THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN ICON

With a long line of very successful ancestors, the new-generation TOYOTA LAND CRUISER PRADO had some big tyres to fill. We look at the approach its design team took to CONTINUE THE LEGACY.

- STEVE SMITH

ROUND OR SQUARE? It's bit like the "chicken or beef?" query extended by uniformed flight attendants. In this instance, it refers to the kind of headlamps you want with your new Land Cruiser. And like the cruising-altitude question, this one is equally moot in South Africa: usually, there's only chicken left; and when it comes to the Land Cruiser, all the special-edition round-headlamped Toyotas have already been sold.

It speaks to just how revered this Toyota model has been since it was first launched back in 1951 with the legendary BJ series. Subsequent models of the iconic Land Cruiser literally put Toyota on the map, selling about 11.3-million vehicles in more than 170 countries, and helping to build Toyota's reputation for reliability, durability and the ability to tackle rough road conditions. As we all know, if you want to drive across Africa, there's really only one automotive brand you want to do the job; such is the trust Toyota and its off-road models have built.

That means there was a fair amount of pressure when designing this new iteration. After all, the last one proved so popular, there was no need to follow the usual four-tofive-year life cycle that models usually go through before a new one appears on the showroom floor. The last Land Cruiser Prado was launched 15 years ago...

What, then, do you focus on when designing a new Land Cruiser Prado? Toyota's chief branding officer and senior general manager of design Simon Humphries is here to highlight three key areas.