Who knew it’d look that good?
The Toyota Land Cruiser Prado is a venerated beast, a large body-on-frame SUV with the ability to go anywhere, any day of the week. It’s favoured by families, cashed-up tradies and intrepid explorers alike, and the new model year update will continue that momentum considerably. Aside from the updated looks, the Japanese carmaker has also fitted better safety kit across the range, further widening the Prado’s already-considerable range of ability.
The most obvious changes made are the aesthetic ones, headlined by a new grille and sleeker, swept-back headlights. They now feature integrated LED daytime running lights at a more natural angle (as opposed to the pre-facelifts’ downward-positioned ones), while the headlight projectors (LED optional) have been moved inboard to avoid impact with obstacles when offroading. New bumpers on either end and reworked taillight graphics wrap up the exterior changes, while the whole car now rides on a refreshed set of alloys through the range.
The cabin of the Prado’s seen some changes too, with the most prominent being the design revision of the centre stack. The top of the console tower has been reprofiled to improve visibility, something that users of outgoing Prados have complained about to an extent. There’s a brand-new 8” full-colour touchscreen infotainment system too, along with a touch-sensitive climate control panel, and a sleeker drivetrain-control panel.
There’s a new steering wheel here, along with white LED backlighting for all of the controls and switchgear, as well as a similar hue for footwell, headliner, glove box and door panel illumination. Further, the Prado has now gained autonomous emergency braking (AEB) on all automatic, where it was previously only available in VX and Kakadu variants. Adaptive cruise control also features as standard, along with intelligent high-beams and lane-departure warning. VX models will now get, on top of all that, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert as well.
There’s been a revision to the drivetrains on offer too. Where the Prado was previously available with a 4.0-litre V6 petrol powerplant (207kW/381Nm if anyone’s wondering), Toyota Australia has decided to cull that engine given that only 0.2% of buyers here opt for that smooth operator. Instead, the Prado will soldier on with the respected 2.8-litre turbodiesel in two states of tune, with 130kW/450Nm available with six-speed automatic models, and 130kW/420Nm available on manual ones.
Prices and more details will drop at some point closer to the Prado’s November 2017 launch date, though we don’t expect it to stray too far from the pricing of the existing car. Deliveries will commence in April, with any luck. We’re grateful that Toyota’s done something about the Prado’s styling, and done something well at that, as this less-divisive design is sure to curry favour with Land Cruiser aficionados and new buyers alike.
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