In the intensely competitive car market, good reliable performance alone won’t sell cars year after year. So, Toyota too has gone in for a facelift for it’s popular MPV called the Alphard. The Alphard now gets some style, body and design changes to give it enough ammunition to fight off the increasing competition in it’s home market, Japan. The Alphard, launched way back in 2002, now gets a sibling called the Vellfire. Cosmetically the only difference between the two cars are the headlamps. The Alphard has single wraparound headlamps on each side whereas the Vellfire has twin wraparound headlamps on each side. Coming to the Alphard’s upgrades, it is longer, wider and shorter than it’s previous iteration.
The curved roof of the older model gets replaced by a flatter roof but the new Alphard sits lower. This little change along with the wider track will definitely make the Alphard handle much better. Under the hood, you have plenty of options ranging from a 2.4 to a 3.5 litre V6 mill. Pretty impressive but power is transmitted to it’s front wheels which will make the Alphard a handful in snowy conditions with less traction. Thankfully, 4 Wheel drive will make an appearance in August of this year. Though Toyota have been making quite some noise about a hybrid Alphard which was touted to have drive-by-wire systems and ultra low CO2 emissions, this time around we have no word about it. So till the hybrid Alphard arrives, the Alphard will be old wine served in a newish looking bottle.
Via: autoblogshow
