WATCH: End confirmed for Toyota Land Cruiser 70’s diesel V8

Despite expressing support for the 4.5 D-4D turbodiesel V8 engine for nearly four years ago, Toyota South Africa has confirmed that the mainstay engine of the Land Cruiser 70-series will be bowing out within the next 24 months.

WATCH: Land Cruiser 70 GD-6s’ South African reveal below

Farewell

First introduced in the Land Cruiser 200 in 2007 with twin-turbocharging, the internally known 1VD-FTV oil-burner has been powering the venerable 70-series in single turbo guise since the same year connected solely to a five-speed manual gearbox with outputs of 151kW/430Nm.

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Used only in the 76 station wagon and 78/79 single and double cab, the V8’s future has been shrouded in contradiction ever since the emergence of a report in Australia in 2020 alleging it could be dropped by 2025 as per Toyota’s move to have all of its vehicles hybridised by the same year.

Reported as recently as May last year of staying put underneath the 70-series’ bonnet, Toyota South Africa’s Senior Vice-President for Sales and Marketing, Leon Theron, said a desire for more sophistication and meeting emissions regulations has made it hard to justify the V8’s upkeep going forward.

Reasons explained

Responding to a question at the annual State of the Motor Industry conference at Kyalami last week, where it debuted the facelift 70-series powered by the 2.8 GD-6 four-cylinder engine, Theron said, “it [the V8] will be phased-out at some stage, we are not 100% sure exactly when, but probably within the next two years.

He added, “the efficiencies Japan has done on the 70-series with the 2.8 combined with the [six-speed] automatic transmission is amazing. The drivetrain is just so much more sophisticated and that is what we always wanted”.

In spite of having been mated to a six-speed self-shifter in the Land Cruiser 200, Theron also cited the single turbo’s inability to be mated to an automatic in the 70-series as another reason for its pending demise.

Four-cylinder soon in South Africa

Marketed alongside the normally aspirated 4.0-litre petrol V6 and the stalwart 4.2-litre normally aspirated straight-six diesel, the V8’s departure will most likely take place not only in South Africa, but also in other key markets such as Australia, though at present, this remains unconfirmed and speculative at present.

Due to go on-sale in the 76 and both variants of the 79 next month, but not the 78 Troop Carrier that makes do with the free-breathing oil-burner only, the GD-6 is expected to be priced below the comparative V8 should South Africa adopt the same pricing structure as Australia.

As a comparison, pricing for V8-engine 79 starts at R910 800 and ends at R1 022 100 for the 76 station wagon.

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