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2025 Toyota Prado Kakadu off-road review

Should the seven-seat Prado Kakadu still be on your shopping list, despite its horrendous third-row cargo design?

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Gallery16
7.0/10Score

Things we like

  • Luxe interior appointments and feel
  • Competent off-road ability
  • Non-intrusive chassis electronics
  • Rear axle articulation

Not so much

  • Execution of the third-row seating
  • Considerable price increase over old model
  • 20-inch wheels and low profile tyres
  • Did we mention the rear cargo space?

New Toyota Prados don’t come around too often, so when one does it’s big news.

After all, the Prado is one of Australia’s most popular and best-selling 4x4 wagons, so popular in fact that it has outlived the vehicle it mimicked, Mitsubishi’s legendary Pajero.

First seen in Australia in the mid-1990s (the earlier 70 Series Prado was never offered here), the 90 Series Prado took the recipe for the Pajero (right down to the model name) and gave it a Toyota flavour to great effect; starting a decades long battle for the popular family 4x4 wagons.

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The 120 Series Prado lobbed in 2002 and rose to supremacy in the category over the next seven years, until the 150 Series launched as essentially an upgraded 120 and saw the end of the once ground-breaking Mitsubishi.

2025 brings us the (almost) all-new 250 Series Prado that is set to take the badge to new levels of market influence. The 250 Series arrives in five model grades, priced from $72,500 (+ORC) for the entry level GX to $99,990 (+ORC) for the Kakadu.

VariantPrice
GX$72,500
GXL$79,990
VX$87,400
Altitude$92,700
Kakadu$99,990
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JUMP AHEAD


Prado Kakadu: What does it get?

As the top-of-the-range model, the Kakadu comes loaded with all the trimmings.

Like the rest of the 250 Series range, this starts with a premium 12.3-inch multimedia screen that is compatible with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Bluetooth connectivity and cloud-based in-built sat-nav. It also gets a panoramic moon roof; leather-accented seat trim with eight-way power adjustment and power lumbar support and memory for the driver, and four-way power adjustment for the passenger seat; heated and ventilated front- and second-row seats; manually-adjustable driver seat cushion length; digital rear view mirror; heated steering wheel; and a heads-up display.

There’s a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, which is bigger than the models below the VX spec. A refrigerated console chiller is also a part of the package, as is a power-adjustable steering column and a JBL sound system that kicks out the jams through 14 speakers. It's a full-on luxe interior worthy of the $100k price tag.

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The biggest criticism

The Kakadu is only available as a seven-seat model, with five seats only offered on the entry-level GX and Altitude variants. Herein lies the biggest criticism of the 250 Series Prado, as the packaging of the third-row seat in the back of the car is horrendous.

Instead of folding into the floor as they did in the 150 Series, or up to the sides as they did in earlier models, the seats can only fold on top of the floor, totally ruining the rear cargo area for carrying cargo or anything else. Securely carrying a car fridge in the back of any seven-seat Prado becomes a challenge, which it shouldn’t be.

It has to be one of the worst designs we’ve seen in any new car in decades, and it has come about because of the engine’s 48-volt hybrid system which mounts its battery and inverter beneath the rear floor section.

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When you consider the very limited benefits of the mild hybrid 48-volt system, you need to weigh that up against the cost of losing a usable cargo area.

For a touring 4x4 wagon, you would think cargo-carrying capacity would always be a priority, and it’s a deal breaker for us. Even the five-seat GX and Altitude models are compromised here; although, not as badly as the seven-seat models.

For what it’s worth, Toyota quotes a cargo volume in the rear with the third-row seats stowed of 906 litres – its most logical competitor, the Ford Everest, has 898 litres. This is in part due to a high roof, but the clincher is using that space by stacking gear on top of the folded seats. A seven-seat LandCruiser 300 Series has 1004 litres of cargo space with the third row folded and measured on the same scale.

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Engine and performance

The Prado’s 500Nm 2.8-litre engine provides plenty of power for highway and off-road driving, but it’s no performance car by any stretch of the imagination.

The new eight-speed automatic transmission is quick to kick down and respond to a floored throttle, and the engine pulls adequately with that familiar four-pot diesel rumble. Cruising at highway speeds is comfortable, with the engine ticking along at just 2300rpm at 110km/h.

Any previous thoughts that the 1GR-FTV engine wouldn’t deliver the performance and refinement expected for the new Prado are unfounded, even if it’s a long way from the performance of the turbocharged V6 in the Lexus GX550, which is the same car with a better powertrain and a more expensive Lexus price tag.

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Off-road

Like previous generations of Prado, the 250 uses a full-time 4x4 system with a lockable centre differential and dual range. It’s easy to use and our experience with it so far is that it is quick to engage when you hit the lock button and/or toggle into low range.

