How has a price increase earlier this year and safety upgrades in 2020 changed the Toyota LandCruiser Prado’s appeal? Glenn Butler finds out.
- Spacious, flexible interior
- Will go anywhere with ease and in comfort
- Good suite of safety features
- Not the most cost-effective urban seven-seater
- Getting dated ahead of an all-new model in 2023
- Third row is a kids-only zone, no luggage space when third row in use
Introduction
It seems somewhat unfair that the Toyota LandCruiser Prado is a byword for mum’s school bus.
The Prado large SUV is one of Australia’s most capable off-road vehicles. It has a four-wheel-drive system with locking centre and rear differentials for maximum traction, plenty of ground clearance and wheel articulation, a low-range transfer case and underbody protection, and a docile turbo diesel powertrain that’s as happy on a highway at 100km/h as it is crawling over rocks at walking pace.
In short, the LandCruiser Prado is one of just a handful of seven-seat wagons capable of delivering the off-road dream many SUV buyers aspire to, but most will never actually do.
As for the Prado’s attractiveness to families, that too is easy to understand. It’s a roomy vehicle with seven seats and a high driving position – and it looks tough enough to handle the rough and tumble of family life.
Then there’s Toyota’s reputation for fuss-free motoring and strong resale values. Lastly, it’s a very comfortable vehicle inside and relatively stress-free to drive.
What I don’t understand is why buyers attracted to the Prado’s family attributes would want to lug hundreds of kilograms of mechanical components around every day that they will never use. Surely there are better seven-seat urban SUV alternatives, such as the Kia Sorento (winner of Drive Car of the Year 2021) or even Toyota’s own Kluger SUV.
Perhaps the lure of the outback dream is stronger than I realise, because 17,326 Prados have found Australian buyers to the end of September 2021, putting it miles ahead of more urban-friendly seven-seat rivals like the Kluger, Sorento, Isuzu MU-X, Mazda CX-8 and Hyundai Palisade. Or perhaps more Prado buyers actually use its off-road capabilities than I assume?
During our seven-day test, we will do both. We will head into the Lerderderg State Park outside of Melbourne for some trail driving and moderately tough off-roading. And we will load it with kids, dogs and shopping and treat it like a family bus.
There are currently four variants in the Toyota LandCruiser Prado range: the GX five-seat ($60,830 plus on-roads), GXL seven-seat ($67,530), VX seven-seat ($77,157) and the Kakadu seven-seat ($87,807). All four variants are powered by a 2.8-litre turbo diesel engine and six-speed automatic transmission driving all four wheels.
The Toyota LandCruiser Prado received a major update in August 2020, which included more power for the turbo diesel engine, new multimedia and safety features, and some premium upgrades inside. The manual transmission option was dropped, making the six-speed automatic the only choice.
Another update in July 2021 brought safety upgrades in blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert to GX and GXL variants, and a price rise of just under $1000.
The variant we’re testing here is the 2021 Toyota LandCruiser Prado VX priced from $84,655 drive-away (Melbourne). Our test car’s options listed in the panel below take that to $85,361.
The Prado VX comes standard with LED headlights and fog lamps, illuminated side steps, privacy glass, roof rails and 19-inch wheels and tyres. Our test car wore durable Dunlop GranTrek all-terrain tyres that, as we discovered, provide a good balance of on-road and off-road traction.
All Prado variants have a full-size spare wheel, either on the tailgate or (optionally) slung under the rear of the car. If you choose the underslung option you will lose the Prado’s 63L secondary fuel tank, but you’ll still have its 87L main tank.
| Key details | 2021 Toyota LandCruiser Prado VX |
| Price (MSRP) | $77,157 plus on-road costs |
| Colour of test car | Peacock Black |
| Options | Premium Paint – $675 |
| Price as tested | $77,832 plus ORC, $85,361 drive-away (Melbourne) |
| Rivals | Ford Everest | Land Rover Discovery | Mitsubishi Pajero Sport |
Inside
Toyota has nailed the automotive interior. Every Toyota cabin bullseyes the basics and provides a few little touches to make you feel a bit special. But not too much, mind you, because we’re not buying a Lexus here.
By basics, I mean the driving position and the way buttons ‘press’, the sound of the indicators and the rapid response of the air-con after start-up. Those are all elements that we take for granted when they’re right, but can irritate like a stone in a shoe if they’re not.
As for special touches, the Prado has a convex mirror that pops down from the roof so the driver can see all the seats (and their occupants). It has a huge storage bin between the two front seats that also functions as a cool box, and it has lock and unlock buttons on the rear barn door that mean you don’t need to touch the key first.
The Prado VX has leather throughout, tri-zone climate control, a modern infotainment system (except for the chunky and dated graphics), and all the practicality you need to ferry families and their accoutrements. There are air vents in all three rows as well as map lights.
The VX’s front seats are both electrically adjustable and have heating and cooling functions. They’re also eminently comfortable for short drives and long trips. The bolsters provide good lateral support to keep you in place in corners and on lumpy off-road tracks.
