Toyota LandCruiser 300 and Prado Get a Factory Second Immobiliser in August: What Aussie Owners Actually Need to Know

Image credit: Toyota Australia

If you own a LandCruiser 300 or a Prado, or you are about to sign one, the news out of Toyota Australia this month is the one that actually changes your ownership plan for the next few years. From August, both models pick up a second, independent factory immobiliser sold as a Toyota Genuine Accessory. It can be ordered on new cars through your dealer and, more importantly, retrofitted to vehicles already sitting in Australian driveways.

The HiLux is not in the first wave. Toyota Australia's vice president of sales and marketing John Pappas has confirmed the ute will follow, but not the when. That leaves the country's best-selling 4x4 without the same protection layer for now, which is going to matter if you were about to place a HiLux order and expected parity with the Prado on security kit. For everyone else, this is a small, sensible, overdue move that quietly resets the resale case on two of the most stolen vehicles in the country.

What Toyota is actually doing

The core change is a second, standalone factory immobiliser fitted alongside the existing one. The original immobiliser in a modern Toyota keys into the engine management and disables spark and fuel unless it sees a valid key transponder. That system can be defeated in seconds by an organised thief with a key-cloning device or an OBD port attack, both of which are now traded and rented online. The second unit is a separate control loop, meaning a thief who beats the first has to defeat a second, independent lock before the car will start.

Toyota is not publishing full technical detail on which control channels the second unit sits on, and it is unlikely to. The whole point is that thieves do not know exactly what to bypass. What Toyota Australia has said in press briefings, and what CarExpert and CarSauce coverage has confirmed, is that the accessory is a Toyota Genuine part with a dealer install, so your factory warranty stays intact and the install is documented on your service history for resale.

The August rollout follows Japan-market security changes introduced in March 2026 and the earlier round of anti-theft hardware Toyota Australia added in January 2026, which included the return of physical steering locks as a Genuine Accessory on the same three models. Between January and August, Toyota has effectively layered three protection tiers on top of the base car: mechanical steering lock, factory keyless-entry hardening on new 2025 and 2026 models, and now a second electronic immobiliser.

Which cars get it and when

Retrofit is the big one. Any owner of a LandCruiser 300 built from 2021 forward, or any first-year Prado 250, can walk into a Toyota dealer from August, book the accessory in, and pay to have it fitted. That is a change from most brand-level security upgrades, which typically only appear on new production runs and leave existing owners on their own. Toyota has kept the option open here specifically because so much of the exposure sits in cars that are already on the road.

Why now, and how bad is the theft problem

The trigger is not a single case. It is the scale. Victoria Police confirmed in early 2026 that key-cloning technology was being used in roughly one in three vehicle thefts across the state, with LandCruiser, HiLux, RAV4 and Corolla the most frequently targeted models. On the busiest days, Victoria alone loses around 30 vehicles to key-cloning rigs. NSW and Queensland numbers are lower in absolute terms but the mix is the same: organised crews, purpose-built hardware, quick turnaround for export or parts.

The other attack surface is the OBD port under the dash. A device plugged in there can be used to authorise a new key and start the car in under a minute. It works on almost every mainstream brand, not just Toyota, but Toyota volumes make it the highest yield target in the country. That is the specific attack the second immobiliser is designed to blunt: an OBD attack that beats the first immobiliser still has to beat the second, and the second sits on a different control channel that the OBD port cannot see.

There is also a real insurance cost baked into this. Comprehensive premiums on LandCruiser 300 in Victoria are up in the range of 15 to 25 per cent year on year, and some insurers now require a documented aftermarket immobiliser or GPS tracker before they will renew at all. A factory Toyota part fitted by a Toyota dealer clears most of those insurer conditions in a single line on the invoice, which is not the case for every aftermarket install.

Factory versus aftermarket: what the alternative looks like

The most common aftermarket answer today is the Autowatch Ghost II, a CANbus immobiliser that uses a PIN sequence tapped into the steering-wheel buttons or gear selector to arm and disarm. Installed cost in Australia typically runs $600 to $1,200 fitted, depending on the vehicle and installer, and it is genuinely effective against both key-cloning and OBD attacks. The catch: any wiring cut by an auto electrician can technically void the electrical warranty on the systems they touch. On a $110,000 Sahara ZX that is not a trivial risk.

The Toyota Genuine option removes that risk. Because it is installed by a Toyota dealer through Toyota's own workshop process, it sits inside the factory warranty and shows up on the service history. That is the real trade-off buyers will weigh: expect the Toyota part to cost somewhere in the same bracket as a Ghost II install, possibly a little more, in exchange for zero warranty exposure and a factory-documented resale story. Toyota has not committed to a number yet, and until that price lands, the aftermarket route stays credible for owners who need protection now.

Where it leaves resale

Toyota has run the LandCruiser 300 as the most resilient large 4x4 on resale for four years running, holding around 70 per cent of drive-away price at three years. That is comfortably ahead of the Nissan Patrol Y62 and well ahead of any European large SUV. The rising theft numbers had started to soften that story on cars in Victoria and inner-Sydney postcodes, with private buyers pushing harder on price when the insurance quote came back high.

