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Vehicle Tests > 4WD Comparison - Battle Cruisers
4WD Comparison - Battle Cruisers
Issue: June 2009
Test by Fraser Stronach
Got $70 to $80K to spend on a petrol LandCruiser? Well, there's a couple of options, a 120 Series (aka Prado) with all the fruit, or a base-spec 200 Series.
Australians have long loved the LandCruiser but the LandCruiser they love now is not the LandCruiser they used to love. Ten years ago, the LandCruiser 100 Series, the 'full-strength' LandCruiser outsold the Prado, the 90 Series LandCruiser, or the "baby LandCruiser" as it was often called, by nearly two to one. Now, the current Prado (LandCruiser 120 Series) outsells the big daddy 200, successor to the 100, by around the same amount.
This change in buying preference is no doubt due to lots of things; the growing acceptance of the idea of a smaller LandCruiser, the fact that the 120 is bigger than the 90 anyway, the increased cost of the 200 over the 100, the non-availability of the 'budget' Standard model in the 200 range and the increasing interest in smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles.
There are probably many other reasons as well but, either way, the fact of the matter is that the Prado is now the 'default' LandCruiser ... the LandCruiser of choice even if most people don't even call it a LandCruiser but simply a Prado.
read on below advertisement
In recent times there is no doubt many people who have gone shopping for a 200 have ended up with a Prado, and perhaps some who ended up with a 200 when their initial interest was Prado.
All of which begs the question: how does the Prado stack up against the 200, and is the 200 that much better that it justifies the price difference over its (slightly) smaller stable mate?
The Contenders
For this test we are looking at the respective petrol* models of the 120 and 200 Series although the question of just which spec level Prado we would use to take on the most affordable 200, the GXL, was a matter of much debate. In the end we decided to go for price rather than spec parity and have chosen the top-spec $77,090 Prado Grande to run against the $73,990 GXL 200. The GXL 200 actually falls close to midway between the Grande and VX Prados but is still closer to the Grande's price. As the 200 (all 200s in fact) and the two top specification levels of Prado are auto-only we didn't have to think too hard about transmission options.
Work to do
Although a V6 powers the Prado and a V8 the 200, the two engines share much in common. The Prado's V6 is only 669cc smaller than the 200's V8; both engines are modern quad-cam designs with four vales per cylinder and variable intake valve timing and both have very similar specific power outputs, which means they are in a similar state of tune, and both are backed by what is essentially the same five-speed auto.
next page »
Test by Fraser Stronach
Got $70 to $80K to spend on a petrol LandCruiser? Well, there's a couple of options, a 120 Series (aka Prado) with all the fruit, or a base-spec 200 Series.
Australians have long loved the LandCruiser but the LandCruiser they love now is not the LandCruiser they used to love. Ten years ago, the LandCruiser 100 Series, the 'full-strength' LandCruiser outsold the Prado, the 90 Series LandCruiser, or the "baby LandCruiser" as it was often called, by nearly two to one. Now, the current Prado (LandCruiser 120 Series) outsells the big daddy 200, successor to the 100, by around the same amount.
This change in buying preference is no doubt due to lots of things; the growing acceptance of the idea of a smaller LandCruiser, the fact that the 120 is bigger than the 90 anyway, the increased cost of the 200 over the 100, the non-availability of the 'budget' Standard model in the 200 range and the increasing interest in smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles.
There are probably many other reasons as well but, either way, the fact of the matter is that the Prado is now the 'default' LandCruiser ... the LandCruiser of choice even if most people don't even call it a LandCruiser but simply a Prado.
read on below advertisement
In recent times there is no doubt many people who have gone shopping for a 200 have ended up with a Prado, and perhaps some who ended up with a 200 when their initial interest was Prado.
All of which begs the question: how does the Prado stack up against the 200, and is the 200 that much better that it justifies the price difference over its (slightly) smaller stable mate?
The Contenders
For this test we are looking at the respective petrol* models of the 120 and 200 Series although the question of just which spec level Prado we would use to take on the most affordable 200, the GXL, was a matter of much debate. In the end we decided to go for price rather than spec parity and have chosen the top-spec $77,090 Prado Grande to run against the $73,990 GXL 200. The GXL 200 actually falls close to midway between the Grande and VX Prados but is still closer to the Grande's price. As the 200 (all 200s in fact) and the two top specification levels of Prado are auto-only we didn't have to think too hard about transmission options.
Work to do
Although a V6 powers the Prado and a V8 the 200, the two engines share much in common. The Prado's V6 is only 669cc smaller than the 200's V8; both engines are modern quad-cam designs with four vales per cylinder and variable intake valve timing and both have very similar specific power outputs, which means they are in a similar state of tune, and both are backed by what is essentially the same five-speed auto.
next page »
