[bigron]

So Toyota wants to charge close to a crore now for this and still decided to equip it with a 4 cylinder 3 litre old school diesel. Whatever happened to the 4 liter v8 Toyota?
This is not going to sell, period. It does not have the presence or the badge value of the LC. Not to mention they completely messed the pricing.

[starter]

Call me an odd one here, but i would pick the Prado over the competition if i had 92 big ones to spare.
A vehicle that you can just drive off into sunset not worried about the terrain or the road conditions or the proximity to a service center.
And no, I ain't saying this just for the heck of it. I did end up buying the fortuner with the 3 liter KD series engine when the newer 2.8 GD engine fortuner was available.

[sureshkishore]

The Prado has been a dream vehicle for me. During 2005-6, while working in the Middle East I had the opportunity to drive the UZJ120. The model was available in India for 40 lakhs at that time which was 2.5 times the overseas price for the top end 4litre V6 petrol. Loved the 120-Prado for the understated looks and sprightly performance, when compared to the intimidating LC.
The subsequent models however, Toyota has made the Prado a meaner looking beast and frighteningly expensive.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by bigron

So Toyota wants to charge close to a crore now for this and still decided to equip it with a 4 cylinder 3 litre old school diesel. Whatever happened to the 4 liter v8 Toyota?
This is not going to sell, period. It does not have the presence or the badge value of the LC. Not to mention they completely messed the pricing.

Well, i don't see them plonking the V8 in the Prado, as there has to be some differentiating factor between the LC and the Prado.

While the situation here in Australia is completely different, the Prado continues to be the #1 in its segment/class when it comes to sales. Very popular with the family crowd. It's almost as it everyone blindly buys one, despite it being more expensive than its competition.

[Acharya]

Compare the interiors of Prado with other similarly priced vehicles e.g top end of X5, Q7, XC90 and Prado stands nowhere,
Compare the engine specs, again it stands nowhere.
Compare the features that you expect at that price point, you will realize a 40 lack car will give you similar or more features than Prado.

The only logic I see here is - LC itself is overpriced like crazy and perhaps that gives a right to Prado to command this price (pun intended).

We all know how much will it sell but hey its one tik mark in my 'to do' list - Toyota Management

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by starter

I did end up buying the fortuner with the 3 liter KD series engine when the newer 2.8 GD engine fortuner was available.

Can you let us know the reasons? Do you think the new engine or the new fortuner is not as reliable or capable as the old one?

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Well, i don't see them plonking the V8 in the Prado, as there has to be some differentiating factor between the LC and the Prado.

Agree and I am not sure if they can actually fit one. Though on Lexus- GX, they sell 8 Cylinder Petrol in the North American market.

But, can someone tell the reasons for continuing the old generation engine and the gearbox on this 1 Crore Truck

[DriveOnceMore]

Surprisingly, I already spotted one on roads of Pune on the day of Gudi Padwa.
Good start for a car costing this much, IMO.

[4x4addict]

I totally agree with some of the posters above regarding using a dated powertrain in a car that costs 3 times as much as a Fortuner on the road. Given that it is CBU and comes from Japan, I don't see why they should build a lower spec version for the Indian market alone. Frankly isn't it more of a pain to use an engine/gearbox that has been discontinued across the world and sold only in India.

This is frankly a very stupid move by Toyota India.

[GTO]

Someone at Toyota preponed his joke for April Fool's day .

At a time when luxury brands like Jaguar, Volvo, Audi, BMW & Mercedes are pricing their SUVs reasonably, Toyota's CBU pricing remains obscene. Heck, even the sister company's Lexus NX300h was launched at 53 lakhs which was lower than most BHPians expected it to be.

Whoever is in charge of Toyota's CBUs has absolutely no clue of the market. He should be fired and exported to Japan along with whatever Prados they have imported.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

It comes with old Generation Fortuner 4 Cylinder engine mated with even older 5 Speed gear box

The new Fortuner is so good that it makes the Prado pointless, even if it were priced at 70 lakhs.

Originally Posted by abhishek46

there is no denying that the LC brand has a specific charm and value, a prestige symbol.

It used to be a status symbol in the 90s, maybe the 2000s too when options were limited. But with so many luxury SUVs now on sale in India, it's no longer the case. In fact, if someone were to buy a Prado for 1.xx crores on the road, his rich friends would ask him "WHY"?

Originally Posted by starter

A vehicle that you can just drive off into sunset not worried about the terrain or the road conditions or the proximity to a service center.

I don't think any of us drive on critical missions in the middle of nowhere. If you offroad or are part of the defence forces, sure. But even then, taking a 1 crore vehicle off the road has its own limitations. Among other things, you'll be worried about scratching the expensive paint or breaking a 3-lakh rupee headlight.

