200 Hybrid Spotted ???

[Munson]

I was driving south on the North Texas Tollway to work this morning and spotted a new black land cruiser. I thought it was a heritage because it had what appeared to be dark rims, but the roof rack was not what comes on the heritage edition. I was admiring it when I noticed the rear badging looked different. There were two badges stacked on the right side where the V8 badge normally appears. I sped up to get a closer look. From what I could tell, the badge on the bottom said hybrid. It looked similar to the hybrid badge on the 2021 venza. Now I am kicking myself because I did not determine what the top badge said. I should have taken a picture but thought that was a bad idea at highway speeds.

I assume the owner could have rebadged, but I just can't imagine someone rebadging a 200 with a hybrid badge. Toyota's North American headquaters are a few miles north off the Tollway. Any chance they are testing a soon to be released product?

 

[04UZJ100]

Not in daylight as you describe.

I frequently park in “fuel efficient vehicles only” parking spots. Don’t you?

 

[Markuson]

I was driving south on the North Texas Tollway to work this morning and spotted a new black land cruiser. I thought it was a heritage because it had what appeared to be dark rims, but the roof rack was not what comes on the heritage edition. I was admiring it when I noticed the rear badging looked different. There were two badges stacked on the right side where the V8 badge normally appears. I sped up to get a closer look. From what I could tell, the badge on the bottom said hybrid. It looked similar to the hybrid badge on the 2021 venza. Now I am kicking myself because I did not determine what the top badge said. I should have taken a picture but thought that was a bad idea at highway speeds.

I assume the owner could have rebadged, but I just can't imagine someone rebadging a 200 with a hybrid badge. Toyota's North American headquaters are a few miles north off the Tollway. Any chance they are testing a soon to be released product?

More likely the owner stuck that on there to be funny.

If they were actually testing one, you can be sure Toyota wouldn’t label it...

 

[mcgaskins]

Auto manufacturers go through great lengths to hide their intents when releasing new models (except Ford with the Bronco) or variants of existing models, so I would bet money someone with a 200 thought it would just be funny to slap a hybrid badge on their truck like @Markuson mentioned.

 

[kendrickdlr]

I know it gets pretty hot in Dallas but it's way too mild of a climate to be testing a Land Cruiser

 

[stonepa]

You’d be surprised. When i was at GM / BOC in the early 90’s we drove all sorts of test mules to lunch in the Warren, MI area. Some were completely undisquised. Not final product but often with features being tested.

 

[bloc]

How many people had cameras in their pockets at that point though?

More than once I’ve considered putting a hybrid badge on my cruiser to be funny. Now that it has been done I probably won’t.

 

[bugsnbikes]

l love my Landcruiser Hybrid... MUCH better mpg's ! When people ask.....i say its a hybrid of an 80 series and 55 series.

 

[Markuson]

How many people had cameras in their pockets at that point though?

More than once I’ve considered putting a hybrid badge on my cruiser to be funny. Now that it has been done I probably won’t.

Heh. Me too.
Was thinking maybe “Prius XXXL”

I do get a kick out of the constant stream of wrong guesses as to what my truck even is.
I’d say people guess LC only about 15% of the time.

 

[prharper]

Auto manufacturers go through great lengths to hide their intents when releasing new models (except Ford with the Bronco) or variants of existing models, so I would bet money someone with a 200 thought it would just be funny to slap a hybrid badge on their truck like @Markuson mentioned.

Yep, reminds me of a new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT (Hemi) that I saw the other day with a Hybrid badge.

 

[Whiskerz]

I have seen a couple of FJ Cruisers with Hybrid badges from a Prius added