FAMILY BOND
Is Daniel Craig’s 007 at his best driving a brown Toyota? We think so.
James Bond driving an expensive, exclusive Aston Martin is the automotive highlight of any 007 film, right?
Wrong. Ask any Bond nerd who’s also a proper car enthusiast (we talk a lot) and they’ll tell you the true delight of Bond behind the wheel emerges when the vehicle is paradoxically prosaic.
There’s the double-decker bus in Live and Let Die, the Citroen 2CV from For Your Eyes Only and the Renault 9 spinning and jumping through A View to a Kill. You’ll note these are all from the more humorous Roger Moore era.
But Daniel Craig, the darker Bond, now has a great sequence in this idiosyncratic subset. In No Time to Die, he goes head-tohead with an army of baddies driving high-powered Land Rovers . . . in a beige 1990s Toyota Land Cruiser Prado J90.
With his partner and child as passengers.
It perfectly encapsulates Craig’s character arc as Bond: as his time draws to a close, he’s simply going for a drive in the country with the family, in a mainstream SUV. Oh, while taking out Safin’s henchmen in yumping Defenders and slamming Carbon Edition Range Rovers off the road.
Unconvincing? You’ve obviously never driven a well-used Land Cruiser. They can do anything.
In case you think the The Good Oil has lost the plot (Bond plots are never that important anyway), this Prado is now recognised as a key piece of 007 hardware.
For example, it’s one of the star attractions at the Bond In Motion — No Time To Die exhibition at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum in the UK this year. It’s being displayed complete with Mathilde’s child seat still installed. Now that’s attention to detail.