXs, self-confidently glancing at the rest of the world. Marker of an outgoing era.
