THE market for mainstream mid-size three-door 4WDs is not large, as long-wheelbase wagons have long curried favour as the default family wagon. The Toyota Prado three-door presents a familiar if curtailed silhouette, but the new abbreviated version of the Toyota mid-size 4WD isn’t going to sell in anything like the numbers of its five-door sibling. Toyota knows this, hoping the three-door ticks along with just sufficient sales to justify importing it. Is the Prado three-door good enough in its own right to keep its place in the local Toyota line-up?

TOYOTA cut its teeth in Australia with short-wheelbase LandCruisers, and so the market had ready acceptance for the short-wheelbase Bundera in 1985, although the Bundera had coil springs and light axles instead of the tougher leaf springs and axles of the 70-series LandCruiser. The Bundera was lighter and more manoeuvrable off-road than Long-wheelbase LandCruisers, and was powered by either a 2.4-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder, 2.4-litre petrol four-cylinder or 4.0-litre petrol six-cylinder.
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