2025 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Adventure Review

We don’t drive new diesels much any more, on account of increasingly stringent emissions regs overseas. And motive power tends to be dictated by emissions, as it should be. Not in America of course where big oil dictates what they do. 

Every other car sold in the UK a decade or so back was a diesel, and then came the Dieselgate scandal. Now they account for three per cent of new car sales in Britain. 

So here we have the latest Land Cruiser Prado, the Adventure, with mild hybrid assistance. It retains a body-on-frame platform with permanent four-wheel drive here and the rear is coil sprung. And Prado has that desirable 3.5 tonne braked towing capacity.

The powertrain is right out of Hilux, the 2.8L four pot turbodiesel good for 150kW and 500Nm. A 48v mild hybrid system uses a lithium-ion battery under the boot floor powering a 12kW/65Nm motor. It gives assistance when needed and helps with stop/start in heavy traffic running. 

Toyota reckons on mid-eights for overall fuel efficiency. Initially the long term figure was 11.1. After a reset we found open road cruising returned high sevens to low eights, and even in town mid-eights was possible. 

Amid a sea of murmuring electrics, the diesel is always audible, especially when cold. It takes a while to settle into the background. And it only really does that when it’s in top gear (8th), cruising along at the open road speeds (1600rpm). 

It’s got the look 

This Adventure version sits alongside the VX Limited as the more ‘adventure ready’ range topper, and looks up for it in an off-road sense with dual-purpose Geolander rubber, and running boards. Its sticker price is $103,990 for this five-seat version. 

Most really like the look. Front on it is mean, though I’m not so sure about the profile. The wavy waist line seems odd to me but then I’m not the one buying it.

Stepping up into this, taller folk won’t need the running boards but some will. There’s not a huge amount of cabin space, especially legroom, in this despite it being nearly 5m long and 2m wide. But perhaps the most jarring aspect of the interior is the hump that extends above the hybrid battery pack in the luggage area. It adds the best part of 15cm to the floor height and means there’s only 441L of space back there. The elevated floor level makes it more difficult to load heavy items. Still there’s a fair amount of depth, the golf clubs going in any which way. And the second row seats not only have a fold-down function for the back rests but also a roll over capability. That’s to allow access to the third-row pews in the seven-seat versions. We wouldn’t go there though because there’s then even less luggage space left over than in the five seater.

Beefy this 

This big(gish) truck scales up at a podgy 2560kg. Given power output of 150kW and 500Nm plus a bit from the motor, it’s not exactly a sprinter. We couldn’t get a sub-10sec time on the run to 100 and an overtake requires 8sec. And good luck hauling it up on this rubber in under 40m. 

That it burns as little fuel as it does is impressive. We must have done the better part of 350km in this, and returning it we’d only used a bit over one-quarter of its tank. It was then we realised it holds 110L. You might expect 1000km without stopping. Still, a fill up will cost $200 before factoring in $76 more in RUCs. It’s another reason I’m not fussed on heavy vehicles, even if the rest of the world seems besotted by SUVs as their dominance of sales the world over keeps rising. Little wonder cities are taking action with congestion charging based on size and vehicle weight. In Paris, they’ve tripled parking charges for large, heavy, polluting SUVs. It reduced parking of these vehicles in town by two-thirds. 

As to the ride and handling of this large, high-rise vehicle, neither is particularly inspiring. Yes, the Adventure is as much about off-roading. But most will use it more on road. The ride borders on jittery at slow speeds and despite its permanent AWD status it doesn’t take all that much hustling to have the dual purpose rubber squealing. So just sit back, relax and enjoy the vista from on high. That’s where this is at its best, easing along, the motor ticking over and fuel use modest. It doesn’t stink either, with its AdBlue tank. 

Some might say this is best when you’ve got something large hooked on the towbar, with its considerable lugging ability. That would probably make it ride better too. 

If you’ve a need for a butch off-road capable tow wagon, this might fit the bill but otherwise there are roomier, better riding, less expensive SUV options for getting from A to B, especially by conventional routes.  

Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Adventure
$104,990  /  8.7L/100km  /  230g/km
0-100 km/h 10.16s
Engine  2755cc  IL4 / TDI
Max power  150kW@3000-3400rpm
Max torque  500Nm@1600-2800rpm
Drivetrain  8-speed auto, AWD
Weight (claimed)  2560kg