2025 Toyota LandCruiser Prado review

What do you need to know about the new Toyota LandCruiser Prado? We can get the key points covered first and then dig a little deeper. At first glance, it looks as if not too much has changed. The engine's still a 2.8-litre turbodiesel, it still makes 150kW/500Nm, and the basic formula and target market aren't particularly different.

Look closer and it's clear that the Prado has adopted most of the good bits of the full-fat LandCruiser 300. It gets a version of that car's GA-F chassis, a lot of its electronic smarts indeed it's now being billed as a junior sibling rather than a distant cousin.

Braked towing capacity has risen from 3000 to 3500kg, it's longer and wider than the old Prado and it features a far smarter eight-speed transmission to replace the clunky six-speed of its predecessor. It even features 48V (very) mild hybrid technology to boost the engine's responses.

43

As you might have seen, pricing has stepped up to the tune of over $6K at the access point and $12K at the top of the line up.

Even the entry-level GX version is priced at $72,250 before on-roads, with the trims ascending through GXL, VX, the off-road focused Altitude and the flagship Kakadu version, which will leave you change for a takeaway coffee from $100k. Of those models, the GXL is expected to account for fully half of all Prado sales, with 20 percent of orders going to the VX trim, and the remaining 30 percent fairly evenly distributed between GX, Altitude and Kakadu.

Rivals? Toyota will claim that the Prado is such an established and popular fixture that it carves its own sub-niche, but if you're looking at a rugged go-almost-anywhere 4x4, you'll probably be considering upscale versions of the Ford Everest and the lower rungs of Land Rover Defender 110 ownership.

43

In that regard, Toyota has priced the Prado astutely, with the range able to find some clear air between these two formidable contenders.

Given that all models in the range share fundamentally the same running gear, surely the best value can be found nearer the base of the range? In part that's true. The GX version isn't badly furnished, and is identifiable by its 18-inch alloy wheels, LED lighting, black bumpers and wheel arch mouldings.

Inside, the five-seat GX gets hardwearing fabric trim and manually adjustable front seats with 60:40 split-fold rear seats. Unlike some of the pricier grades, it gets a smaller 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster in front of the driver. There's also dual-zone climate control, smart entry and start, a basic urethane steering wheel with button controls, reversing camera and panoramic view monitor, a 10-speaker audio system, and five USB-C charging ports, one 12V accessory port and a 220V charging port.

43

Again, Toyota has boxed clever here, with the GXL commanding a premium of around $7,500 and is, in effect, the entry-level seven seater. That feature might well be enough for many to pay that premium, but it also weighs in with standard roof rails, a powered tailgate, rear privacy glass and silver front and rear guard trim.

There's also synthetic leather upholstery, heated and ventilated front seats with eight-way powered driver’s seat, leather-accented steering wheel and shift knob, rear-seat air conditioning panel and an auto-dimming rearview mirror. That's on top of additional charge points, including a wireless charging pad and two extra USB-C ports in the 50:50 split fold third row.

The VX is a the mid-point model, and gets a Sport+ drive mode, 20-inch wheels and lower-profile tyres. You'll identify this one by its black vertical grille, body-coloured bumpers and wheel arches, and piercing LED headlights (that also feature automatic high beam and dynamic auto-levelling).

43

Indoors, you get leather-bolstered seats, lumbar support and memory for the driver's seat, a four-way power adjustable passenger seat, a power-adjustable steering wheel, a very handy refrigerated centre console, the bigger 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, tyre pressure monitoring and a 14-speaker JBL stereo.

The $92,700 Altitude is the other five-seater in the range and stands apart as a specialist off-road targeted model. It's the only version in the line up to get the decouplable sway bar for added wheel articulation, and is also the sole version to feature a rear diff lock to add to the centre-diff lock of the other versions.

It runs on chunkier 18-inch Toyo Open Country all-terrain tyres and comes with a moon roof and the option of two-tone exterior paint at a hefty $1675. There's also a digital rear view mirror, a heated steering wheel and a colour head-up display.

43

The LandCruiser Prado range is topped by the Kakadu grade priced from $99,99012.

It builds on the specification of the VX and adds a panoramic moon roof, illuminated side steps, heated and ventilated outboard second-row seats, Toyota-first adjustable driver’s seat cushion length, a digital rearview mirror, heated steering wheel and head-up display.

The ritzy $99,990 Kakadu rounds out the range, in effect a VX with pretty much the entire options list emptied into it. This builds on the VX's equipment list, adding refinements such as a panoramic roof, illuminated side steps, heated and ventilated outboard second-row seats, adjustable driver’s seat cushion length, a digital rear view mirror, heated steering wheel and head-up display.

43

Somewhat aptly, we're in Kakadu National Park to drive the new Prado, and Toyota has managed to thread routes through the park that take in a huge variety of Aussie off-road conditions.

