TRUSTY TROOPY

The Land Cruiser family is celebrating 70 years of uninterrupted production this year – making it the longest serving nameplate in the Toyota product lineup – and as part of this commemoration the trusty Troopy, designated the 78 in 1999, is making a welcome return to the Cruiser 70series range.

It is an interesting addition, as earlier efforts to introduce the Troopy here – the last time around 2012 – failed, leading to the model again being dropped from the line-up in August 2015. However, this time Toyota South Africa says it is re-introducing the 78 “following some specific market requests for this type of vehicle” …

The specifications of the 78 mirror that of the previously offered model, with the exception of a switch to drum brakes in the rear (for improved durability in high-dirt operating conditions). It is still powered by the trusty 1HZ 4.2litre inlinesix diesel engine (96 kw at 3 800 rpm and 285 Nm at 2 200 rpm) paired with a heavy-duty fivespeed manual transmission and lowrange-equipped transfer case.

It rides on heavy-duty steel wheels shod with 7.50R16C tyres, comes in two exterior colours only – Ivory White and Sand Beige – and is now available for R716 000 including a threeyear/100 000 km warranty, with service intervals being every 5 000 km.