1. It's not as heavy on fuel as you may think
It's a large, seven-seater Toyota SUV, capable as ever, so it will be stupidly heavy on diesel or petrol, right? Wrong! Its 87-litre tank with a 63-litre reserve means that you can travel more than 1100 km without the need to fill up in the 3.0-litre diesel models. This translates to usage of about 10 litres per 100 km in real life. Not bad for a vehicle of this ilk with 400Nm of torque, we reckon (it has 120kW). And we all know Toyota's reputation of building bomb-proof engines. The 4.0-litre V6 petrol models will be decidedly heavier on fuel, so stick with the diesel if you can.
Related: Road test - The esteemed Toyota Prado 3.0 VX-L
2. It's more manoeuvrable than you'd imagine
Let's make no bones about it: The Prado is a massive, heavy vehicle. It weighs in at a robust 2990 kilograms, and at 4840mm long, you'd think it would be difficult to drive around town and on narrow mountain passes. It's no agile Suzuki Jimny, but throw the Sani Pass at it on a wet winter's day, and the Prado's your guy.
It's at home on every surface, but it most impressed us on the soft sand dunes of Atlantis near Melkbosstrand. VX-models also have surround view cameras to give you "eyes" where they're needed - useful when going off-road, but almost more useful in crowded parking lots!
Related: Read about the Flying Prados of Atlantis here.
3. It's built for the roughest terrain imaginable
And, should disaster strike, you have a car that will take you to the ends of the earth. The Prado has an all-terrain support system that will turn any novice driver into an off-road expert, including a low-range transfer case with rear and centre diff locks as well as Hill-Assist Control and a crawl function.
VX and VX-L models feature a multi-terrain select system with mud & sand, loose rock, mogul, rock & dirt and rock modes. It really is difficult to get stuck in a Prado! Should it happen, a possible reason may be that your tyre pressure is incorrect. And for that, there is a tyre pressure monitor; newly upgraded in the VX and VX-L models.
Safety features have not been skimped on either. All models have seven airbags, and stability control as well as trailer sway control.Toyota Safety Sense on VX-L models include pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane departure alert, a blind spot monitor and rear-cross traffic alert.
The Current SA Prado line-up is as follows:
Land Cruiser Prado 3.0D TX - R 892 500
Land Cruiser Prado 4.0 V6 VX - R 1010 000
Land Cruiser Prado 3.0D VX - R 1011 900
Land Cruiser Prado 4.0 V6 VX-L - R 1050 300
Land Cruiser Prado 3.0D VX-L - R 1052 100
*March 2020 prices
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