There are cupholders in the centre and bottle holders built into big door pockets. Plus there is a smallish key-bin and a bigger lidded locker under the centre stack. The huge central bin under the front row’s armrest doubles as a cooler box. Nice.
In typical Toyota fashion, all buttons are big and clear and have a good feel when pressed. The front dual-zone climate control’s buttons are arrayed below the big infotainment screen, and the second row’s third-zone controls are on the back of the front row’s armrest.
The Prado’s 219mm ground clearance means the seats are quite high off the ground and hard to get into for smaller members of the family, including my petite 160cm wife (the average is 161cm for women and 174cm for men, according to the 2018 Australian Census. Now you know). The side steps help, as do grab handles just inside the door frame, but it’s still a decent step up.
This can be a problem if you need to put babies in car seats secured in either of the second row’s two outer seats (both of which have ISOFIX anchors). Reaching up to put a wriggling toddler into a capsule is not easy.
Other than that, the Prado’s second row is almost as spacious and comfortable as the front seats. There are plenty of air vents and cupholders to keep occupants happy, and one 12V charging port, but no USB ports here or in the third row.
The third row is where things get a little cramped, especially if you’re adult-sized. There are only two seats and seatbelts back here, so elbow room is not a problem even though the wheel arches do eat into the width. The bigger issues are headroom and legroom. I’m just below average height and my head just sneaks in below the roof line. My knees are up high, however, because the floor back here is much higher than in the second row. Also, getting decent legroom is only possible if the second row slides forward. The third row is really only suitable for kids, although adults will survive at a pinch.
With all three rows of seats in action, boot space is laughably small at 120L. It would struggle to take a couple of kids’ backpacks without them squashing between the tailgate and the seatback.
The third-row seats can be folded forward in a 50/50 split – after you slide the seat bases back and down – to deliver a flat floor and a much better cargo space of 620L, which is more than big enough for day-to-day demands. If you need more, the second row’s middle seat folds down to allow long loads to slide forward, or you can fold the two outboard seats as well to yield a cavernous 1800L of space.
The Prado VX test car came with a barn-door style tailgate that opens from the kerbside (hinged on the right) and has a lockable strut to keep it open on windy days or when parked on hills. The tailgate also has lock and unlock buttons on the outside, so you don’t need to use the key to unlock the car if the boot is your first port of call.
The tailgate’s window also opens separately, allowing access to the space within without needing to open the whole door.
| 2021 Toyota LandCruiser Prado VX | |
| Seats | Seven |
| Boot volume | 120L / 620L / 1800L |
| Length | 4825mm (flat tailgate) |
| Width | 1885mm |
| Height | 1890mm |
| Wheelbase | 2790mm |
Infotainment and Connectivity
The Prado VX has a good-size infotainment touchscreen (9.0 inches) with the usual array of features – Bluetooth phone connectivity, sat-nav and sound system controls. The system works well and responds quickly to touches but the graphics are chunky and dated. It has voice recognition and is compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
The JBL premium 14-speaker sound system includes DAB radio.
In addition to the central infotainment screen, there’s a smaller LCD screen between the dials in front of the driver that has numerous information screens to keep the driver informed. One feature I found useful in the sloppier off-road conditions is the front wheel angle display that tells you how much steering lock is currently applied.
Safety and Technology
The Toyota LandCruiser Prado earned a five-star safety rating from ANCAP when tested in 2011. That rating was applied to all Prado variants built from August 2013 onwards, and carried over to the updated Prado range launched in 2017. It’s worth noting that testing protocols have changed significantly since then, so it’s difficult to say how the Prado would score by today’s standards.
The Prado comes standard with dual front, side and curtain airbags, and a knee airbag for the driver.
Toyota’s Safety Sense features were made standard across the Prado range in 2020. This includes a pre-collision system with autonomous emergency braking that can now also detect cyclists and pedestrians. The Prado also has lane-departure warning and assist, but it’s not the kind that tugs at your wheel. Instead, it’s an older system that applies brakes to one rear wheel to ‘pivot’ the car gently back into the lane.
The Prado’s safety suite also includes blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.
Our Prado test car came with the ‘flat tailgate’ no-cost option, which relocates the spare wheel from the tailgate to under the rear of the car. This makes rearward vision easier, but it does mean you lose the Prado’s 63L secondary fuel tank that supplements the 87L primary tank.
Other technology points of note on the Prado VX include rear parking sensors, all-around cameras, rain-sensing wipers, dusk-sensing headlights and keyless entry and go.
| 2021 Toyota LandCruiser Prado VX | |
| ANCAP rating | Five stars (tested 2011) |
| Safety report | Link to ANCAP |
Value for Money
The Toyota LandCruiser Prado’s main rivals when it comes to size and off-roading skills are the Ford Everest, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Land Rover Discovery and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. Only the Pajero and Discovery have seven seats, and only the latter will match the Prado’s abilities off-road and its refinement on-road – and it’s priced above $100K.
