When you cross the Great Dividing Range, which runs along the entirety of the east coast of Australia, the sky becomes bigger and the population sparser. Out here paddocks are measured in hundreds of acres and your steak will be the size of your dinner plate!
It made perfect sense then to take a large SUV like the Toyota Prado Kakadu on our family road trip to the beautiful country town of Cowra, about four hours from Sydney. You most likely remember Cowra from high school history lessons as the location of the breakout from the Japanese Prisoner of War camp in World War Two. Now to support and advance the cultural relations between the people of Cowra Shire and the people of Japan a beautiful Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre has been created. If you do visit Cowra, I highly recommend a visit to the gardens and the adventure playground that is located nearby. If you drive another 40 minutes west from Cowra you will reach Grenfell where this awesome silo art can be seen.
The Kakadu is the top of the line spec of the outgoing Toyota Prado model lineup and features goodies like heated front and second row seats, powered fold down third row seats, and a fold down centre rear entertainment screen with three pairs of wireless headphones.
All models in the Prado range are powered by a 2.8 litre turbo diesel engine with 150kW of power and 500Nm of torque. The Kakadu has multiple drive modes with Comfort/Eco, Normal, Sport, Sport+ available. I felt no need to advance past Comfort/Eco and definitely had no use for the plastic steering wheel-mounted gear selectors as there really is not much power from four-cylinder diesel engine.
The official combined fuel consumption is 7.9L/100km and for my week in the Prado I used 10.4L/100km of diesel. But it is worth mentioning that this Prado was brand new when I picked it up with just 16km on the odometer. The main fuel tank is 87 litres and the Prado comes standard with an additional 63 litre sub tank, but this sub tank is deleted if your Prado has the optional tail gate pack like this Prado and the full-size spare tyre is stored under the rear of the vehicle. The towing capacity of the Prado with trailer brakes is 3,000kg and without trailer brakes it’s 750kg.
On the Kakadu grade, rough terrain is tackled with Toyota’s Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System, Adaptive Variable Suspension system, Crawl Control and Multi-Terrain Select system. There is high and low range 4WD, but I spent my time in 4H as the worst we tackled in the Prado were some gravel roads. Which was good because I found the ride of the Prado was very jiggly and unrefined on rough roads.
In Australia, the all-new Prado that is coming in 2024 will be offered with the 1GD-FTV 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine enhanced with 48-volt technology to help improve fuel consumption in urban settings. Producing the same 150kW of power and 500Nm of torque, the 1GD engine drives all four wheels via a new Direct Shift-8AT eight-speed automatic transmission which replaces the existing six-speed unit.
The technology in this Prado is dated with a 9″ touchscreen display with wired Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, which is connected to the infotainment system via the single USB-A port available in the SUV. There is just one other 12V in the front of the vehicle, so clearly not enough ports available for a modern family. Voice control is available and designated by a masculine-looking silhouette on steering wheel button and it worked well for changing the radio station and making phone calls, but not that good for setting a destination on the sat nav and after multiple attempts it didn’t get it right.
I love the cool box under arm rest, which does get very cold and the lowest temp I saw on my thermometer was around 5o Celsius. It can fit four 600ml bottles or a shorter wine bottle, but not a full-size wine bottle. The cup holders at front of centre console are a bit awkwardly placed, but the drink bottle storage cubbies in the front doors are adequately sized.
The premium woodgrain-look steering wheel with powered steering column adjustment compliments the leather accented seats with the heating and cooling available on the front seats. I found that the cooled seats were not effective on a hot summer’s day. The driver’s seat has power adjustment for recline, forward/back, seat height front and rear, with 2-way lumbar support and two memory positions. While the passenger seat has power adjustment for recline and forward/back only.
The second-row seats have ample head and leg room for two adults, heated seats, and digital temperature, mode and air speed control and these can be adjusted from the front as well. The seats have a 40:60 split fold mechanism with manual forward/back and recline adjustment and there are two ISOfix/three rear tether child seat restraint points.
Of course, my children’s favourite feature was the centre flip down screen with remote control, with input sources from DVD, SD Card, wifi DLNA or Miracast. There are three sets of wireless headphones that all have their own volume control, and my children told me they were itchy, did not sit nicely on their ears and fell off easily, but I liked I didn’t have to listen to the movie they were watching.
On the downside I found that the centre screen obstructs the view from the rear-view mirror and there are no USB ports in second row, it only has one 12V socket and one HDMI port below the climate controls. The centre seat folds down as an arm rest with two cup holders at the front of it, with good sized drink bottle storage in rear doors. This arm rest really needs a storage cubby as there is a lack of cubbies for the headphones, drinks, road trip snacks and rubbish. There are rear floor mats, but they move about and do not go over the transmission tunnel.
To access the third row, you can manually slide the second row seats forward and there is a plastic step, but no mat on the third row floor. There are no child restraint points in the third row and they are really only suitable for small tween sized children for short-term use with leg and head room both limited. Both the second and third rows have roof vents that can be swiveled and closed off. Third row passengers have brink bottle storage in wheel arches and there are no USB ports in third row.
In addition to the lack of space, in order to use the third row seats, you need to remove the cargo cover and there is no where to store it so you will have to leave it at home. Also, with the third-row seat up there is virtually no usable space in the boot area as it is only about 15cm deep. The third-row seats are raised and lowered using the powered buttons in the boot or on the passenger side wheel arch. But seats will not come up if second row seats are reclined too far back, so you have to then manually move the second-row seats and then press the button again.
Obviously with the third-row seats laid down there is ample boot space with four substantial tie down points and one 220V 100W three-pronged plug. One feature I liked were the clips to keep the seat belts back out of your way. This Prado has the optional swing the tailgate out or you can open the boot window to place items in, but you need to be tall to be able to do this.
Toyota Prado vehicles built from 1 January 2023 are unrated by ANCAP and a five-star ANCAP safety rating only applies to Toyota Prado vehicles built prior to 1 January 2023. This Prado Kakadu does have seven airbags and Toyota Safety Sense active safety features. These features include Pre-Collision Safety system with pedestrian and daytime cyclist detection, Lane Departure Alert with brake to steer, Road Sign Assist (speed signs only), Blind Spot Monitor, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Active Cruise Control (all speed) that is set using a stalk behind the steering wheel. The Prado has a 360o rear view camera and a standard rear view mirror wit front and rear sensors and for convenience auto lights, automatic high beam and auto wipers system.
The Toyota Prado comes with a five-year unlimited kilometre warranty and if you stick to your annual service schedule, and Toyota will extend your engine and driveline warranty from five to seven years. The service interval is six months/10,000km, whichever occurs first, and first six services are capped at $290 each.
The Prado August 2023 production model shown is no longer available to order from the factory, but some dealers may still have stock available. The full Prado model change expected mid-2024, so contact your preferred Toyota dealer for more information on updated specifications and price on this. This Toyota Prado Kakadu starts at $87,468 excluding on-road costs and fitted with the Flat Tailgate Option (No Charge) and Premium Paint ($675) it was $88,143 excluding on-road costs.
| Pros | Cons |
| Good vehicle for exploring regional NSW | Cooled seats not up to the task of an Aussie summer |
| The cool box under the arm rest | Not enough USB ports in the vehicle |
| Up to seven years warranty available | Ride is jiggly over rough roads |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.