IT was all praises for the newly introduced Toyota Land Cruiser LC70 double cabin pickup at the Old Parade Ground Abuja recently when Toyota Nigeria Limited, TNL, presented the truck to its Abuja customers for a two-day test drive at the venue.

Having unveiled the LC 70 to the motoring press in Lagos to quite long ago, Toyota Nigeria deemed it wise to equally take the tough pickup not its Abuja customers, especially the military and para-military who will find the LC 70 very useful in the execution of their duties.

Speaking to Vanguard Motoring at the test drive venue, the Managing Director, Toyota Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kunle Ade Ojo disclosed that the Toyota LC 70 has no rival in the Nigerian market, as no other automaker offers anything like the LC70 in Nigeria presently.

“With its best in class ground clearance, towing strength, power an all-terrain prowess, the LC 70 stands out among its peers”, he said. Continuing he said, apart form the fact that it is the only 4.0 litre engine pick-up in its class, its ground clearance is twice of any other pick-up in the market. The LC 70 is far more spacious and works harder than any pick-up in its segment. In addition to this, the LC 70 is a Toyota which means it is easy to maintain.

The Toyota Nigeria boss commended Toyota customers for the pressure pasuading them to introduce the LC 70 into the Nigeria market.

“The LC 70 has been requested by our customers who wanted a vehicle that is tougher, stronger and more powerful than the Hilux, and this is what the Toyota LC 70 offer without compromise, he said.

According to him, they were not able to introduce it initially but when the demand became very strong, the decided to give it to Nigerians and the performance has remained quite encouraging ever since.

Like other Toyota models, Mr. Ade Ojo said that he LC 70 has been tropicalised to the Nigerian environment and road conditions.

“Since the introduction, we have discovered that it was a missing link in the Toyota lineup in Nigeria. We can proudly say we are giving the customers what they want and that is suitable for our market”.

Going by the way customers received the new LC70, Mr. Ade Ojo said that they are projecting to sell between 500 to 1000 units of the pick in one year.

Said he: “We didn’t expect the high volume of sales we are making on the vehicle, as we have run out of stock with several orders yet to meet”. Continuing, he said, “as I speak with you, we have only one unit left which we are using for the test drive and the on-going Abuja Motor show.

The Toyota LC70 is powered by a six-cylinder 4.0 litre 24 valve DOHC engine with VVT4. It comes standard with five-speed manual transmission and electronic fuel injection. They LC70 is equipped with rigid axle (coil) suspension in front and rigid axle (leaf) suspension at the rear.

Comfort and convenience features in the LC70 include electric power steering, central locking, radio/CD player, air-conditioning system, USB/AUX, high grade seat material. Its safety features include driver/passenger air bags, front seat best pretensioner and force limiter, ABS, immobiliser, fog lamp etc.