New Toyota 70 Series four-cylinder unaffected by DPF issues, says Toyota

Toyota Australia is confident that diesel particulate filter (DPF) issues that have previously landed it in court won’t extend to the new Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series four-cylinder, which launches nationally this week.

A class action brought against Toyota Australia on behalf of almost 265,000 HiLux, Fortuner and Prado owners nationally continues to play out in court.

In April 2022, the Federal Court ruled that 264,710 Toyota HiLux, Prado and Fortuner vehicles – sold between October 2015 and April 2020 – failed to comply with the statutory guarantee of “acceptable quality” under Australian Consumer Law.

Two four-cylinder turbo-diesel engines – including the 2.8-litre 1GD-FTV – were found to produce excessive white smoke due to their exhaust system’s DPF, which was strongly criticised in a technical report presented as part of the class action.

After implementing a DPF software update and manual override switch, Toyota lost an appeal to the decision in April of this year.

Now, a rectified version of the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel at the centre of the court action has been fitted to the 70 Series workhorse – a vehicle renowned for its legendary durability.

While V8 manual 70 Series variants remain unavailable to order due to overwhelming demand, the 2.8-litre 70 Series is matched exclusively with an automatic transmission and opens the facelifted 70 Series line-up from about $75,000.

Speaking at the launch of the four-cylinder 70 Series in Broken Hill this week, Toyota Australia vehicle evaluation manager Ray Munday said Toyota had resolved issues and that 70 Series buyers need not worry about DPF problems.

“There’s obviously legal action going on so we can’t speak about all areas there, but measures have been put in place to address the issues and they have been rolled into place for this platform as well,” he explained.

Munday’s comments were echoed by Toyota Australia’s vice-president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley.

“We believe the DPF issue has been rectified so we’re not anticipating any concerns of that nature,” he said.

For the past 17 years, the LandCruiser 70 Series has been powered solely by a 4.5-litre twin-turbo diesel V8. However, a four-cylinder version was offered locally as recently as 1991.

Toyota Australia said it undertook a seven-year development program for the new four-cylinder 70 Series locally, but it predated the development of a 48-volt mild-hybrid version of the 2.8-litre four-cylinder, which is destined for some HiLux variants next year.

Hanley is adamant that Toyota has done its due diligence around development of the four-cylinder 70 Series, and that it will meet the needs of Australian consumers.

“We’re not going to launch a car and leave customers stranded,” he said. “It’s not going to happen. This engine has longevity and I would say to customers ‘don’t even think about it, you’ll be fine’.”

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