The Kakadu is the only model in the 250 Series range that uses a Torsen limited slip rear diff. When driving off-road and when wheel slip is detected at the back, you can feel the Torsen diff kick in and get you through the obstacle without much fuss.

Compared to the selectable locker that comes exclusively in the Prado Altitude, the Torsen diff eliminates the driver’s need to lock the diff manually as it does it automatically – but it does need to detect the slip before it does, and that little delay could be enough to get you stuck in some instances.

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The Kakadu comes with a multi-terrain selector with modes for rock, sand, snow and others, as well as Crawl Control which we continue to say works amazingly to maintain steady progress over and up an obstacle or tricky track without any application of the throttle by the driver.

Crawl Control does this for you while distributing the drive to the wheels with the most traction, making easy work of rough tracks. It’s one technology that even old-school users will appreciate.

The Kakadu gets Toyota’s Adaptive Variable Suspension (AVS) which adjusts the dampeners to suit the driving conditions and the selected drive modes. The system can continuously adapt damping to smooth out road imperfections and minimise body roll, and will control damping force in accordance with vehicle speed and braking force to keep the vehicle level.

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AVS also delivers benefits when off-roading, changing the suspension calibration when in low range to further improve ride comfort on rough roads. As always with Toyota 4x4s, the rear suspension delivers excellent axle travel to keep tyres on the ground in uneven terrain.

The Kakadu comes standard with 20-inch alloy wheels and low-profile tyres, which are less than ideal for off road driving; however, the 18-inch wheels off the lower grades will fit, as should 17s.

The 120/150 Series Prados were always very soft in their suspension calibration, which was good for low speed off-road use but could make them wallow and pitch on an open road with bumps and corners. The 250 Series, certainly the Kakadu with AVS, is far more composed in these conditions, making it more surefooted and precise.

The 250 Series uses electrically assisted power steering and it deserves credit for its tune that gives excellent feel and feedback on highway and secondary roads. It’s one of the best-feeling EPS systems we’ve driven in a 4x4 vehicle.

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Verdict

If you want a wagon with seven or more seats to accommodate passengers, there are SUVs and people movers out there that will do this job much better than the Prado.

The Prado has always been a competent bush-touring vehicle, and to do that job in Australia it needs to have a sensible and practical cargo area – the seven-seat 250 Series fails terribly in this regard.

This doesn’t only relate to long distance touring. Anyone who uses their wagon for family sports or weekend getaways knows only too well the amount of gear you need to carry and the amount of space that takes up. That space is severely compromised in a seven-seat Prado without a cargo barrier.

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Sure, you could load all the seats with kids and rely on a trailer or caravan to carry all of your gear, but not everyone wants to tow and towing will limit where you can take the car off-road. Towing a large caravan behind a fully loaded Prado will quickly put you in the red zone for the car’s GVM and GCM, which also needs to be considered.

If the functionality of the cargo area is not a concern for you then the new Prado has plenty to offer. It’s a bigger car than its predecessor, delivering more interior space for passengers.

It’s quieter and more refined than the 150 too, especially in Kakadu guise, leading to a more comfortable and pleasant experience for all passengers.

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The chassis electronics for off-road use are beautifully calibrated and work well to get the Prado over obstacles, with the Torsen rear diff helping the Kakadu model.

Similarly, the electronics of the safety systems didn’t make themselves evident or annoying, with barely a beep from the driver monitor during our time behind the wheel – they just do their job in the background and don’t interfere with the driving experience, as many others do.

The new Prado is a big step up from the old model, and so it should be considering the price hike. If Toyota can secure enough stock for Australia to meet its existing orders for Prado, the nameplate will continue to be one of Australia’s favourite 4x4 wagons.

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2025 Toyota Prado Kakadu specifications
Price$99,990 +ORC
Engine4-cyl turbo diesel
Capacity2755cc
Max power150kW@ 3000-3400rpm
Max torque500NM@ 1600-2800rpm
Transmission8-speed automatic
4x4 systemFull-time, dual range
Construction5-door wagon on a ladder frame chassis
Front suspensionWishbone and coil IFS
Rear suspensionMultilink coil live axle using Panhard rod
Tyres265/50-20 on alloy wheels
Weight2595kg (kerb)
GVM3200kg
GCM6600kg
Towing capacity3500kg
Payload605kg
Seats7
Fuel tank110L – 17.4L Adblue
ADR fuel consumption7.6L/100km
On-test fuel consumption9.8L/100km
Approach angle32°
Ramp-over angle25°
Departure angle17°
Ground clearance221mm
Wading depth700mm

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7.0/10Score

Things we like

  • Luxe interior appointments and feel
  • Competent off-road ability
  • Non-intrusive chassis electronics
  • Rear axle articulation

Not so much

  • Execution of the third-row seating
  • Considerable price increase over old model
  • 20-inch wheels and low profile tyres
  • Did we mention the rear cargo space?

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