Toyota released the details and pictures of its new 2014 Land Cruiser model, the Prado, and, well, it appears to be suffering from some sort of birth defect. That grille is ungainly, the new headlights look too strange for a car that always had a sober, uncontroversial design.
The 2014 Toyota Land Cruiser seems to be a victim of an ongoing trend inside Toyota design department that encourages hideous front-ends. A number of new Lexus models have also been given massive grilles and radical headlights, and lost a lot of fans as a result.
With the Toyota Land Cruiser, though, design is not as important as what the car has to offer as a go-anywhere family bus that is loved everywhere in the world; from Australia, to the Middle East, and the UK. Welcome changes applied to the 2014 model include an improved interior and revised handling, with revised suspension on base models, and Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS) featured on higher grade models.
Inside you get a new switch panel with selector dial for the five-mode Multi-Terrain Select and five-step Crawl Control, flanked by switches for the all-wheel drive and Adaptive Variable Suspension. There is also a 4.2-inch TFT screen, angle gauge, and additional new options including tyre pressure warning, headlamp levelling, traction control “off” confirmation and Blind Spot Monitor alerts.
2014 Toyota Land Cruiser can be had, depending on the market, with either a 188bhp 3.0-litre turbodiesel, or a a 4.0 litre V6 petrol engine with 282 horsepower. The diesel unit has a combined fuel consumption of 8.1 l/100 km while the petrol manages 10.8 l/100 km.
