Toyota's Land Cruiser 200 Series secret revealed: Books officially CLOSED on the V8 diesel - reports

The books are officially closed on the LC200 Series - and have been for some time - according to reportedly leaked documents out of South Africa, which would go some way to explaining why it's been so challenging, and expensive, to secure a V8 diesel LC200.

The leaks come courtesy of Instagram account Land.Cruiser.300, which has been publishing a series of leaked documents over the past few days.

But the interesting thing about this leak specifically is that it confirms what we've understood to be the case for some time, and that is that the LC200 facility has essentially been shuttered and switched to LC300 manufacturing.

In fact, the documents - which, it must be said, refer to the South African market - point to LC200 orders concluding way back on February 8, with LC300 orders (for dealers) opening on April 21.

The news pairs neatly with similar reports out of Japan, ion which March was listed as the cut-off date for LC200.

We recently asked Toyota whether it was still possible to order a new LC200 from the factory, with the brand’s top executives declining to confirm the vehicle is still being produced in Japan.

While the model’s sales are booming in Australia, the brand has stayed coy on exactly where those cars are coming from, with CarsGuide expecting that those sales are a result of clever ordering from Toyota, with most of those vehicles already in Australia.

In fact, when asked directly whether the Japanese factories are still producing examples of the 200 Series, the answer was a resounding no comment.

"We've still got supply of LandCruiser 200," said Toyota Australia's sales and marketing chief, Sean Hanley told us in April.

When pressed further on whether the factories were still in operation, he answered: "I'm not going to comment any further on LandCruiser into relation to production.