once again agree to disagree. I think my s class analogy is an appropriate parallel. Your mention about the LC not being a spartan vehicle is debunked not only by the previous land cruiser but also by the current land cruiser that is still sold in other countries. I have mentioned this more than once in response to you about the same rebuttal that u have presented. Eventually we end where we started. This is that point as far as I’m concerned.

 

It sold in numbers Toyota expected it to sell. Same with LX. Like I said they don't expect to sell 80,000 of them like Tahoes.

Land Cruiser sells well over 6 digits all over the world, here they're just luxed-out cash cows for Toyota. Toyota isn't hurting because it didn't sell 25k LCs, ditto Lexus LX.

That said, this new one will sell a lot more because it's more affordable.

Also it just proves how we are in different areas politically again, this is HEAVY gas guzzling SUV area....200s all over the place, and I mean all over the place. Yet I see virtually zero electric cars other than Teslas and the Taycan every now and then around here. You see all kinds of EVs all day long yet no Land Cruisers. They all must sell in the South.

Regardless I think this new one is a good idea--other than the engine being trash. I just wouldn't want to roam the desert in a hybrid mess versus a V8.... but whatever.

 

Toyota sells spartan Land Cruisers in other countries also. You're only considering what they sold here for a brief period of time.

I think we are to the point where we have heard your specific concerns and its time for you to let the conversation about the new Land Cruiser progress with those that are interested in the new model...

If it sold in the numbers Toyota wanted to sell, they wouldn't have discontinued it in the US. Its simply redundant. At the end they sold about 3,500 of them a year here, just not worth it.

Here are the sales in the US from 2005, as you can see very slow seller and they were still selling 2021s in 2022 and 2023, so hardly a quick seller.



Here are the LX sales figures (the 26,000 year is a data error, if you look at the monthlies they are saying it sold 22,000 units in one month, likely should have been 220). As you can see neither sell very well, makes no sense for them to have two separate slow selling vehicles that are the same vehicle



As a comparison, the Ford Bronco is on track to sell ~ 100,000 units. This new Land Cruiser is going to be a runaway sales success that will dwarf the annual sales of the 200 Series LC in a month or less.

Here is the sales breakdown, Ford had already sold over 85,000 Broncos in 2023 through July:




If Toyota does HALF the sales of the Bronco with this it will be a runaway success

 

I can't speak to longevity, of course, but every recent hybrid truck or SUV that I've tested (F150 PowerBoost, Tundra TRD Pro, Sequoia, Wrangerl 4Xe) drives really well. Very smooth and torquey.

And, yeah, if Toyota can get into the Bronco market, and I think there are several reasons why the LC is superior (including the fact that it's got more power and it's not a convertible with a plastic top), it's going to be a massive hit in a way the $100K version never was.

 

I think they expected to sell 3500 here and that's about how many they sold. It's small compared to competition and lacks all kinds of things. But there are people who just won't drive anything else, I promise you.

Toyota's cash cow that sells insane is the GX and 4R. LX600 is just extra gravy, even though I've still never seen one.

I agree this new one will sell like hotcakes.

 

They can buy the virtually identical Lexus LX, but even if there are there are very few of them that will be quickly dwarfed by the huge sales success of this new LC. This is a smart business move for Toyota.

The flaw in your logic is that they were still selling 2021 Land Cruisers in 2022 and 2023 when we had a worldwide vehicle shortage. These vehicles sat on lots, they were not in demand. Again, if they were happy selling 3,500 a year here they wouldn't have stopped doing it.

Not really for the GX. GX sells about 2,500 units a month which is well, well behind other midsized SUVs, but the 4Runner is a big seller, about 130k units a year and for as old as it is thats pretty amazing. This LC will cannabalize a lot of sales from the 4Runner though, look for the 4Runner to move even more downmarket.

 

so i looked up land cruiser sales in the u.s.



not bad you say? well how about lexus lx:



i rest my case.

 

I don’t think 4Runner will go down market like you think. By far it will have the widest price point. And definitely will have a luxury limited model that will overlap Land Cruiser but will be very distinctively different. There will be a lot of options to buy for the 4Runner. You’ll either buy the 21” wheel limited with power running boards and pano roof or the Land Cruiser off road for the same price.

 

What? People were paying $125,000 and more for the Heritage Edition last ones, and even huge markups just for used ones with 5k miles. People were buying the last 200s and flipping them. Like I said, huge price markups too. I saw a 2014 one in Georgia for $47k that had 165,000 miles (that blew my mind) on it. It sold. Fans wanted that V8. Sales skyrocketed. They were hard to get, hence the crazy markups. There is a small, dedicated cult of owners of these. My friend in GA has a LC that he just destroys, I'm talking has a huge build and just loves it and takes it absolutely everywhere. His wife drives a '19 LX. They won't own anything else. People like that. They look at new Denalis as junk which I feel is a little extreme, but yes. This is what I mean about the 3 or 4 thousand buyers, most of them I would say are somewhat like him.

GX is easy money for them. It's a 13 year old platform with old tech that probably doesn't cost a lot to assemble start to finish. It doesn't cost a lot for the little updates here and there either over the years, big picture wise. They sell 25k a year of them, and they make their bank off of them, trust me.

 

Like I said, they can still buy the LX, and making a lot of money on something selling a ton of them isn’t the same thing. Old LC and old GX are no more.

 

Either nobody is buying LX600s here or you still can't get them at MSRP. IDK.

 

I’ve seen a couple here

 

All I see from sharing the Land Cruiser sales is that there was a consistent sales number ~3500. Demand didn't increase nor wane, and Toyota knew that specific target market that consistently bought the car.

And leftover MYs that sell the following years is common with discontinued specialty cars, dealers holding onto them marked up and sometimes for display.

 

It's abundantly clear if Toyota was happy with the sales figures of the J200 Land Cruiser in the US, they'd have brought the J300 here. Clearly it wasn't worth the certification and complicating the LX600's production line to do so. Or they would have done it. They did the calculation and figured that people who can't buy a new J300 but want something that size will buy the LX, or downsize to a different Toyota like the Sequoia or the J250 LC.

 

I'm sure that's exactly what Toyota's mindset was. I'm just pointing out that the LC200's sales remained extremely consistent nearly it's whole life.

Also FWIW, who knows the LC300 could've seen insane success in the US, the same way it did overseas all of a sudden seeing over 2 year long waitlists in some markets, which was unheard of with the LC200.