The Toyota LandCruiser Prado is receiving the same shot of adrenalin that’s being injected into the top-selling HiLux.
The upgraded model has already been revealed in Japan and, though it’s externally unchanged, it’s packing more power and technology than before.
Like its ute sibling, the LandCruiser Prado picks up a punchier version of the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine. As in the HiLux, it produces 150kW of power and 500Nm of torque – an improvement of 20kW and 50Nm over the current Prado automatic.
The HiAce and Granvia vans use the same 2.8-litre as the current Prado, which suggests they could be next to receive this update.
The updated Prado receives an upgraded autonomous emergency braking system, which adds pedestrian detection at night and cyclist detection. The current system only detects pedestrians in the daytime.
It also adds traffic sign recognition, plus a lane-departure alert with yaw assist like that in the HiLux. This attempts to keep you in your lane by braking the vehicle instead of through steering intervention.
Inside, the Japanese-market Prado has an available 9.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system which belatedly brings Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to the Prado line. Also new to the Prado are paddle shifters, available on the top-spec JDM model.
Toyota Australia has yet to confirm if all these upgrades will appear in the local model.
The current manual Prado GX and GXL already miss out on numerous features available in their automatic counterparts, from autonomous emergency braking to adaptive high-beam and even the small 4.2-inch information display in the instrument cluster. Its 2.8-litre is also down 30Nm of torque on the automatic.
Don’t expect all these new features to be available on the manual then, if the stick-shift option even carries on.
The updates should help keep the Prado fresh, not that it needs much help in the sales game. Last year it was Australia’s favourite large SUV, outselling rivals such as the Ford Everest and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport by more than three-to-one.