So that makes the Prado something of a solo act if you’re looking to match all its attributes. Which in turn makes it hard to call the Prado anything but good value.
In terms of running costs, all Toyota models come with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. If you service on time and to schedule, Toyota will add two years of drivetrain warranty. Servicing intervals are a touch frequent – every six months or 10,000km – but at least they’re reasonable at $260 each for the first six services, but step up after the first three years with much higher pricing per visit.
The Prado’s fuel economy is rated at 7.9L/100km on the city/highway combined cycle. During our week of testing, we averaged 10.2L/100km on-road and 13.5L/100km off-road.
| At a glance | 2021 Toyota LandCruiser Prado VX |
| Warranty | Five years / unlimited km |
| Service intervals | Six months / 10,000km |
| Servicing costs | $1560 (3 years), $3804 (5 years) |
| Fuel cons. (claimed) | 7.9L/100km |
| Fuel cons. (on test) | 10.2L/100km on-road, 13.5L/100km off-road |
| Fuel type | Diesel |
| Fuel tank size | 87L (flat tailgate) |
Driving
If there’s a weakness in the Prado’s armoury, it’s probably the 2.8-litre turbo diesel engine. But it’s unfair to call it a weakness; it’s just that the rest of the Prado is so overwhelmingly good that the engine comes off a bit lacklustre by comparison.
This engine is getting on a bit now (introduced in 2015), but did receive a much-needed performance upgrade in August 2020, jumping from 130kW and 450Nm to 150kW and 500Nm, the latter on tap from 1600-2800rpm.
In the Prado, this engine is combined with a six-speed automatic transmission, and they work well together. It’s a smooth, unflustered drivetrain that ambles along willingly on-road, and is wonderfully docile and tractable off-road – important when you need to finesse torque delivery for maximum traction.
The engine is not powerful – it does need time to get up to speed – but it’s a definite improvement on the previous version, which took 17.6 seconds to go from 0-100km/h.
One other weakness is the drivetrain’s vibrations that make themselves felt when sitting idle, say at traffic lights. Modern turbo diesels, particularly European ones, do a much better job of isolating occupants from this.
The Prado’s suspension tune is exemplary. Despite carrying a hefty 2245kg wagon around, it strikes a wonderful balance between comfort, compliance and dynamic competence – for a big SUV. And off-road, the suspension’s considerable wheel articulation is very handy, especially in the rougher stuff we found on our Lerderderg adventure.
The Prado’s steering has substance without being heavy. It has a quick enough ratio to make urban manoeuvres relatively stress-free, and off-road has the weight to help you feel the terrain you’re dealing with.
The Prado has an 11.6m turning circle, which is really quite good for such a big beast – it’s just 1m wider than a Toyota Yaris Cross (baby SUV).
Prado’s off-road performance is hard to fault. We tested it on loose gravel, dirt, mud and water crossings. We drove badly rutted roads and crossed angled erosion gutters, and at all times the Prado did everything it could to keep four wheels on the ground and us moving in the right direction. At times we engaged the centre locking diff and rear diff, and we tried it out in low-range, but we couldn’t get the Prado to flounder or fail.
I’ve done a lot of off-roading in my time, including the infamous Rubicon Trail in America and the Canning Stock Route (all 1800km of it) in Western Australia. The tracks in the Lerderderg State Park just north-west of Melbourne are not in their league, but not to be sniffed at either. The Prado is a competent and trustworthy off-roader.
| Key details | 2021 Toyota LandCruiser Prado VX |
| Engine | 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel |
| Power | 150kW @ 3400rpm |
| Torque | 500Nm @ 1600-2800rpm |
| Drive type | Full-time four-wheel drive, low-range transfer case |
| Transmission | Six-speed torque convertor automatic |
| Power to weight ratio | 67kW/t |
| Weight (kerb) | 2245kg (flat tailgate) |
| Tow rating | 3000kg braked / 750kg unbraked |
| Turning circle | 11.6m |
Conclusion
If you want a large SUV that’s family-friendly, easy to drive around town despite its size, and is actually capable of delivering the Outback dream drive, then the Toyota LandCruiser Prado is the vehicle for you.
If you need a robust vehicle capable of towing a boat, caravan, or horse float up to 3000kg with competence and comfort, then the Toyota LandCruiser Prado is for you.
If you want something with seven seats to keep up with your predominantly urban family life, then… There are more affordable options that will do the job just as well, if not better, such as the Kia Sorento, Toyota Kluger and Mazda CX-9.
But none of those can conquer the Simpson Desert or get you to Craig’s Hut and beyond like the Prado can. And I’m betting that, for a fair portion of the 2000 Australians that buy a new Prado every month, a 4×4 that looks like a 4×4 – even if they’ll never lock a diff or use low-range – is worth the extra.
Fair enough. If looks weren’t important, we’d all be wearing grey trackie dacks.
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