‘Mind boggles’: Aussies stunned by huge shipment of flashy new Toyota Prados
An eagle-eyed Aussie spotted a fresh shipment of Toyota’s latest Prado model. The fleet of flashy 4WDs triggered a fiery debate about cost of living.
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A huge shipment of Toyota’s flashy new Prado models at an Aussie port has sparked a passionate debate about cost of living.
An eagle-eyed Perth local spotted a row of the four-wheel-drives, understood to be the brand-new Toyota LandCruiser Prado 250 series, lined up at Fremantle Port.
The new-generation 4WDs start at $72,500 before on-road costs for the entry-level GX model while the flagship Kakadu model begins at $99,990.
Aussies were stunned about the fleet of next-gen cars ready to be shipped to showrooms ahead of the first customers receiving their new cars in November.
“Who is buying all these?,” questioned one social media user after a snap of the port was shared to Reddit.
“Hardly anyone can get in to the housing market, rent is through the roof, the cost of living is insane and see so many shiploads of either gas guzzlers or Teslas coming in to port. The mind boggles.”
“Can’t wait to not afford one,” joked another.
Others took issue with the box-like design of the popular car.
“Why do modern cars all look so stupid?” wrote one critic.
“God these are ugly vehicles,” agreed a second.
Despite the hefty price-tag, Aussies can’t seem to get enough of the Toyota Prado.
Dealers told Drive the stock for 2025 models was already sold out until “well into next year”.
Toyota’s Australian Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley said customers could be assured they would have an accurate delivery window for the latest batch.
“We’ve implemented a new way of allocating (Prado) to dealers now, because one of the learnings that we took out of the last two years was we really need to be able to give customers more certainty about delivery,” he told CarsGuidein September.
He said Toyota acknowledged it had to get “a whole lot better at estimating time of arrival and giving customers more certainty.”
“With Prado, we’re trialling a new allocation system, where we give our dealers a definite 12-month allocation, and we say to them, ‘that’s the number, please don’t sell one more to a customer than that number.”
Mr Hanley told CarsGuide the order intake for the 2025 model was “really healthy.”
The Toyota Prado was the most popular large SUV in the country in 2023 – for the ninth year running – with 20,710 sales.
It was the 10th most popular car in the country, with the Ford Ranger (63,356), Toyota HiLux (61,111) and Isuzu D-Max (31,202) topping the yearly best-sellers list, according to data published by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Originally published as ‘Mind boggles’: Aussies stunned by huge shipment of flashy new Toyota Prados
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