Road Test: Land Cruiser Prado 4.0 V6 VX Auto
| by Howard Keeg
King of the Jungle
➲ King of the Jungle, on tar
or off-road
Having taken the Land Cruiser 60th Edition over
the tough terrain at the Rust de Winter 4x4 trail a
couple of years ago, and having last year put the
FJ Cruiser through its paces at the Eastco 4x4
trails in the Magaliesburg, I know the pedigree and
off-road ability of the Land Cruiser. Thus, when
offered the Prado 4.0 V6 VX Auto for a road test,
I knew what I was getting, and so I stuck to the
tarred roads to get a different perspective, with no
intention of doing any off-road driving.
H
owever, fate played a hand, and
without any planning, I did do
some off-road driving, thanks to
the provincial authorities of Limpopo. I
needed to attend an event in Ellisras, so
with the help of my aging Garmin, I thought
that my little trip would be a doddle, which
it was until I found myself on the final
stretch between Vaalwater and Ellisras.
Eish, the road, she is bad.
I suppose the monies needed for road
maintenance had been exhausted after
the tributes that had been paid to Nkandla
chateaux and Sandown mansions, so the
real people of South Africa have to contend
with such shocking roads. But I wasn’t
complaining, because I was driving the
King of the Jungle, whether it be oerwoud
or concrete.
➲ 5 star accommodation
The Land Cruiser skrik vir niks, so I
took the potholes in stride, but did feel
something for the other poor sods with
standard sedans. And I wasn’t surprised
when I discovered that a fellow traveller on
his way to the same event had one of his
tyres shredded by the Limpopo landmines.
But I am supposed to tell you about
the car. I could tell you about the AVN
Navigation System with voice recognition,
I could tell you about the impressive audio
system with its 14 speakers (and wow,
did I belt out vibration and distortion free
Status Quo songs at high volume!), I could
tell you about the multi-terrain select
set-up, I could tell you how easy it was for
me to hook up my phablet via Bluetooth,
I could tell you how my wife loved those
heated seats, I could tell you that I could
| words in action
74
august 2014
go to Ellisras and back and then do the
Middelburg run all on one tank thanks to
its 87 litre fuel tank and its 63 litre sub
fuel tank, but I am not going to do that,
because all I want to talk about is the
three tons of pleasure that the Prado
gives you.
It is indeed the King of the Jungle,
and judging by the admiring
looks I got from all and sundry,
this fact seems to be generally
acknowledged. Unless they were
admiring the fact that I could
afford a R750 000 motor car – and
R760 000 with the sunroof!