And let's not overlook the fact that the reliability of its competitors has also improved to acceptable / good / excellent levels.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

That's interesting and if this is the case they should have definitely upgraded the engine for Indian market considering the end retail price of about 150,000 USD

Originally Posted by 4x4addict

I totally agree with some of the posters above regarding using a dated powertrain in a car that costs 3 times as much as a Fortuner on the road. Given that it is CBU and comes from Japan, I don't see why they should build a lower spec version for the Indian market alone. Frankly isn't it more of a pain to use an engine/gearbox that has been discontinued across the world and sold only in India.

This is frankly a very stupid move by Toyota India.

Between Sep 2017 and Feb 2018 TKM sold "ONE" LC Prado India

Now to answer the question why they can't do a 2.8 Prado since its made in Japan for other markets.

The 2.8 Prado made in Japan comes with Euro 6 emissions hardware which consists of DPF, Selective Catalyst Reduction (SCR) which is diesel exhaust fluid, additional diesel fuel injector and related paraphernalia. AFAIK they don't make a 2.8 without DPF & SCR, and they will not import an Euro 6 one into India since TKM is yet to brace the Bharat 6 norms and provide service and support to Bharat 6 vehicles.

The 3.0 Prado is being built to sell in countries which doesn't yet have Euro 6 norms and India is one of them. So it makes sense for a volume manufacturer to send a few 3.0 Prados to India. They should have sold the 4.0 liter V6 Petrol in India.

The 3.0 is an older engine but it is not a bad engine at all. (OT for mod heads: With some external hardware tweaks it can pump out double its current output).

PS: Even with the new powertrain options it is a neither here nor there kind of vehicle due to the pricing. But if one is willing to spend that much for "luxurious image conscious offroading" there is no better choice.

PPS: In 2017 they sold "18" Prados in total.
Sep 2016 to Feb 2017


March 2017 to Aug 2017


Sep 2017 to Feb 2018

[extreme_torque]

This is horrendous pricing probably driven more our stupid taxation than anything else but then why launch it? Not only it comes with an engine that is older, it also makes less power and has an older gearbox compared to what they offer in their people carrier which is almost 1/5th the price!
How is it worth more than 3 times the price of a Fortuner? As GTO said, as good as it is, it is not 3 times good as a Fortuner. For the price of one of these, you could buy a Fortuner, an Endeavour and a top end Innova with money left to fill them with diesel for atleast a couple of years. Crazy pricing!

[PrideRed]

Toyota had an excellent opportunity and messed it completely. Plonk in a new engine, gearbox, sell it using CKD route and price it at a premium of 10-15 lakhs to Fortuner and Prado would have been a blockbuster. Given the number of Fortuner's out in market, Prado would have been a perfect upgrade. At 1 Cr, Prado is not going anywhere.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by GTO

And let's not overlook the fact that the reliability of its competitors has also improved to acceptable / good / excellent levels.

Very true! This is a point i have been making to a lot of friends who blindly trust a Toyota. While they have earned their halo or reliability, the truth is that the competition is right beside them, and no pushovers in this regard.

This reality seems to have caught up in some regard in Australia where the Hilux which has always outsold its competition for years now battles the Ford Ranger (same platform as the Endeavour) month-on-month on the sales charts. Other Japanese manufacturers like Mazda, Mitsubishi and Nissan and close on their heels.

As can be seen in this article:

In this day and age, with the precision and quality with which assembly line workers and robots the world over build vehicles, catastrophic faults are nowhere near as common as they once were. There are some brands, like Toyota, who have earned a quality reputation over time, but they say perception lags behind reality by 10-15 years.

http://www.top10cars.com.au/top-10-r...lia-2017-2018/

P.S. : The link above is only to indicate Toyota's position in terms of comparative reliability, and not to digress from the current discussion.

[starter]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Can you let us know the reasons? Do you think the new engine or the new fortuner is not as reliable or capable as the old one?

Hey Turbanator,
I bought the fortuner primarily as an over landing vehicle. Basically, travelling to distant/remote places, spending long hours on the road along with family.
I bought the old one over the new one for the following reasons:

• The older KD engine being less sensitive to fuel quality
• The presence of a central differential
• The manual transfer case over the electronic one

Picking a mature product in the market would mean that most of the known issues are ironed out already on the production line.
And the advancements on the newer fortuner's engine, transmission are not something that i would have really missed.
Hence, i went with the older one Turbanator

Originally Posted by GTO

I don't think any of us drive on critical missions in the middle of nowhere. If you offroad or are part of the defence forces, sure. But even then, taking a 1 crore vehicle off the road has its own limitations. Among other things, you'll be worried about scratching the expensive paint or breaking a 3-lakh rupee headlight.

And let's not overlook the fact that the reliability of its competitors has also improved to acceptable / good / excellent levels.

Agreed GTO! My comment was mostly for those folks who would pick the Prado over the competition for overlanding trips.
I would not have to be worried about the fuel quality or the chances of an electronics failure due to dust that gets you stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Cheers,
Deepak

[the_skyliner]

So absurd pricing from Toyota. Why would one buy this over Q7, X5, GLS, etc? The times when Prado used to stand out on roads, are gone.

Nowadays, you get SUVs with similar road presence for a much lower price or a much more luxurious SUV for similar price.