Report: Toyota Considering Bringing the Land Cruiser Prado to U.S.

Chris Teague
by Chris Teague

The Toyota Land Cruiser took a bow after the 2021 model year, ending a decades-long run of near-bulletproof off-road SUVs on the U.S. market. We got a new Lexus LX, but it’s even more expensive than the already-pricey Toyota. However, a new report from Automotive News suggests a new Land Cruiser variant is coming. 


The Land Cruiser Prado shares its underpinnings with the smaller Lexus GX, and Toyota may bring it to the States with the simplified Land Cruiser name. If it comes, it will likely follow the GX with a complete overhaul, getting boxier styling and better tech. Rumors have pointed to it switching to the larger LX’s platform, giving it expanded exterior and interior dimensions. Lexus is expected to offer a hybrid powertrain in the upcoming GX, which could also appear in the Land Cruiser, and a trick four-wheel drive system is all but a given. 


Though seeing the Land Cruiser go was disappointing, it didn’t come as a complete surprise. The SUV was significantly more expensive than most of its competition, and Toyota’s slowness to adopt technologies like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto left the Land Cruiser in a tough spot competing against far more modern and compelling SUVs from Europe and the United States. If it returns, the Land Cruiser will have more off-road competition, as there’s now the Ford Bronco and upcoming Scout electric SUV to contend with. 


[Image: Toyota]


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Chris Teague
Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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  • Kcflyer Kcflyer on Jun 07, 2023

    What Toyota needs is a true full size body on frame suv to compete with the Expedition and Suburban and their badge engineered brethren. The new sequoia and LX are too compromised in capacity by their off road capabilities that most buyers will never use.

  • Cprescott Cprescott on Jun 08, 2023

    It is ugly enough. But why? You refuse to build enough of your products for your consumers.

  • Sooper Sooper on Jun 08, 2023

    Toyota already has no new vehicles on their lots; they are just another used car dealership now. So why introduce another model when Toyota appears to be going out of the new vehicle business?

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Jun 09, 2023

    Let's review.


    Toyota drops the Land Cruiser for USDM. The Lex GX is the USDM export of the Land Cruiser Prado, so now we're going to bring back the Land Cruiser as a larger Land Cruiser Prado and sell it as a Toyota? Ok, but the 4Runner is built on the N280 platform, which is shared with the J150 Land Cruiser Prado, meaning it too is also a Land Cruiser Prado in different configuration - or in other words LCP is already being sold by Toyota's dealers. So this now begs the question, what is (and ever was) the point of the Sequoya?


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