Ok, so I had to take my wife's camry to Jim Barkley Toyota for it's pre trip servicing, and while I was waiting I was talking to one of the sales guys that I know up there and asked if I could drive the only 200 they have on the lot to see how it rode. First off this unit is discounted by $10,000.00 so it comes in at an affordable $65,000.00 but for that you get all kinds of doo dads and my favorite part, the iForce 5.7l V8. I left out of the parking lot, and merged onto the interstate at oh 80 mph or so and took it down to Airport Rd in Fletcher/Arden it cruised so smooth at 80 and 90 I was quite impressed. I took it by some friends shop to let them look at it and we tried out the 4LO with crawl control that didn't work, and at first we thought we broke the $65k vehicle
Any ways, we shut it off and re-started it and it worked (ever wonder why I hate push button 4WD?). I drive it back and the guy asks what I thought so I ran down the pros vs cons of this one.
Pros- 5.7l iForce V8 one word AWESOME 380 bhp WOW
4 link coil suspension (step up from the torsion bar IFS)
6 speed auto tranny, it was registering about 1600 rpm
at 80mph
Icebox in the center console. what could be more
australian than to have your six pack cooled by your car
Cons- Wood wrapped steering wheel ( to slippery sorry to the
LX owners, but I don't like it on the LC, and it is NOT an
optional item
Too many doo dads for an LC NAV, TPMS which BTW
measures not only the tires you roll on, but your spare
as well! Bluetooth integrated, voice recognition, calandar,
push button 4LO engagement, push button starter etc...
The hood has this strange slope to it that gives off an
odd optical illusion, it is hard to explain but trust me odd.
Non removable back seats...
DVD entertainment center (I hate these things, what ever
happened to playing board games on car trips when you
were a kid, or God forbid make up your own game, where
would we be without punch bug???)
All in all it was a fine motor vehicle, I wouldn't call it a stellar Land Cruiser,as I would have much rather the US import the newest 70 series, but as that will never happen this is what we got. Who knows it might grow on me, I hated the 100 when it first came out and now I own one. I guess time will tell....
Any ways, we shut it off and re-started it and it worked (ever wonder why I hate push button 4WD?). I drive it back and the guy asks what I thought so I ran down the pros vs cons of this one. Pros- 5.7l iForce V8 one word AWESOME 380 bhp WOW
4 link coil suspension (step up from the torsion bar IFS)
6 speed auto tranny, it was registering about 1600 rpm
at 80mph
Icebox in the center console. what could be more
australian than to have your six pack cooled by your car
Cons- Wood wrapped steering wheel ( to slippery sorry to the
LX owners, but I don't like it on the LC, and it is NOT an
optional item
Too many doo dads for an LC NAV, TPMS which BTW
measures not only the tires you roll on, but your spare
as well! Bluetooth integrated, voice recognition, calandar,
push button 4LO engagement, push button starter etc...
The hood has this strange slope to it that gives off an
odd optical illusion, it is hard to explain but trust me odd.
Non removable back seats...
DVD entertainment center (I hate these things, what ever
happened to playing board games on car trips when you
were a kid, or God forbid make up your own game, where
would we be without punch bug???)
All in all it was a fine motor vehicle, I wouldn't call it a stellar Land Cruiser,as I would have much rather the US import the newest 70 series, but as that will never happen this is what we got. Who knows it might grow on me, I hated the 100 when it first came out and now I own one. I guess time will tell....
