VVT engine

I am going home to South Africa next week and have found a 2008 Gen 3 I may purchase and leave there for the family. I have a 2008 with a 13A engine. The one in South Africa is also a 2008 Gen3 but it has a VVT engine. It has 200k km (about 125k miles) on the clock. 

Is there any performance or reliability differences in these engines?

 

The VVT engine has no known issues as i know of.

The VVT model however come with pushbutton transfer and different gears in the transmisson. This brings more of the torque over to the gearbox making the earliest models prone to gearbox failure. 2005 to 2008-ish. I am not sure but if there is a facelift front bumper there is also most likely the updated gear box bearings. This varies between markets so I am not sure.
From 2009 or 10 the gearbox bearings have been updated for sure and there is as little gearbox failures as the other models.
With less of the torque in the transfer case there is less problems there, and with more of the torque in the diff, more problems. But these are only marginal differences and no make no practical problems.

Thanks, feedback appreciated! I will see the vehicle in 10 days and go through it carefully.