Toyota has added a 2.0 litre variant with sporty intentions to the Toyota Corolla Altis in Thailand and Indonesia called the 2.0V. It even has a new sportier mesh grille to complement the new more powerful engine under the hood.

Under the hood of this updated Altis is the 3ZR-FE which has Dual VVT-i which means variable valves on both the intake and exhaust. While more modern than the 1AZ-FE VVT-i found in the Camry, it’s still not the top of the range 2.0 litre from Toyota as the current crown is held by the 158 PS 3ZR-FAE with Valvematic continuous valve lift control, eliminating the need for a throttle butterfly.

The 3ZR-FE in the Altis 2.0V is tuned differently in different countries. In Indonesia it produces 152 PS at 5,600rpm and 21.2 kgm (I used a calculator and this translates to a whopping 208Nm!) of torque at 4,400rpm.

That’s actually some pretty impressive torque figures for a 2.0 litre engine as all of its competitors only produce roughly between 190Nm to 200Nm. In Thailand and Philippines the engine is somewhat detuned, producing only 141 PS at 5,600rpm and a more sedate 189Nm of torque at 4,400rpm.

What you’ll notice immediately when it comes to transmission is the addition of paddle shifts, but there are more changes underneath. The Altis 2.0V’s gear ratios are completely different from the 1.8 litre version. The Altis 1.8 gear ratios are 2.847, 1.552, and 1.000 for the first three gears and an overdrive of 0.700 with a final drive of 4.237, but the 2.0V uses revised ratios of 3.943, 2.197, 1.413 and finally a fourth gear ratio of 1.020 with no overdrive gear. But to make up for the new ratios, the final drive has been changed to 2.923.

Look after the jump for a photo gallery of the new Altis 2.0V.
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The Toyota Hiace in the UK is something quite different from what we get here. The 2009 Hiace gets standard air conditioning, extra sound-proofing, an extra interior light for the load area, antiglare window glass, and some random chrome detailing around the dash. Both short wheelbase and long wheelbase versions are available, with gross vehicle weight sof 2,800kg and 3,000kg respectively. The standard engine is a 2.5 litre D4-D with either 95 or 115 bhp output.

And by the way, did you know that the Hiace is the top stolen vehicle in Japan?

I can see the appeal – the stolen vans can be shipped out to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, and other third world countries that have use for a van like this.

Some businessmen in these countries are usually more than happy to look for good deals on commercial vans with extraordinarily cheap prices to save on business costs. These vans that are meant as cheap goods movers are also usually not equipped with adequate anti-theft devices because of the low equipment level specified.

It wasn’t always like that though – the Hiace was only number 9 in 2005 but climbed sharply up to 5 the next year. It eventually topped the list in 2008.