I would say Japan is the home of the Land Cruiser (although I believe Africa is the largest market)...
Find any market in the world that has a gasoline LC150 that the 1GR isn't the top spec engine. The only one that exists is China. And it just recently moved to the 3.5L. The USA Market will make that jump soon as well.
Just to help put your myopic view in perspective. Toyota has sold about 260,000 Prado model land cruisers in the entire history of Australia. Australia averages about 15,000 per year. Even the GX460 roughly doubles that. But nothing close to the 4runner. In comparison 130,000 4runners were sold in the USA just last year. One month of USA 4runner sales are about the same as a year of Australia Prado sales. 2 Years of 4runner sales = the entire history of Australia Prado sales.
In short - Australia's market doesn't drive any choices. It's a fringe market that makes up around 3% of sales of the 150 platform. The USA sells about 40%. Australia takes what Toyota chooses to offer given the relatively low demands for engine output in Australia, lax emissions rules, and high fuel costs. Australian use is typically low speed and prioritizes fuel economy over power. The 4.0 is under powered for our market. It's overpowered for yours. A 1GD would be a tough sell at only 175hp. Of course we also have much stricter emissions requirements so it would likely be less after it was cleaned up for the USA market. I'd love to have it as an option. But I wouldn't buy it - especially if it came in at 160hp, and it would sell in very low numbers given how low the power output is.
The reason Australia only has 1 engine option is not because it's a huge market. It's because it's a small market and it's an engine that fits the usage profile. Toyota doesn't offer more engines because there isn't a big enough market to support all of them. Across the board at every level the USA market vehicles have more powerful engines. Our 4runner has more power than your Prado 150. Our GX has the same engine as your 200. Our 200 has has more power than your 200. You think the 4runner having a larger engine is an anomaly. To me it looks like it's par for the course, considering every other model across basically the entire Toyota lineup has a larger engine. Australia doesn't have a gasoline engine offered at all right now.
Ultimately you're living in a dream world already. You can pretend the Prado is different from a 4runner despite all evidence to the contrary. Even if you can't point to a single difference other than "it says land cruiser on it" and the sheet metal is different but for some reason you're sure the difference is there. We just can't see it, measure it, or find any evidence of it. But it's there - just trust me...
4Runner = Prado 150 in different skin. Has been for three generations.
GX460 = Prado 150 Kakadu + V8 Engine.
GX460 = 4Runner + different skin + Luxury interior + V8 Engine.
They're all iterations of the same vehicle.
You are still clueless! Australia is the largest market for LandCruisers worldwide. We take 10% of the market share, particularly with the 200s and the 70's, which you don't even get, because you are the "Fringe" market.
TLC development is based around rigorous testing in Oz and we have been a pivotal marketplace for a long time. Since the 1950s in point of fact, when Cruisers arrived for the Snowy Hydro scheme. We have more model variants than any other market worldwide. The U.S is the fringe market in terms of Land Cruisers.
With regards to the engines, you're completely and utterly wrong, again. What a surprise.
We dropped the old 4.0 because nobody bought it. The Turbo diesel in the 150 offers far more torque than the 4.0
You think your 200s are more powerful than the 4.5 Twin Turbo diesel V8 we get? Hilarious! Wrong again.
We get the 5.7 in our LX if we want it and we also get the LX450D.
You can try and justify the fact that you are driving an inferior Fratboy rig to the TLC name plate. You seem stuck on the fact they share some common architecture in the vain hopes of convincing yourself you drive a Land Cruiser. You don't.
Fortuner: GX, GXL, Crusade. Our equivalent of the 4runner, based on the Hilux.
150 Prado: GX, GXL, Anniversary Editions, Altitude Edition, Kakadu
70 series Landcruiser: Workmate and GXL trims available on the single cab, dual cab and wagon. 4.5TD V8
200 series: GX, GXL, Anniversary editions, Altitude edition, Sahara, Lexus LX. V8 Petrol or Diesel options available on both.
