Recently, our Mitsubishi importer announced that the Pajero will no longer be offered. The Nissan Patrol has been withdrawn from our market many moons ago, the last one we got was the fifth generation Y61. This means that the Toyota Land Cruiser 150-series (aka the Prado) is the last of the Japanese hard-working kind of SUVs. The last man standing of an illustrious trio.
The popularity of the “Big Three” started in the early eighties. Initially with the 1980 third gen 160-series Nissan Patrol and the 1982 first gen L040-series Mitsubishi Pajero (aka Montero and Shogun). The Toyota Land Cruiser 70-series light-duty arrived in 1984.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, the Nissan was the preferred choice among livestock dealers, contractors, gardeners, market vendors and the like. What these professionals have in common, is that they all need a durable and capable trailer tower with a powerful, yet fuel-efficient diesel engine. Good off-road capabilities? Merely a side-issue.
Meanwhile the Land Cruiser 70-series light-duty evolved into the 1996 90-series, the 2002 120-series and the current 150-series, launched in 2009. Since 1990, this line of Land Cruisers is marketed as the Toyota Prado in many parts of the world.
The power unit of this utterly black 2013 150-series is a 3.0 liter, inline-4, DOHC 16v turbodiesel with an intercooler. Known as the 3.0 D-4D engine, or 1KD-FTV, if you prefer. Maximum power output 190 DIN-hp. Rather conservative for that kind of displacement. Durability first, in other words.
A Land Cruiser with a gasoline engine is not available here. The same applies to the HiLux pickups and the ProAce panel vans and minivans.
This is a 5-door, long wheelbase version (registered curb weight 2,190 kg – GVM 2,990 kg). A much shorter 3-door Land Cruiser is also available. It looks familiar, doesn’t it? That’s because the Lexus GX, as offered in North-America, is fully based on this Land Cruiser 150-series.
Now let’s have a look inside.
Shown here is the Executive trim level. Quite close to the interior of a contemporary Lexus GX, I assume.
The transmission is a 5-speed automatic. Of course there’s a transfer case too.
Now to me at least, seeing this was a real surprise. A Land Cruiser with rear seats, as almost every single one of them gets an aftermarket van-conversion: rear seats out, flat cargo floor in, right up to the front seats. With a registration as a commercial vehicle as a result. Much cheaper to buy and much cheaper to drive (far less road tax, mainly). You must run some kind of business though, I mentioned several of them further above.
The non-factory Land Cruiser van is preferred to the also capable and cheaper factory HiLux pickup. You see, a van has always been our numero uno choice when it comes to light commercial vehicles, by a wide margin. Only inexpensive and/or smelly stuff gets thrown on and off an open bed truck, anything else goes into an enclosed van. Long, heavy and voluminous goods are typically loaded on a trailer.
The maximum towing capacity of a Land Cruiser van is 3,500 kg (7,700 lbs). More is possible, but in that case air brakes and a heavy-duty trailer coupling are legally required.
Here’s a fine example of a Land Cruiser 150-series with a van-conversion, registered as a commercial vehicle. Nothing to see on the outside, apart from the blacked out windows. It’s a genuine two-seater though! (photo courtesy of Veldhuizen B.V.)
Still body-on-frame with a live rear axle and independent front suspension. Right behind the Bridgestone tire you see the left chassis rail.
Functional running boards, standard items on all Land Cruisers.
Besides Nissan and -soon- Mitsubishi, rugged Japanese diesel-SUVs were also offered by Isuzu and Daihatsu at some point in the past. As already mentioned, it truly makes the Land Cruiser the last man standing from the Land of the Rising Sun. That is, in my neck of the woods. And I don’t see it going away anytime soon, as its diesel engine (currently with 2.8 liter displacement) is still meeting our latest emission standards.
The 5th generation Toyota 4Runner sold in North America and some other countries is I believe based on the same platform, but still fitted with the 4.0 gasoline V6. It’s seeing a real resurgence in popularity here, as one of the few body-on-frame SUV’s with low range 4wd that is still sold here. By contrast, our US-market Lexus GX (4.6 V8 only) is a low seller. The “vans” you describe are interesting; they are close in spirit to the panel trucks (though with blacked-out glass, not panels) which were once common tradesman vehicles in the US, before real vans replaced them.
