New Prado Kakadu

[ursus Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursus]

Hi everyone. I am a 53 year old off road wannabe. My personal preference for a holiday has always been nature versus cities, and now that my kids are grown and I don't have to entertain them on holidays I eventually decided to buy a 4x4 and spend more time outdoors.

After much agonising and finger biting I decided to buy a Prado. As probably most people with 4x4s I will spend most time in it going to and from work, and only 5 - 10% offered. Neither am I very likely to do some hardcore off-roading in the near future. All I want (for now) is to be able to get to places most people cannot in a city car.

Looking through the models I set my eye on Kakadu. I intend to keep it for a long time and don't mind dishing out extra cash to get all the bells and whistles available in a car.

My question is to the current Kakadu owners: are you guys happy with it? Would you buy it again? Or is the price overblown for the amount of toys you get with it? Your replies would be highly appreciated.

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

I don't know what the quality of the leather is like in the current Kakadu but in my 2009 model it's not great. The driver's side seat has worn quite badly on the exit side and the seat bolster foam has compressed quite a bit, tried claiming under warranty but it was denied.

Having a Kakadu has made modifying it more problematic as the KDSS suspension complicates choices. Also, the big name brands don't do side steps for my variant (V6 Auto) they assume that nobody that drives a Kaka actually takes it off-road I think. The factory plastic steps have taken a beating but haven't broken as such.

Bells and whistles are great but some are just gimmicks. Would have loved the blind spot monitoring, pre-collision and radar cruise control systems on mine but they weren't available as standard back then (you could get radar-cruise but had to sacrifice the off-road pack, later they offered a combined pack).

If you don't need the fancy suspension then maybe look at the VX. Similar options for a lot less coin.

[blw Member Find all posts View Profile Close blw]

Ive owned a
2004 V6 GXL
2007 Grande D4D Diesel (which ended in a big white smoke cloud behind me,
currently a 2010 V6 Kakadu

The 2010 Kakadu is by far the smoothest nice to drive Prado out of all that I have owned so far. I love the handling of the KDSS suspension, the premium steering wheel feel (i know it sounds a little weird but its just nice to use), adjustable height suspension when hooking up the van, the 14 speaker sound system, the fridge box up front on long trips - keeps the drinks cold. My seats still look new as I have some super thick sheepskin covers on them which makes the seats more soft - you just dont feel the seat heaters much through them.

All in all, I love the Prado form factor, its a great 4x4 and daily driver and IMO the best in it's class.

[ursus Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursus]

Thanks for the replies. I test drove Kakadu diesel today. Great feel, very solid and handles well. I read it leant on steep corners, but I found it to be very modest and manageable. Lots of toys; I especially liked reactive cruise control. One thing I didn't like was the power of the diesel: sluggish weak, especially on overtaking on the highway. I am going to get 4.0 L petrol version. Sure, fewer kilometres per tank and so on. But I am a short guy and need a fast car :-x

[bennyhodge Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bennyhodge]

We have owned our 3.0lt 2015 Kakadu for 10 months now, just clocked over 20000km
Absolutely love all the extra features.. our favourites are.. ice box in the centre console, sunroof, leather heated seats, blind spot monitoring, radar cruise control, front and rear parking sensors with cameras, premium steering and dash layout, LED front lights look fantastic and best of all.. the keys can be programed separately for the wife and I so that who ever is driving the drivers seat goes straight to our pre set position! ohh, and when you exit the car the steering wheel retracts making it super easy to get in and out of the drivers seat. Hope you enjoy the new Kakadu as much as we do!

[ursus Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursus]

One more question. Should I get different tyres straight away or stock tyres should be enough for my purposes (listed in the first post)?

[Bobcrusader Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bobcrusader]

The stock Grandtreks sound okay for your purpose. I swapped to Cooper AT/3 as I have found the sidewalks on the Grandtreks are easy to slice on rocky tracks.