Toyota introduces a retro-themed limited edition Land Cruiser

Last year, Toyota had introduced a heritage limited-edition Land Cruiser for the North American market. Now it is giving the United Arab Emirates its own heritage edition SUV close on the heels of Australia receiving one. The UAE spec car will be sold alongside the Land Cruiser 70 and the FJ Cruiser in the Middle East market. Toyota has had huge success with the Land Cruiser globally with more than 10 million units sold since its launch nearly 70 years ago. This version is however limited to just 20 units.

The UAE spec Land Cruiser Heritage edition gets some retro-themed decals on the exteriors with classic badges on the D-pillar. At the back, it gets a split rear door with the spare wheel mounted on one side. In addition, it also gets a factory fitted air compressor that allows you to inflate the car tyres after some hard-core dune bashing. The Land Cruiser also comes with fabric seats with the 'Heritage' embossing instead of the usual leather ones as it is much more suited to the desert climate. It also gets some classic 90s roof rails.

Two powertrain options will be available with the special edition Land Cruiser - a 4-litre V6 petrol engine mated to a five-speed manual transmission (a manual in a full-size SUV with a V6!) and 4.6-litre V8 petrol with a six-speed automatic transmission. Both of these variants come with 4x4 as standard with a crawl control function and optional adjustable suspension. For the heritage edition model, you get a set of aluminium alloys which use 17-inch tyres.

In India, the Land Cruiser was available only with a single powertrain option, a 4.5-litre V8 diesel mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. The Land Cruiser arrived on our shores as a CBU and resultantly sold at a jaw dropping price of Rs 1.47 crores(ex-showroom) before being discontinued as BS6 norms kicked in. The new Land Cruiser set to be launched internationally in 2021 could make it's way to India as a halo model.

Considering the low volumes that the Land Cruiser accounts for in India, it is highly unlikely that Toyota India will bring a heritage edition model to our shores. That said, there is another hugely popular SUV in Toyota India's portfolio that could benefit from this sort of treatment - the Fortuner.