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S. Muralidhar

YOU believe in working hard and playing hard. You want to test your limits at the boardroom and in the great outdoors. You want to live life to the fullest. You do everything in style. You believe in making a youthful, powerful statement with everything you own to reflect all your facets.

So, what will you be seen driving in? Well, Toyota has the answer.

It bears the nondescript NG 90 in the company's internal documents, but nothing about the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado is abbreviated. It is undoubtedly, one of the most capable sports utility vehicles (SUVs) ever built to perform with as much élan on the road as off it.

What is more, though the Prado is a quintessential SUV with its aggressive styling and tall stance, it has enough to keep even the most-difficult-to-please design critic riveted.

A fitting car for somebody with all the traits listed , the Prado buyer also gets a mix of attributes that are seemingly opposed but are eventually only reflective of the vehicle's amazing abilities — rugged, yet luxurious, capable of taking the rough with the smooth. It may carry the legendary image of off-road reliability that its predecessors have built over the years, yet offers the quality and comfort of a super luxury sedan.

The Land Cruiser was built for unparalleled off-road performance. Its has carried down the bloodline capable of performing in the in the most demanding off-road conditions form of high torque engines, rigid chassis and four-wheel drive systems.

The Land Cruiser's modest beginnings started a little over 50 years ago in the form of the military vehicle called by Toyota as the BJ series. By the 1980s, Toyota had led the Land Cruiser from being a hardy, reliable off-roader to one also with luxurious interiors and a more comfortable ride in on-road conditions. The Prado was born in 1995 as an offshoot of the Land Cruiser's 90s series variant. It shares its chassis with the Toyota 4Runner (currently sold in the US) and the pick-up Hilux Surf 185.

Toyota imbued the Prado with luxury not seen in any of its earlier avatars. The Prado of today features such high grade material in the interiors, puts to use such state-of-the-art technology and the overall fit and finish quality is so precise that there is the inevitable comparison with those under the Lexus marque — Toyota's super luxury line.

No wonder, then, that SUV-crazy markets in the Gulf and the US simply love the Land Cruiser and the Prado; after all, fuel is cheap and these vehicles make the drivers feel like kings.

The Prado was probably an easy choice for the Indian market, too. It already had a well-established image among the few that could import the vehicle. There are quite a few Indians returning back from the Gulf and West Asia, where the Land Cruiser and the Prado are favourites.

Muscular styling

The Land Cruiser Prado offers striking new looks in contrast to its more sedate sibling sold in the US. Together with its stocky styling, gives this SUV an aura of power and rock solid reliability. The Prado is one of the biggest, full-bodied SUVs currently available in the country. At nearly 16 feet long, the Prado is also over six-and-a-half feet tall and equally wide. Its ground clearance is a cool 220mm and checks in with a kerb weight of over two tonnes.

On the outside, the Prado features a pair of distinctive, part wrap-around style clear lens headlamps that incorporate projection-type multi-reflectors. The oversized, thickset bumpers and side cladding along with the deep wheel arches give it a strong, squat appearance.

The chrome-plated bonnet grille sports prominent, extra wide vertical slats that add to the vehicle's bold stance. Multi-reflector fog lamps in the front bumper, 17-inch alloys wheels, tubeless tyres, scuff plates, side steps all around, wing-type external rear view mirrors, a sunroof with manual jam protection function and roof rails are all part of standard fitment.

At the rear, the Prado's large hatch door swings open to the side and stretches all the way deep down to much below the mid-way line on the rear bumper.

This gives direct access to the SUV's floor and enables easy loading and unloading of luggage into the boot area. The tail lamps also sport the wrap-around style, but seem a tad bit undersized for a vehicle this big.

Lexus-style luxury

The Prado's interiors ooze luxury, from the carpets to the curvaceous door trim. With a dual-tone theme to the seats and dashboard, chrome and wood grain highlights have been added to enhance the overall appeal at the right spots. Chrome accents to the door handles, the centre console and ash/coin trays add to the luxurious looks. High-quality, leather-wrapped seats for all three rows, with the driver and side passenger seats offering heating are standard.

On the dash, the Prado's large optitron instrument cluster with the whole set of indicators are laid out neatly with daylight running lights giving the driver a clear view of all of the vehicle's operating parameters.

Many other features such as an on-board global positioning system (GPS), a DVD player or a voice-activated system may be available in other markets, but here the Prado does not offer these features. In its place, on the dashboard is a smart digital accessory meter, a graphic display at the centre of the instrument panel.