A factory-fitted second immobiliser puts a floor back under that. It is the sort of line item that private buyers, dealer buyers and insurers can all read. Cars that come with the accessory factory-fitted from August, and older cars that are retrofitted on Toyota's workshop history, will look meaningfully stronger on the used forecourt than cars that skip it. If you own a Sahara or a GR Sport and you are planning to sell inside the next 24 months, the retrofit is arguably the highest-return small spend you can make on the car.

Image credit: Toyota Australia

How it compares to what other brands are doing

Toyota is not the only brand facing this. Ford updated the Ranger and Everest keyless-entry protocol in a running MY26.5 change earlier this year, and Nissan added an updated Patrol key from mid-2026 production. GWM has bundled a factory alarm with keyless-entry hardening on the Cannon Alpha PHEV from launch. What nobody else has done at the same scale is the retrofit path.

Ford has not offered the MY26.5 key update as a retrofit to older Rangers, Nissan has not opened the new Patrol immobiliser to existing Y62 owners, and GWM has stayed quiet on whether pre-2026 Tank owners will see the same firmware. Toyota's decision to open the second immobiliser to any LandCruiser 300 or Prado in the country is the differentiator here. It is more expensive for Toyota in the short term, but it means a 2022 Sahara owner is not stuck watching new-car buyers get the protection while their own truck stays exposed.

The CarSorted angle: does this change the shortlist

Pulling up the CarSorted directory for large 4x4s under $200,000, the current sticker gap is well known. The LandCruiser 300 GXL diesel is $102,700 before on-roads, the Prado VX is $79,990, the Nissan Patrol Warrior is $105,660 and the GWM Tank 500 Ultra Hybrid is $73,990 driveaway. What actually gets missed on that spreadsheet is running-cost drift over the ownership period, and theft-related insurance load is now a real line in it.

We have modelled it on the LandCruiser 300 vs Nissan Patrol comparison and the difference lands in the low four figures a year on comprehensive insurance for a Melbourne inner-east postcode against a rural NSW one, even before this immobiliser accessory. Retrofit the factory second immobiliser and that insurance premium is genuinely negotiable at renewal, particularly with insurers such as Shannons and RACV who publish specific rebates for factory-approved security kit. It does not close the sticker-price gap to a Tank 500, but it does mean the total-cost picture on a Sahara or Prado VX gets easier to defend.

For anyone actively comparing large 4WDs right now, the CarSorted Prado page and the LandCruiser 300 page both flag the second immobiliser as an incoming accessory. If you are ordering a new car for August delivery, the sensible move is to have the accessory added to the order at the dealer rather than fitted later. If you are cross-shopping used, the retrofit path is what makes an older Sahara or Prado a genuinely comparable pick to a new car on the same lot.

What Toyota still has to answer

Three things sit unanswered. First, price. Toyota Australia has said only that detail comes closer to launch, which realistically means late July or the first week of August. Second, HiLux timing. Australia's best-selling ute is on every stolen-vehicle report in the country and the absence of a confirmed date for the same immobiliser upgrade is the weakest part of the announcement. Third, whether RAV4 and Corolla, both explicitly named in Victoria Police's most-targeted list, will pick up the same accessory, or a different solution, later in the year.

On the Toyota Australia press page and the LandCruiser 300 and Prado product pages, expect the accessory listing and pricing to appear in the last week of July or the first week of August. That is the window to book in either a new-car order line or a retrofit slot in the workshop, because the first wave of retrofit demand will almost certainly outrun the initial parts allocation.

What this means for buyers

If you are placing a LandCruiser 300 or Prado order right now, tell your dealer to add the second immobiliser to the build order for August-onward delivery. It is the single accessory that will most reliably hold your resale value in three years, and it is the one line item your insurer will actually credit at renewal.

If you already own either car, keep an eye on the Toyota accessory page from the last week of July onward. When the price appears, weigh it against a Ghost II install. If Toyota lands the accessory in the same $600 to $1,200 bracket, take the factory route: no warranty exposure, cleaner resale story, dealer install. If Toyota comes in materially higher, an accredited aftermarket install remains a legitimate answer, particularly for cars that are close to trade-in.

If you are ordering a HiLux, this is the awkward part. Wait for Toyota to confirm the ute timing before signing if you can, and if you cannot, ask your dealer in writing whether existing HiLux orders will get the accessory retrofitted at Toyota's cost when it lands. Even a non-binding note on the file is worth having.

If you are cross-shopping a LandCruiser 300 against a Nissan Patrol, a GWM Tank 500 or the incoming Ineos Grenadier, our LandCruiser 300 vs Patrol and Tank 500 vs Prado comparisons already include five-year total-cost modelling. Fold the immobiliser accessory into the Toyota column when the price lands and re-run the numbers. In most postcodes it moves the needle back Toyota's way rather than the other direction.

Toyota Prado review | Browse the CarSorted directory | LandCruiser 300 vs Nissan Patrol