First, there was the Suzuki Swift (covered on CarAdvice here and for Swift pictures, see here). Then there is Toyota coming out with four different cars, all belonging to the, ahem ill-defined ‘spacious’ variety:

• Toyota Prado (CarAdvice’s review of one cool feature in Prado can be found here)
• Toyota Avanza
• Toyota Fortuner (that I can’t help spell and call Fortrunner)
• Terios  (by Dihatsu)

Toyota Avanza is priced at PKR 1,799,000 for the Standard version and PKR 1,999,000 for the ‘Up Spec’. And the difference of PKR 200,000 is because in the Up-Spec version, you have 4 speakers instead of 2, 15-inch alloys instead of 14-inch steel and ‘electronic’ rear view mirror control instead of ‘manual’.

The car is 1.5 liters which I feel will be underpowered if you stack the car up to full capacity and drive back home from a good lunch. Toyota is intelligent enough to introduce different cars into the market and play up to the wallet of all classes of our society. I keep hearing stupid remarks by people that ‘the cars are too expensive’ for Toyota to bring in. No man, the car is expensive for me to buy it! But there are definitely people out there who’d consider Toyota Avanza as a right fit for their combined family trip. Tthe reason Yamaha doesn’t bring in heavy bikes, or Suzuki doesn’t bring their highly successful GS series of motorbikes (from 150 CC to 750CC) to Pakistan is ‘officially’ quoted as ‘lack of a market’. Well, there will be no market unless some makes it, and Toyota makes it every time!

Toyota Avanza Pictures

This is what it is all about, check ‘em out.

Got the pictures and the owner has agreed to give a detailed review of Land Cruiser Prado. As the review is on the way, I would like to share a nice little feature that is found in this 4×4: The camera that gives a detailed view of the surroundings at the back of the Prado.

When you put the vehicle in reverse, the display inside the car automatically shows the view:

When you put the car in reverse, the screen switches to the camera at the back of the car.

But the real clever bit is the use of simple and easy to understand lines that show the expected path of the vehicle depending on which way you turn the wheels!

close up of the screen with a neat overlay of lines showing the expected path of the vehicle

You turn the wheels a certain way, and the yellow lines will adjust accordingly, showing you the expected path of the vehicle. As you can see, I am right now reversing into the gate.

No more neck twisting, left-arm-behind-passenger-seat type of reversing. This makes your driving experience a tad more pleasurable – and in today’s high end cars, it is the little things that make the biggest difference, no?

Basic Info:

Car Name: Toyota Land Cruiser Prado

Model: 2003

Registered: 2004

Price: PKR 3.5 Million

Color: Silver

P.S. I will be uploading the pictures as soon as I get the review in place, God willing.