This digital display is in keeping with Prado's image of a luxurious off-roader and provides useful information such as the altitude, atmospheric pressure and the outside temperature. It also incorporates a clock, a compass, and displays the average and current fuel economy, the average speed, the potential cruising distance and the elapsed driving time.

Innovative storage spaces abound, but with the third row of seats, the boot area is very limited. Fold up the third and if necessary the second row, and what you get is one of the largest storage bays in an SUV. Lexus-level quality is evident in all of the interiors and it is the finer details that please you.

Like the seat-belt clips in the second and third rows which recess into the seats, so they won't come in the way when passengers enter the vehicle, the sliding front centre armrest and the air damper in the glove box to enable it open and shut smoothly. A front-loading CD changer and a music system with auto sound leveliser (that adjusts the frequency characteristics according to the interior noise level) is standard. For added comfort, the dual air-conditioner in the Prado comes with individual vents for all three rows of seats.

Air-conditioning for the front driver and passenger seats is also dual-zone type, allowing independent temperature and airflow settings.

After Land Cruiser...

`...everything changed', is Toyota's punchline to promote this very capable SUV. From the time it first hit the roads, the Prado has always rivalled the others with its remarkable off-road performance. Its design and every dimension has been built with a purpose. Consider some of the Prado's purpose-built dimensions. It can ford water that is about 700mm deep (that's knee-deep for someone over six feet tall) and the maximum negotiable grade is 42 degrees (with the vehicle tilted sideways). The Prado's approach angle is 32 degrees, ramp break angle 20 degrees (so those speed breakers aren't a worry) and departure angle is 26 degrees.

Three other equipment that come standard with the vehicle aid the Prado's off-roading prowess — the Toyota electronic modulated air suspension, the torque sensing limited slip differential (LSD) in the centre differential gear and the all-time four wheel drive (4WD). This SUV's `Torsen' LSD distributes power between the front and rear wheel depending on the driving conditions, thereby offering a sure-footed performance even in the most slippery or loose soil conditions even at high speeds.

The Prado's all-time 4WD essentially offers the driver three positions through a smaller stick shift next to the five-speed automatic gearbox's shifter.

The driver can choose from H, HL and LL for highway, high-speed off-roading or slippery surfaces and for greater control in low speeds through mud, snow or inclines respectively.

To further improve its off-roading ability Toyota has chosen air suspension along with its patented electronic modulated suspension (TEMS), which controls the damping force of the shock absorbers (double wish bone in the front and 4-link type with lateral rod at the rear) to improve the vehicle's stability under various conditions. Operating the electronic modulated suspension is a semi-automatic set-up, whereby the driver can change the settings through a control switch located on the centre console.

The three positions that are available, to raise or lower the whole vehicle, include high for rough roads, low for easy entry and exit or loading and unloading and normal.

The auto-levelling function on the electronically controlled rear air suspension ensures that the vehicle's height remains constant depending on the weight of passengers or load in the Prado. While this suspension set-up improves ride quality and gives the vehicle amazing ability to go over large obstacles while off-roading, it also tends to make the ride a spot uneasy on the highway.

Custom built

Toyota has been customising the Prado for each of the markets that it has launched it in, tweaking the suspension and upping the gadgetry to suit each of them. So, it is no surprise then that the company thought of bringing a four-litre V6 for the Indian market. We also like big, powerful sophisticated engines, even if they guzzle fuel, as long as they are for that section of the population which is looking at the vehicle as a status symbol and couldn't care for mileage.

The Prado here sports a 3,956-cc, V6, 24-valve, DOHC engine that comes with Toyota's variable valve timing intelligent (VVT-i), which pumps out a massive 235PS of power at 5,200 rpm. In keeping with the Land Cruiser tradition, peak torque kicks in at a relatively low 3,800rpm.

A vehicle this big and heavy and with an engine this size and power, the Prado will inevitably be a guzzler.

But even the 5 kmpl in city and about 6.5 kmpl on the highway are probably achievable due to Toyota's innovative technologies, including the VVT-i. Mated to this engine is a five-speed automatic with a second start system mode that allows the vehicle to shift from second gear for minimal wheel spin on slippery situations such as mud, snow and ice.

It is almost a sin to drive the Prado solely on the highway or in the city. It prods the driver to push it to its limits and will continue to amaze you with its prowess long after you bought it.

Apart from the features listed here, there is many more waiting to be discovered in the Prado.

But at Rs 38 lakh (ex-showroom) this import is obviously not within everyone's reach. What's more it has pedigree, retains value like no other SUV in the market worldwide and reeks of class. There it is then, the Prado — for big boys with big bucks.

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