Yeah, we know we are supposed to deal with things that run on wheels, preferably two or four, so what’s a luxury barge doing on these pages? Well, this is Motoroids, and this thing does have a superb motor, so there. It is also built by Toyota, so if they can dabble with all sorts of transportation, why not us?
Thing is, Toyota has been making boats, among other things, for a while now, just like Honda. And this, the Toyota Ponam-31 is their latest and best.
Built around an all-aluminum hull with a flybridge and cockpit rear deck layout, the Ponam-31 measures 31 feet in length (hence the name), and is powered by a pair of 3.0-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder engines derived from the Land Cruiser Prado, heavily modified for marine use.
Toyota is pegging the Ponam-31 as a new class of boat, the Sports Utility Cruiser. And, as befitting its name, it comes with a host of sporty features such as Drive Assist and Virtual Anchor System. Sadly, out nautical knowledge is limited to whatever we can glean from watching reruns of Lost, so we can’t explain what those technologies do.
Toyota expects to sell around 15 units of the Ponam-31 through its network of 49 dealers across Japan, with prices starting at $27,500. It’s beautiful and competitive, but we think we will stick with the Prado, thank you very much.
Source: MarketWatch