Gibber tracks, hideous washboard, sections of talc-like bulldust, river crossings, mud splashes, rock crawls and even a spot of buffalo avoidance is all on the menu. About the only things missing are sand dunes and snow. We're not short of seat time either. Given that this national park is the size of Wales, everything seems a very long way from point to point. We've got every Prado version available and we're racking up hundreds of kilometres in each.

Some initial impressions. The steering is the first thing you notice. It's night and day better on road, than the heavy and somewhat rubbery helm of the old car. The electrically-assisted system is lighter at low speeds and weights up agreeably when you're travelling quicker.

43

The gearbox is also a good deal sharper at not only physically swapping cogs but its software is smarter, selecting the right ratio more often. One thing you probably won't notice straight from the off is that 48V 'V-Active' mild hybrid system.

It's very subtle. There's a modest amount of electrical torque fill at low revs, but you're more likely to notice the idle-stop system and how quickly the new integrated starter-generator can fire the four-pot diesel back into life.

It's not as silky as you'd find with some of the best 48v petrol engines when it does reignite – there's a bit of a shudder that runs through the cabin – but it's not uncivilised. The ISG uses its own belt to restart the engine rather than the starter motor, so it's very quick indeed.

43

Ride quality has improved significantly as indeed has refinement in the cabin.

The chassis that underpins this latest Prado is 50 percent more torsionally rigid than that of its predecessor, and this stiffness allows the suspension to concentrate on the task at hand, without having to factor in movement of the ladder-framed chassis, which in turn compromises its effectiveness. It's still not what you'd call a plush ride, but it's not harsh and is entirely acceptable given what the Prado can do off-road.

In addition to a stiffer chassis, Toyota has more effectively isolated the passenger cell from noise, vibration and harshness pathways, the entire frame sitting on eight cushion mounts. For a diesel with very large cylinders (at 689cc each, they're propelling much bigger pistons than those that sit in the 576cc cylinders of the old 4.6-litre V8 LandCruiser).

43

At highway speeds, the new gearbox defaults to running the engine at less than 2000rpm, and apart from some wind rustle over the very large portrait-oriented door mirrors, it's all reasonably civilised. Even the Altitude's knobby tyres don't result in too much hum on bitumen.

Yes, there is some roll in corners, and the Prado doesn't much like being hustled from lock to lock, when you feel its weight and inherent dynamic compromises of its ladder-framed underpinnings. By contrast, a Land Rover Defender is a degree more sprightly.

The new steering helps build confidence in the Prado, but Kakadu certainly wasn't the location to fully assess this vehicle's handling prowess on twisty blacktop. Spring for the VX or Kakadu grades and the vehicles are also fitted with Adaptive Variable Suspension (AVS) which uses linear solenoid actuators in the shock absorbers to improve ride and vehicle posture both on and off road.

43

This is very much a case of give with one hand and take with the other in terms of ride, because these two versions ride on 20-inch alloys, and would suffer a noticeably firmer on-road ride otherwise.

With 150kW hauling a kerb weight of 2.5 tonnes, the Prado is no fireball in a straight line but 0-100km/h in less than 11 seconds doesn't feel interminable and step-off out of junctions is helped by the crisper steering and quick-witted AWD logic. Braked towing limit?

That goes up from 3000kg to 3500kg, while the gross combination mass of the vehicle is rated at 6600kg. Delve a little deeper into the stats and it's clear that due to the hefty increase in weight of this new model, actual payload figures are down.

43

The Prado shines off road, as you'd probably imagine. With a 700mm wading depth, it was utterly unfazed by the early wet season creek crossings we tackled.

Ground clearance on the GX and GXL is 210mm, with the VX/Altitude and Kakadu offering a marginally more generous 221mm. The front and rear overhangs are relatively tight at 935 and 1205mm respectively. The GX and GXL deliver an approach angle of 31°, while the VX, Altitude and Kakadu measure 32°. Departure angle for all versions is 17°.

There remains a fair amount of lateral head toss on some of the worst roads, but it's impressive on outback washboard. Dust sealing has also improved on this model, and the tiny toggle switch to notch the Prado between high and low range, during which the vehicle needs to be stationary with the transmission in Neutral, is a lot less clunky than the old car's lever.

43

The demountable sway bar of the Altitude adds another 10 percent of ultimate wheel articulation, making this the one to go for if you're intent of rock crawling, but otherwise even the GX boasts off-road ability beyond most owners' ambitions.

Toyota has engineered a number of genuine parts during the Aussie evaluation process for this car, which means that items like the body-coloured front bull bar have been designed and tested by Toyota engineers to reduce cooling compromises and such like.

The Prado's designers have aimed to improve visibility out of the car by lowering the window line by 30mm and raising the front seat hip point by 22mm. This does indeed give quite the commanding view out, but also brings with it an unexpected drawback. In any of the models fitted with a glass roof, headroom is surprisingly tight.

