Would a 120 handle 4 kids

[Summit Seeker Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Summit Seeker]

Hi all,

New to the forum but been reading plenty tho.
Not new to 4x4ing as I have stepped out of an old 105 series Landrusier I had for four years.
The time has come to upgrade, I'm still debating to myself the diesel v's petrol saga but first up is a 120v100 debate.
I would like to hear from the 120 owners travelling around out there that may have a tribe like me. How do you go with the room, comfort and storage capacity of the 120. Would the slightly smaller 120 Prado be too much of a backward step and therefore I should just stick with a newer 100 series instead.

[tassie tiger Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close tassie tiger]

Hi summit

We have 4. 16, 9, 4 and 1.

We run the baby seat in the middle and there is enough room for the 16 and 4 on each side. 4 is in a booster with harness.

9yo is in the back. We take the other rear seat out.

You will notice the narrower middle seat to your 105 but its doable.

How old are your little people?

[Summit Seeker Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Summit Seeker]

We have twin girls @ 5, boy 7, girl 12.
Any complaints yet from your 9yo in the third row yet?

[casualmem Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close casualmem]

Hey Summit,

We have 4 kids as well - 12, 10, 5 and 3. We have the 3 year old in a baby seat behind the driver. I would have prefered behind the passenger seat so that the youngest is on the kerb side of the car, but we found that using the 2/3 split seat to access the rear was a pain. The other three kids usually chop and change between the middle and back seats. When we first bought the prado everyone used to fight over who was in the back, but now the two older ones prefer to sit in the middle seat for the extra leg room.

If we go away for a short trip we just remove one of the rear seats, like the tassie tiger. If it's a longer trip, or we are camping etc. we use a luggage pod on the roof. In general, we are really happy with the car and have done a lot of family touring in it on all sorts of roads without any issues. Only other minor issues I'd note is the lack of rear speakers and rear a/c vents in the gxl can lead to some minor grumblings from the back. Rear speakers can be easily fixed, but the a/c is a little harder to deal with (doesn't help that we bought a black prado).

[Summit Seeker Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Summit Seeker]

I have narrowed the model choice to the VX or Grande with the rear cooling, a very nice option, but I can see the complaints about being too cold or too hot next.

My 105 was black too but I went really dark (20%) on the rear window tint an idea for you casualmem. I will be trying to avoid black again tho.

[Guest Close Guest]

We have 4 kids as well. 1, 5, 7 & 9. 1y.o. is in the 2nd row behind the driver as well. The 3rd row right seat is pretty much off the car most of the time. If only Toyota would make the 3rd row 40:60 split instead of 50:50. It would yield a lot more luggage space.

Due to the space contraints, we now have a Quinny Zapp stroller and it fits nicely behind the 3rd row.

I'm still contemplating building a half cargo barrier to stop luggage falling on the 3rd row passenger. But for now, I'm using straps hooked onto the grab handle and seat anchor point to keep the luggage in its place. I also have a 2m roof platform and a tow hitch mounted cargo basket similar to this
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Radum-Pty-..._sid=979625870

The later GXLs have rear vents and climate control.

[Summit Seeker Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Summit Seeker]

Thanks amts, I will keep an eye out now for what I worked out to be 07 onwards GXL's. The prices are close to earlier VX and Grande.

I quite like the one flick tumble of the Prado's 2nd row to get to the rear. Not sure if 100's have that, have to have a look at some now.

Did anyone contemplate the bigger 100's at any stage?

[Gramps Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gramps]

Did anyone contemplate the bigger 100's at any stage?

Yes we did. The problem was the width of the 100. We borrowed one for 3 days and found parking around the school and shopping centre a pain in the a@$e. I can see a 100 series would get pretty scratched up on a few tracks as well.

[tassie tiger Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close tassie tiger]

We have twin girls @ 5, boy 7, girl 12.
Any complaints yet from your 9yo in the third row yet?

We swap him and the 4yo around on trips and the kid in the back gets the laptop with dvd so they are pretty happy.

Having the baby seat in the middle means you cant easily use the folding seat for access to the 3rd row but we just use the back door anyway for access.

All good.

[Matty80 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Matty80]

Not a problem, our 120 just hadled 2 weeks of travel with 4 adults and 3 kids (one of in a baby seat). We had friends down from texas.

I must admit though, not much space left with the large pusher in the rear tucked up in what was left of the space behind the third row seats. I was impressed!!!