Its arrival finally complete, the fifth generation Toyota Land Cruiser Prado has wasted little time in making significant inroads after a mere two months on-sale in South Africa. Having amassed a record sales count of 694 units in June and 238 in July, which still placed it second behind the Fortuner on Toyota’s large SUV list, the internally named J250 Prado appears on track to possibly breach 1 500 unit sales before year-end – itself a record after less than six months. ALSO READ: VIDEO: New Toyota Land Cruiser Prado lives-up to the hype While very much speculative at present, the J250’s debut also signalled the first completely new generation since the J150 that lasted from 2009 to 2024 as the longest serving Prado generation in the nameplate’s 34-year history.
Introduced as a more luxurious but still utilitarian version of the Land Cruiser 70-series station wagon, the Prado, which Toyota still describes as the light-duty version between the former and the full-size Land Cruiser, has changed dramatically from its original purpose, to a luxurious seven-seater arguably capable of matching its illustrious siblings. As such, The Citizen turns back the clock to the Prado’s founding through a model realigning that resulted in the already available light-duty Land Cruiser 70-series, then called the Land Cruiser II, being re-introduced and renamed as the Land Cruiser Prado. First Generation J70: 1990-1996 Unveiled in April of 1990 as, according to official Toyota literat.