- Thieves have been targeting Land Cruiser models in recent years.
- Owners will now be able to have a secondary immobilizer installed.
- The new immobilizer includes a new fob and a security siren system.
In response to rising thefts of the Land Cruiser Prado 250 and Land Cruiser 300 in Australia, Toyota has launched a secondary immobilizer system for both models. It comes after several years of surging thefts and Toyota previously launching a steering wheel lock, which it obviously felt didn’t go far enough to dissuade thieves.
Toyota’s new secondary immobilizer works alongside the primary system and will not allow the vehicle to start unless the immobilizer fob is in range. In addition, Land Cruiser models fitted with the new system include an independently powered siren with battery backup that’ll trigger in the event of “unauthorized actions,” even if main power to the vehicle is disconnected.
Read: Criminals Are Flying Into Australia Just To Steal Toyota Land Cruisers
Chances are, the secondary immobilizer should be a more effective deterrent than the Toyota-branded steering wheel lock launched last year, which, as independent tests have shown, is relatively easy to cut with power tools.
Although the new immobilizer may help, local owners will need to pay AU$1,735 (US$1,249) to buy and install it. It’ll also take about five hours to fit and will be covered by the vehicle’s remaining new-car warranty or for two years from installation, whichever is longer. In addition to the secondary immobilizer, adding a new fob also requires installing a red light on the steering column and a window sticker indicating the vehicle has received the security upgrade.
Toyota Australia says it is “not aware of any occurrences of vehicle theft using sophisticated devices in Australia on this range of vehicles,” noting other security upgrades were made to the Land Cruiser 300, Land Cruiser 250, and Hilux last year.
Vehicle thefts increased in Australia by 2.5 percent last year, and while that may not sound like much, it’s become a much bigger issue in the nation’s second-most populous state, Victoria, where motor-theft insurance claims skyrocketed 25 percent in 2025, CarExpert reports.
