Why buy a land cruiser?

[Ozark_Prowler]

Chicken Tax, the tariff on the non passenger versions prices them out of the market. The first Ford Transit vans imported from Italy came in with rear seats classed as passenger vehicles. The seats were shredded as soon as they cleared customs. This is why the Subaru Brat came with seats in the bed too.

View attachment 694414

That’s a pretty funny loophole they found with the Brat. I don’t remember seeing extra seats on the early Toyota single cab pickups though..

Anyway, I was thinking base model wagons with cloth, no sun roof, manual option etc., not necessarily the 70 series utes.

It seems like here in the US we were only offered the equivalent to the top of the line Sahara models overseas, and only with the petrol at that..

 

[Tex68w]

That GX will likely go in the upper $40’s to low $50’s, the market seems to have cooled on them some lately. I have a feeling the next gen 4Runner and GX will be huge sellers.

It is a shame that we are only offered the top trim Cruiser here, I loved our Poverty Pack/Argentina Spec 80 for that very reason and if I could buy a stripper model now I would.

 

[nickw]

The best isis technical ever was the used f250 that poor plumber in texas sold at auction, man that guy got a lot of hate mail…?

I'm late to the game here, had to look that up.....that is flippin' epic!!

 

[SailRedemption]

I'm not a huge fan of Toyota, but I recognize them as having good products. My wife has a 92 Lexus LS400 so I know they make solid vehicles. I just liked my F150 better than the tundras at the time.

That said, someone mentioned land cruisers used by ISIS and others during war....

Behold! Toyotas of War!

Toyotas of War (@toyotasofwar) • Instagram photos and videos

131K Followers, 0 Following, 1,358 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Toyotas of War (@toyotasofwar)

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[nickw]

I'm not a huge fan of Toyota, but I recognize them as having good products. My wife has a 92 Lexus LS400 so I know they make solid vehicles. I just liked my F150 better than the tundras at the time.

That said, someone mentioned land cruisers used by ISIS and others during war....

Behold! Toyotas of War!

Toyotas of War (@toyotasofwar) • Instagram photos and videos

131K Followers, 0 Following, 1,358 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Toyotas of War (@toyotasofwar)

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That is a great one.....here is some more background:

Toyota War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stormhammer]

I'm not a huge fan of Toyota, but I recognize them as having good products. My wife has a 92 Lexus LS400 so I know they make solid vehicles. I just liked my F150 better than the tundras at the time.

That said, someone mentioned land cruisers used by ISIS and others during war....

Behold! Toyotas of War!

Toyotas of War (@toyotasofwar) • Instagram photos and videos

131K Followers, 0 Following, 1,358 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Toyotas of War (@toyotasofwar)

instagram.com

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Legit, I've been following that IG account for awhile and it's one of my favorites

 

[SailRedemption]

That is a great one.....here is some more background:

Toyota War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That's interesting, I had no idea. Thanks for that!

Legit, I've been following that IG account for awhile and it's one of my favorites

Oh yea, there's a lot to be said about their durability when they continue to run in these third world countries like they do. It's pretty incredible to think about. And some you see to this day are older models.

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[Arktikos]

I never understood why Toyota ever offered the “luxury” petrol automatic version in the US. I genuinely think there would’ve been a big market for the more utilitarian models. Look at Australia, they sold tens of thousands over there, all over the continent!

The Big 3 sell heaps of base models and diesels; why not Toyota?

They'd still be very expensive due to their build quality. But, lacking the features most of their well heeled clients want.

Doug DeMuro recently reviewed 300 series base model in US for armoring.

 

[Ozark_Prowler]

They'd still be very expensive due to their build quality. But, lacking the features most of their well heeled clients want.

Doug DeMuro recently reviewed 300 series base model in US for armoring.

How’d they sell so many base models in Australia then? You hardly see any top of the line models down there.

 

[Tex68w]

I'd jump all over a base model if they sold them stateside.

 

[plainjaneFJC]

Let’s not forget SF forces took bone stock tacomas to iraq/Afghanistan in the early 2000s. Those things were major overloaded and performed well

 

[Arktikos]

How’d they sell so many base models in Australia then? You hardly see any top of the line models down there.

The majority of sales with 70 series in Australia are to big companies, mostly in mining I believe. Also, Australia has a lot more terrain to cover that's fairly rough and not paved compared to U.S.

 

[nickw]

How’d they sell so many base models in Australia then? You hardly see any top of the line models down there.

Partially because they don't have full size 3/4 - 1 ton trucks in their market. In a market with full size pickups it's a tough sell for a utilitarian rig like a LC that gets sim MPG, while the domestic rigs have a stronger drivetrain, more power, more room, more payload and more towing.

I've said this before, I think a stripped down LC would still be in the $50-60k range. While a handful of hardcore enthusiasts would probably buy them, the $ to performance ratio just isn't there for most of us.

If I could go buy a LC70 diesel single cab pickup for say $40k, MAYBE, I bet those are $60k landed all day, made in Japan, import duty / chicken tax.....while my brand new 2021 3/4T Ram Tradesman 4 door with 6.4 Hemi was $44k brand new....

 

[toylandcruiser]

Partially because they don't have full size 3/4 - 1 ton trucks in their market. In a market with full size pickups it's a tough sell for a utilitarian rig like a LC that gets sim MPG, while the domestic rigs have a stronger drivetrain, more power, more room, more payload and more towing.

I've said this before, I think a stripped down LC would still be in the $50-60k range. While a handful of hardcore enthusiasts would probably buy them, the $ to performance ratio just isn't there for most of us.

If I could go buy a LC70 diesel single cab pickup for say $40k, MAYBE, I bet those are $60k landed all day, made in Japan, import duty / chicken tax.....while my brand new 2021 3/4T Ram Tradesman 4 door with 6.4 Hemi was $44k brand new....

Don’t turn this into domestic full size is better. I would tether spend 60 grand on a land cruiser than a domestic truck.

 

[Ozark_Prowler]

Partially because they don't have full size 3/4 - 1 ton trucks in their market. In a market with full size pickups it's a tough sell for a utilitarian rig like a LC that gets sim MPG, while the domestic rigs have a stronger drivetrain, more power, more room, more payload and more towing.

I've said this before, I think a stripped down LC would still be in the $50-60k range. While a handful of hardcore enthusiasts would probably buy them, the $ to performance ratio just isn't there for most of us.

If I could go buy a LC70 diesel single cab pickup for say $40k, MAYBE, I bet those are $60k landed all day, made in Japan, import duty / chicken tax.....while my brand new 2021 3/4T Ram Tradesman 4 door with 6.4 Hemi was $44k brand new....

Yeah but the Cruisers aren’t as much of a pig to drive off road as full size pickups from the same era.

I guess Toyota can only make a profit on the luxury models with the chicken tax. Either that or they think all Americans are bougie soccer moms.