caha14

So I was back in Panama visiting my wife's family and thought I would share a couple of pictures of my ride over there! Not quite the same thing - it is powered by a 3.0-liter inline-4 turbo diesel and lacks a lot of the extras (starting with leather), but it was pretty cool.

It had the fold-flat third row seats, but they were manual. At least with this motor, the tranny is a 5-speed (not 6). The truck was comfortable and very smooth on the highway. Pickup was ok; diesels are pretty torquey, but a 4-cyl is a 4-cyl: it wasn't difficult to accelerate up to 75 or 80, but I couldn't keep up with some of the bigger boys, like the Land Cruiser (the big one), which over there is powered by a twin turbo V8 diesel with a &*$@load of torque (instead of the 5.7 V8), and it was nice to see its taillights as they pulled away from me!! It would have been nice to have the LX with me LOL.

Back to the Land Cruiser Prado, there are different trim levels, and rental car companies of course don't get the "top-of-the-line", which in this case would include leather, wood (fake?), 4.0 V6 (from the 4Runner) and even KDSS!

Very popular vehicle out there. The previous generation is on every corner! They also make a smaller 3-door version that looks interesting.

akfd

The Prado in Japan has the 4.0L engine that the 4Runner uses in North America. The GX has the same engine as the Japanese Land Cruiser. On paper the 4.6L looks weak compared to other V8's, but if it's powerful enough for the big-daddy Land Cruiser I don't see why it's not powerful enough for the smaller Prado.

CdeFabio

That is pretty cool. When I was in Panama in March I could not believe the number of Prado/GX's down there, it was like every 4th car was one! They must get a lot of them because of the shipping through the canal, although I am just guessing. I have never seen so many of them in one place.

caha14

Agree, except you can't have a Prado with the 4.6L. 4.0L in Latin America just as in Japan but only if you buy the top-of-the-line. Otherwise, as I said, 3.0 4-cylinder Turbo Diesel - a far cry from the 4.6 V8.

caha14

I hear you! What was even crazier is the number of LXs I saw. Here in the US, they are hard to come by, and other than my own (which I see everyday, LOL), I am lucky if I see one or two a week. In Panama, I was seeing on average four or five LX570s every day!

CdeFabio

True - It was crazy the number of Toyota 4X4's they have there, my wife even commented and she never pays attention to cars that much! It is almost like about 70% of the car dealers are Toyota. We were mostly in the canal zone and surrounding towns but I am sure there is a reason you see so many of them - their 4X4 capability and reliability.

jaleels

Do you have any pictures of the interior of the car?

caha14

Here are a couple. Not great, but something to work with.

LexFather

Thanks for sharing!

jaleels

Thanks for the pictures.

CPMD

iTrader: (2)

I like it