43

I found myself having to recline the front seats a little further than was ideal in order to stop my head brushing the roof (I'm 6'4”) and the issue was exacerbated in the second row. If you're tall, given to wearing hats or are in the habit of propping your glasses atop your noggin, skip anything with a moon roof.

Interior quality seems generally very good, with a very sensible mix of physical buttons and touchscreen functionality. I'd have liked a button to turn the fairly insistent lane-keep off, and the steering wheel seems a little overburdened by small buttons, but otherwise it's generally well-judged. The cooled centre box (from VX up) is a boon and is big enough to hold at least four drinks bottles.

The tall but narrow door mirrors aren't the Prado's greatest feature, because you'll need to angle them a long way out to avoid a significant blind spot. They're one of the few instances where styling seems to have taken precedence over substance.

43

At 2850mm in wheelbase, the Prado's not anything like as long between its axles as family haulers like the Mazda CX-8 (3120mm), but to stretch the wheelbase out any further would then start to hobble the Toyota's off-road chops.

As such, accommodation in the seven-seat versions is a little more pinched than in these dedicated family haulers with no off-road pretensions. Likewise, third row amenity and access is fairly basic, and feet are nearly at the same height as your posterior when you're back there. It's not that comfortable, even for kids.

At 1980mm wide, the cabin is noticeably more generous in width than the last Prado, with plenty of space for that broad centre console. The low belt line increases the impression of airiness, and utility is also helped by a separately opening rear window.

43

The door pockets could be a bit more generous, and you'll probably be looking for somewhere else to stow larger bottles.

The five-seat models offer 954L of boot space with the rear seats in position and 1895L when they're folded. Things get a bit murkier with the seven-seat models due to to two particular issues. The first is that the third row of seats can't be removed and the second is that they don't fold flat to the floor, thanks to the location of the 48V battery for the mild hybrid system.

This could well be a deal breaker for many looking to camp or tour with the Prado. Toyota can supply a rather flimsy-feeling accessory box to fill in the step-down at the rear, thus creating a flat floor, but the fact of the matter is that there's only 182L behind that third row.

43

Toyota claims 906L with the rear  seats folded, and 1829L with the second and third  rows stowed. What's more, removing the rear seats yourself will have warranty implications. Hmmm...

The Prado is well provisioned for safety gear and every grade gets nine airbags – including driver and front passenger knee bags and a centre airbag between the front seats. There are also three ISOFIX child seat mounts, standard adaptive cruise control, parking sensors and lane keep assist. The brakes are bigger than ever, with 354mm discs up front with four-piston calipers and a 335mm single-piston floating caliper aft.

The GX and GXL models get auto dipping headlamps while the VX grades and above get a smarter adaptive high beam. There are a whole heap of off-road driver aids including the Multi Terrain System largely carried over from the LC300 and a special low-speed rock crawling mode. There's also a new camera and radar system and driver fatigue monitoring.

43

Fuel economy is rated at 7.6L/100km, and even on a 110km/h cross-country run with the air conditioning blasting and seat cooling maxed, we rarely saw consumption dip below 8.0L/100km.

In order to reduce NOx emissions, AdBlue is required for this engine which it drinks at a rate of 500km per litre, which means that you'll typically travel about 8500km between refills of the 17.4-litre tank. The fuel tank is a 110-litre unit and word is that TMC engineers are looking at the feasibility of an in-house extra long range tank option, possibly something to equal the 150-litre dual tanks of the old Prado.

Toyota appears to have played a canny hand with the latest LandCruiser Prado. It understands that existing buyers err on the conservative side, and engineers from Japan have conducted hundreds of interviews here in Australia, the Prado's biggest market, to establish exactly what customers want.

43

In effect, it was more of the same but better and that's largely what it's delivered.

The styling is progressive without being alienating, and the new features build upon the capabilities of the much-loved predecessor without alienating those looking to trade up.

Some may miss the feedback of the steering in tricky off-road spots, but that modest regression is easily outweighed by less effort and better accuracy on road and a whole slew of other refinements that make the Prado more formidable than ever.

Best of all, Toyota has not sacrificed the Prado's hard-won reputation for durability at the altar of modernity. It still feels as tough as old boots, albeit ones that have been treated to a bit of spit and polish.

43

There are some issues to consider though. The packaging of the seven-seat models certainly isn't all it could be and will scratch it from the shortlists of real power users, as could the drop in payload.

Third row accommodation is best reserved for short trips, as the seating position leaves something to be desired.

Toyota is banking that the rest of the improvements create a significant net positive for the LandCruiser Prado. I think they're onto something. There will doubtless be a vocal minority who feel that in modernising it, Toyota has somehow dumbed the vehicle down and charged us a handsome premium for the privilege.

That's a very harsh take. It's an improvement over the old version in a multitude of areas, but it's not going to be for everyone. Looking at the order bank that Toyota's already built up, there's probably some sound reasoning behind their confidence.