Certain markets have had the facelift Highlander for a number of years now, but the Chinese market is only just starting to prepare for the arrival of the mid sized SUV despite the model being a relative success for Guangzhou-Toyota over the past four years. Toyota have two SUV’s in the Chinese market, the smaller RAV4 and the Highlander, in February by brand Toyota was the best selling company with 19,964 Toyota branded SUV’s rolling onto Chinese roads of which some 10,000 vehicles were RAV4 models and 7500 being Highlander models, both up 44% and 50% respectively over their Feb 2011 sales.

Guangzhou-Toyota offers two displacements in China, either the diminutive 2.7L inline 4 or the larger 3.5L V6 model, the 2.7 version seems to have cut itself a niche as an SUV/MPV crossover despite it lacking the grunt of the V6 and the AWD system. The facelift version is expected to be shown off at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year and will likely continue to be sold in the same 280,000rmb to 370,000rmb price bracket.