Welcome to my first of many instalments in the life of Benny. As the weeks go by ill be giving you regular updates as to what we have been up to together.

After grabbing the keys we headed off into the Blue Mountains National Park to do a comparison between the Prado Kakadu and the Discovery 4, which you will be able to read about in the future, with my family and the camera. As for Benny he handled the trip easily though I didn’t push his limits. First impressions so far are good.

Climbing up out of Sydney was easy as there is plenty of power on tap, 145kW at 3800 rpm, to keep you moving up the hills and the triptronic auto was able to find the right gear easily. The only time he kicked down was when provoked as the engine produces 436Nm of torque from 1800rpm in auto guise.

Handling is good for this style of car. The suspension is on the firm side and combined with the 18inch wheels and 235/60 tyres make for a good combo. Cornering was a breeze on the bitumen and the dirt didn’t faze him much either taking the wet tracks with ease. The only time he got out of shape was on a fast section of dirt that had been recently resurfaced and was a bit on the greasy side but the stability control kicked in before we got very far. The traction control can be switched off but I would only do that to try and get myself through a patch of soft sand or mud.

Braking is strong with a firm pedal feel and I would like to see how they hold up with a trailer on the back with a bit of weight on it. I have plans to test this if we get the go ahead for the towbar.

Once we got off the bitumen I engaged the centre diff lock as I do in all AWD vehicles just to give predictable handling but with further testing in wet weather I found that the on demand drive proportioning worked well enough.

Through the twisting dirt roads Benny was sure footed handling the potholes with ease. Then we found mud. Owing to the fact that there is no low range and not much ground clearance we stayed away from the deeper puddles. Through the shallower ones Benny made it through only bottoming out on the way out. With a set of A/T tyres I would have maybe given the medium ones a go.

After lunch we headed down a rocky shelf to put the others through their paces and decided to see what Benny was capable of. He did surprisingly well and if we had more time would have tried some more but there is no hurry, another day will do.

The next section was quick corrugated dirt. Benny handled this well but the suspension transmitted a lot of noise into the cabin, not enough to be unbearable though. Again if we had more time we would have attempted the sandy creek crossing but there will be another day.

So far I’m impressed with what Benny can do so ill have to try and find some more challenges to put him through.

Throughout the day the fuel consumption hovered around the 9L/100km which I thought was pretty good for the type of driving we were doing.

The rest of the week was taken up with the daily commute and about the only thing of note was that I managed to get the fuel consumption down to 7L/100km for a couple of days. I’m not one to believe in what fuel consumption gauges tell me so I’m going to sit down and calculate exactly how much fuel I use over the next couple of tank fills to give you a more accurate figure.

The only thing that so far that is letting Benny down is the lack of seat travel. I can get into a comfortable position but the seat doesn’t go down far enough to stop my head from hitting on the roof. Mind you I’m not on the short side being 6ft6 tall.

That’s it for this update, keep an eye out for what we get up to in the future and have fun but keep it safe.