For the times when you need a vehicle to be more capable than your everyday road car, it's a good idea to turn to something like Toyota's Land Cruiser Prado 2.8GD VX-R. It'll cruise over most obstacles, will probably never break no matter how hard you attempt to get it right, and even if you do somehow sink it in the mud, it'll start up again once you've winched it out. It's nigh-unstoppable - just like Jason Statham.
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If the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 300 were an action movie hero, it would be Jason Statham. Smooth and debonair in polite society, but brutal and unstoppable in the action sequences. All while being easy on the eye.
I’m not a traditional motoring journalist. While both my older brothers were petrolheads and fiddled under the bonnet of their cars, I was never bitten by that bug. I’ve never been a petrolhead, nor – to be frank – have I ever really cared much for cars. Until electric vehicles (EVs) arrived. Now I’m a batteryhead.
But there is a category of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars that I have a new fondness for: large, 4×4, going-into-the-bush types. Well, really, just driving off-road in the Free State. My son’s school found a brilliant place in Parys on the Vaal River for camping and other activities for its annual campout, Dimalachite River Lodge.
This year, my son and I (and his best friend and his father) went on our own camping trip. To the same place. The river was in flood, so the fishing was for the hardened pros we met there. Instead, we got to drive on muddy Vrystaat roads.
Despite the rains, the sand roads were no less corrugated. But we glided over them in the Statham-like Prado. It was smooth sailing, as it were.
I must admit that one of the things I have never really grasped is new car design. I always spot new styles, refreshes, and new LED lights, but I seldom have any emotion about them. But Jason Statham the new Prado, for a car, looks good. I must obviously live in the right part of town because I have been spotting them all over Joburg this year. No one is more surprised than I that I really like the look of the new Toyota Prado.
I know enough about real life and 4×4 to know that the Toyota Land Cruiser is still considered a top dog by the off-road fundis. I have first-hand experience of this. When my ex-wife and I went on an off-road trip (about 30 years ago) with her parents, I knew I had made it with my father-in-law, John, when he let me drive the Land Cruiser.
Made it
Driving the new Jason Statham made me feel like I made it again. Heads turned, both in Sandton and Parys. But where the car really shines is off-road. We made a point of driving around the back roads of Parys – and down the main drag, which features some impressive eateries and the obligatory craft beer brewer.
The Prado 300 is a pleasure to drive both on and off-road. You’re high above the ground, which is handy for the rough roads and dongas, encased in a high-tech cabin of luxurious comfort. The contrast between the toughness of the car’s exterior and the plushness of its interior is noticeable. Just like our Jason, depending on the scenario.
On the day it arrived, I foolishly took my dogs to the park – where they promptly found the swampy, muddy area and jumped back into the backseat where they, er, “stress tested” the backseat with mud. It passed. I wiped the leather seats down, and they were like new.
Most importantly, the Prado 300 is a pleasure to drive. I was especially impressed with its accurate cruise control and how it slowed the car down when approaching other vehicles from behind. It was an impressive automation of a key driving safety feature. That’s Jason Statham for you: knows his martial arts, but also knows when to pull his punches…
Vooma
The car has more than enough vooma from its 2.8-litre 1GD-FTV turbodiesel engine, while I can’t fault its all-wheel drive (AWD) handling. It was wonderfully smooth driving down the N1 to Parys and just as smooth on the bumpy off-roads.
The centre of the dash features a 12.3in touchscreen, which supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There are two USB-C ports and a wireless charging pad in the middle.
The rear-view mirror is actually a screen that displays the rear-mounted camera. It took a bit of fiddling to get the visual perspective correct – thanks, best-friend’s dad – and its value was immediately apparent. If you overpack the boot area, as I did, before adding a Thule bike rack, you can’t really see out the back. But the rear camera solved all that.
I could see what was behind the car despite what was behind me on the bike rack.
Another clever upgrade is moving the de rigueur spare wheel to beneath the vehicle, so the rear window can pop open like it’s mounted on the side. It’s all very civilised. Just ask my car-loving Labrador, who sat all afternoon in the back seat with my eight-year-old son, hoping for another drive.
Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 2.8GD VX-R verdict
When you’re taking a vehicle off-road, the way you’re supposed to with the new Prado, you really want it to perform like an action hero. I don’t mean it calls in a stunt double when the going gets tough. That’s real life, and Toyota’s 4×4 doesn’t feel much like that. Instead, the Land Cruiser Prado 2.8GD VX-R acts like the final product, where things are blowing up and our star (in this case, good old Jason) is out in front, being awesome in the face of every obstacle.
However, like the British actor, getting Toyota’s new Prado to work for you isn’t cheap. It starts at R1.5 million and goes up from there, putting a premium on sliding through Vrystaat mud with nary a worry that you might not making it to the fishing spot. That’s likely a price worth paying for a great many of South Africa’s outdoor types.
