It may not seem like it, but the current Toyota
Alphard is already two years old and ready for its makeover. Right on time,
Toyota is preparing a facelift for the luxury MPV, and Twitter user
@ArancioAtlas has spotted the revised model in Japan ahead of its unveiling.
As you can see, the front grille has been redesigned
with larger inserts along the top edge and the deletion of the bumper beam that
sits across. The headlights are also now connected to that grille and split in
the middle, Vellfire-style, while the fog light inserts have been redesigned
with the lamps themselves sitting lower down.
It should be noted that this is the revamped version
of the Aero look – characterised by the more aggressive bumper design and
smoked headlights – which isn’t offered for sale here. Lastly, the 17-inch
alloy wheels shown here get a new design; we get 19s as standard.
According to the Japanese blog Car Drive, the
facelifted Alphard and Vellfire is set to be unveiled on December 25, gaining the
Toyota Safety Sense suite of driver assists as standard, as well as the Data
Communications Module (DCM) coming to the next-gen Crown. The 3.5 litre V6
model should also gain automatic engine start/stop, while the 2.5 litre
four-cylinder and Hybrid models will likely remain unchanged.