The Toyota Land Cruiser Is Coming Back To America

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
I am #2 on the wait list at one local dealer, who claims to only sell at MSRP. There is one other nearby dealer that I spoke to, but haven’t heard back. I guess they have too much money already?
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Manufacturers should put systems in place to prevent dealers from charging above msrp.
Ford tried with reducing inventory allocation to abusers.

Think about it if a product is designed to a target price but dealers are ticket scalping another $10,000 over that price. Other more expensive vehicles are more attractive. Why pay 45k for a 35k vehicle when you can go buy a 45k vehicle built to a 45k price tag target? Not to mention the brand damage it does. I’ll never buy another Toyota. Its literally impossible to buy a Toyota in my region for MSRP. Hell even used ones are listed above msrp!! Screw that!!
 

nickw

Adventurer
Manufacturers should put systems in place to prevent dealers from charging above msrp.
100% they should - the "ADM" BS needs to stop. If anybody benefits from a hot market let the end user make the gains not the dealerships. I'd rather ride my bike to work that pay ADM if I had my back up against a wall. But consumers are their own worst enemy, if we wouldn't pay it, they couldn't charge it....so it's partially the result of the knuckleheads agreeing to pay it that are creating this in the first place. I always kinda thought it was a way to get you to pay MSRP, you "negotiate out" the ADM and you are back to the actual price. I've always been able to negotiate it out and/or find a dealership that doesn't include it in the area by simply saying I won't do it....
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
calicamper. why dont you just go on an overland trip to the barrens of the midwest and pick one up? were all here for the road trip right?!? plenty of dealers in the midwest do not charge markup.
I can only do that with used vehicles and haven’t bought a used vehicle in some time. New vehicle purchases outside my state (read Auto Group lobby power) can only be as a replacement for a like/similar wrecked vehicle (road trip accident etc) when you are a established resident of my State and buy out of state you get hit with heavy tax penalties when registering said new vehicle.

Used no problem!! Have done that many times. Have even had coworkers and friends buy a new car before moving here and get into legal fights with DMV when they try to register their car in accordance with the 30day requirement. Its better to wait till your new car has over 7000 miles on it before trying to register it in CA if you buy a new ride before moving here. And before you go down the CA politics rabbit hole. Those policies were pushed by the Auto Dealer lobby which is driven by the same Autogroups that manipulate inventory perception and vehicle prices here.

Trust me I worked for one long enough to see the business. Its the biggest freaking consumer scam in the US today.
You can Hate Elon all you want. But the direct sales model was Elon giving the Auto group monopoly the big double finger salute. I find it funny he’s in Texas now. Texas was one of the anti direct sales states and still fighting it today.
 
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calicamper

Expedition Leader
100% they should - the "ADM" BS needs to stop. If anybody benefits from a hot market let the end user make the gains not the dealerships. I'd rather ride my bike to work that pay ADM if I had my back up against a wall. But consumers are their own worst enemy, if we wouldn't pay it, they couldn't charge it....so it's partially the result of the knuckleheads agreeing to pay it that are creating this in the first place. I always kinda thought it was a way to get you to pay MSRP, you "negotiate out" the ADM and you are back to the actual price. I've always been able to negotiate it out and/or find a dealership that doesn't include it in the area by simply saying I won't do it....
The fuel that powers consumers to pay far more for things is devalued currency! IE basic inflation behavior. If the value of money is so mehh not important then the “I want” is a bigger factor. Just look at any real estate region where appropriately valued listings get bid up in a frenzy then consider the value / cost of the funny money being used in the bidding war. Other things can play into this also! Mehh bid it up we can just airbnb this sucker and make up the difference (this drives home values higher than regional incomes can logically cover) Can’t airbnb it prices drop, home loan interest rates go up ie money gets expensive prices drop. 👍

The fix is banning short term rentals in Residential zoned housing totally fair! A single family home in residential zone isn’t a place to run a hotel.

If you can get a zero cost loan at 7yrs on a Toyota Highlander what’s another 10k? Mehh I want it - so dumb consumer buys it 10k over msrp. 🤦‍♂️.

How do you fix this? Hit the consumer in the pocket!! Make money expensive raise interest rates. Those who have money IE cash!! Now have something very valuable. Paying cash is far more valuable than paying 7% interest on borrowed cash. All of a sudden the money smart people or people with actual money are setting the price of stuff not the people spending other people’s money 😆

Lithia probably hit 22billion market value this yr. Thats 22billion theoretically missed by the Auto companies they sell cars for.

Why was Ford so outspoken about this dealer issue? Simple look at Tesla stock, Rivian or Lucid valuation vs Ford, GM etc. Fords stock holders are pissed and should be!! When a big auto maker is out valued by a company cobbling together vehicles by hand in a giant shed with surplus parts sourced from makers with over stock😆😆.