Toyota Land Cruiser and Lexus LX 470 in US are the true Land Cruiser, They are considered as a specialty vehicle produced in a special facility under Hino, it has the design life over 300k miles, that is very impressive indeed.. The 4 Runner started as a modified Hilux pickup, some how in the last three generations started sharing design with Toyota Prado, a cheaper version of the original Land Cruiser. In US Toyota countered the popularity of first generation of Mercedes ML with Lexus GX460 which was priced at the same level of ML 350 with a V8 engine but with solid rear axel (air suspension as option). I drove that generation of GX often, my sister had the first generation of GX , currently she own a second generation og GX 470. I think GX 460 is better than the first generation of ML, except the ML is very stable and feels solid at the highway when it is new — 2003 ML is my daily vehicle at this time. Lexus is of course much more reliable, but it does not mean it has no problem, my sister GX 460 had clicking sound from front end whenever it stops, repeated dealer visits had not solved the problem — we can find a lot of discussions about this problem on line. What makes my sister changed a new GX is her GX 460 had check engine light after the vehicle suffered fron alternator failure at the middle of highway in LA. After the dealer replaced the alternator, she noticed the check engine light was ON, dealer determined its two catalystic covrrters, were bad, the cost was over $4k. She had someone reset the code and sold her 2008 GX with 84K miles to CarMax for $17k in 2016. As her new 2017 GX 470 is almost the same as GX 460, the size is larger than the old one, ironically speaking its engine does not feel as strong as the old one, probably due to the engine programmed to save fuel. I also had a chance to drive a cuurent generation of 4Runner in 2013, the model was SR5, I was not impressed, my 2003 ML feels much better. However, both 4Runner and GX 470 are sold very well last year. People who love traditional SUV with good reliability go after these two vehicles. One more interesting point, my friend told me that GX 460 was THE vehicle to steal for African shady figures during the years of commodity boom. In certain sections of New York City, GX was often targeted and stolen. You may not come back to your vehicle, it was already in a ship to African.
Gack! You’d need to call an orthodontist in case of a front end collision.
These remain huge sellers in Australia. The Jeep Grand Cherokee briefly posed a credible threat until it experienced a slate of recalls a few years ago. Besides, rural buyers LOVE Toyota because of the huge dealership network.
I’m a bit disappointed the most recent Prado facelift was so light but it seems buyers don’t care. And they’re now more common with the new tailgate option that omits the external spare.
Toyota even released a cheaper, HiLux-based Fortuner SUV but the Prado still outsells it.
It was a masterstroke introducing the Prado in the 1990s as the regular LandCruiser was getting very expensive and now seems to be only for the very monied, e.g. horse and boat owners. And I dare say there’s no significant difference in average wealth between LandCruiser and LX570 owners.
I remember back in the early 2000s, Toyota UK called the Prado the LandCruiser Colorado and the regular LC the LandCruiser Amazon. Was that just a UK thing?
Until a few years ago, the big one (200-series) was sold here too. But its 4.5 liter V8 diesel couldn’t meet the stricter emission standards any longer. And a slurping gasoline engine in that kind of vehicle -designed to work- is an absolute no-go area here.
They have changed to piezo injectors and added a DPF because Euro6 is compulsory here as of July, so would that now be current over there?
On the gasoline front – a friend changed from a HJ75 ute to a FJ105 wagon with the 4.7 V8 for his work vehicle due to a lack of power from the diesel (old n/a six), and he said his fuel costs ‘only’ went up 20%. Which is less than I had thought!
The latest emission standards are called Euro 6d-temp. Here’s a list with diesel cars already compliant with these standards:
https://www.fleeteurope.com/en/safety-environment/europe/features/list-euro-6d-temp-diesels-expands-significantly
I don’t see the big 200-series making a comeback. As a work-SUV, the 150-series fulfils all our needs. The “very monied”, as William calls them, prefer Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz or another big Euro-SUV.
Yes indeed – the last of the “tough” Japanese SUVs.
I’m curious now that Mitsubishi Motors is part of Nissan/Renault if the Pajero will be re-introduced – they were well-known as tough, go anywhere SUVs. There’s a lot of brand value and recognition in that name…at least here in the Far East.
We love our GX460! Old school SUV with a gas sucking V8. It does very well towing our hybrid trailer into the Idaho mountains and back country. And towers over the crossovers around town! Just put Falken Wildpeak ATW3 tires on, ready to dig deeper.
With that said, I would LOVE a 3 door Prado with a stripped down interior.
Wonderful! A very solid looking combo, built to last.
Must be regional preference but I’m surprised such a large vehicle has a hand brake.
Please explain. Why shouldn’t such a “large” vehicle have a hand-/parking brake? Or do you mean the old-school hand lever itself?
My observation is that when a Toyota truck is available with a bench seat in front, it uses a foot-operated parking brake; if bucket seats only are offered, which is most of the newer US market trucks except Tundra, it has a hand parking brake. My 2016 Tacoma has, and my 1993 Land Cruiser had, hand parking brakes. My 1997 T100 had a foot parking brake.