Why is Tesla successful? Many reasons but when they dropped prices on the t3 by $12,000 over night, I watched 10 friends shopping for a car buy a tesla. If Tesla had dealers that would never have happened.
 
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jimmy james

New member
I can only do that with used vehicles and haven’t bought a used vehicle in some time. New vehicle purchases outside my state (read Auto Group lobby power) can only be as a replacement for a like/similar wrecked vehicle (road trip accident etc) when you are a established resident of my State and buy out of state you get hit with heavy tax penalties when registering said new vehicle.

Used no problem!! Have done that many times. Have even had coworkers and friends buy a new car before moving here and get into legal fights with DMV when they try to register their car in accordance with the 30day requirement. Its better to wait till your new car has over 7000 miles on it before trying to register it in CA if you buy a new ride before moving here. And before you go down the CA politics rabbit hole. Those policies were pushed by the Auto Dealer lobby which is driven by the same Autogroups that manipulate inventory perception and vehicle prices here.

Trust me I worked for one long enough to see the business. Its the biggest freaking consumer scam in the US today.
You can Hate Elon all you want. But the direct sales model was Elon giving the Auto group monopoly the big double finger salute. I find it funny he’s in Texas now. Texas was one of the anti direct sales states and still fighting it today.
Do you really mean penalties, and not just the normal sales tax? When I moved from CA to WA, WA car taxes were higher and had to pay the same tax rate as if I had bought it new in WA. I paid the difference from what I had already paid CA. This seems completely logical to me.
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Do you really mean penalties, and not just the normal sales tax? When I moved from CA to WA, WA car taxes were higher and had to pay the same tax rate as if I had bought it new in WA. I paid the difference from what I had already paid CA. This seems completely logical to me.
They we’re trying to issue a penalty at one point but I recall recently they just get you on taxes likely due to a court case. But you still get hassled and its not as simple as the used car registration where you show them and they say yup sign here.
 

utherjorge

Observer
You can find any car at MSRP if you want to, which renders all of these off-topic ramblings as completely moot. Moving on
 

Sid Post

Observer
I can only do that with used vehicles and haven’t bought a used vehicle in some time. New vehicle purchases outside my state (read Auto Group lobby power) can only be as a replacement for a like/similar wrecked vehicle (road trip accident etc) when you are a established resident of my State and buy out of state you get hit with heavy tax penalties when registering said new vehicle.

Used no problem!! Have done that many times. Have even had coworkers and friends buy a new car before moving here and get into legal fights with DMV when they try to register their car in accordance with the 30day requirement. Its better to wait till your new car has over 7000 miles on it before trying to register it in CA if you buy a new ride before moving here. And before you go down the CA politics rabbit hole. Those policies were pushed by the Auto Dealer lobby which is driven by the same Autogroups that manipulate inventory perception and vehicle prices here.

Trust me I worked for one long enough to see the business. Its the biggest freaking consumer scam in the US today.
You can Hate Elon all you want. But the direct sales model was Elon giving the Auto group monopoly the big double finger salute. I find it funny he’s in Texas now. Texas was one of the anti direct sales states and still fighting it today.
Buying an out of state vehicle, motorcycle, or trailer has been drama free for the most part at registration. One satellite office open a few hours 3-days a week was a problem but, the county seat office was an easy trip and a fast stress-free transaction on that one with the "professional" at the counter.
 

OneTime

Adventurer
I think this is gonna kill the Cool Guy vibe of the LC. No more speeding up or flipping around in the parking lot to check out some guys rig. Now they will be a dime and dozen like 4Runners and Tacos
 

Sid Post

Observer
I think this is gonna kill the Cool Guy vibe of the LC. No more speeding up or flipping around in the parking lot to check out some guys rig. Now they will be a dime and dozen like 4Runners and Tacos
I hope they turn out to be like the Porsche Macan SUV in terms of marketing and sales. The world really needs a great SUV that is more than a poser and mall crawler that isn't out of reach financially for most people.

Better reliability and better dealer support would be a real advantage over the Jeep Rubicon IMHO. I have been to 5 local Jeep dealers and have not had a good shopping experience due to them not being focused on hiring reasonable sales staff and being more focused on upselling a base model to mall crawlers and soccer moms. Around where I live, it seems like every other "Soccer Mom" is in a Black or Blue Jeep with some gaudy wheels and a row of ducks on the dash.

Local pricing for a Rubicon JLU is also $10K more than the suggested mid-$50K range of a new Land Cruiser and won't be saddled with the Stellantis "Green" features which seem problematic at best.
 

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