Might not be too high. I have always been reminded of the Aussie saying about a Land Rover and a Toyota in the bush. I have always liked older Land Cruisers, so for the heck of of it, I decided to look up a land cruiser. This is what I found;
Create a lasting legacy with the all-new 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser. Experience a return to exploring coupled with remarkable capabilities and legendary reliability.
www.toyota.com
Starting at 85 grand! That's not a Lexus, it's a Toyota! and I don't even like the styling. So either I am stuck in the past or their is a good reason that I am missing for these prices. The defender just got a lot more affordable.
I don't trust Australians, in that regard. They're singularly responsible for more off-pavement "overland" snake oil than any other nation.
I was in one of those Land Cruisers not too long ago. They've got a lot of equipment that's convenient, and a more simple interface in general than modern Land Rovers. They do feel better than other Toyota models, but fuck Toyota. They pissed me off with the 4runner and Tacoma.
Now, I wouldn't say the Land Cruiser is an $85,000 car, but it's probably a $60,000 car. I don't find it as impressive as others do. I'd say what you're paying for, there, is a platform that's seen little change for a long time, and they've had time to work out issues. Some of the more late-model alterations don't make any sense to me, but I'm sure it's reliable, at the least.
It doesn't feel cheap inside, anyway. It doesn't feel like a Range Rover, but it doesn't feel cheap.
With those, you've got to buy while the buying is good. They make a certain amount of them per year, and they sell out fast. The nice thing is there really aren't any options of note. Pick your color and get one; so it's not a big deal if there are only three left in the nation when you buy.
So, every Land Cruiser can be described as "loaded", to include a cooler in the center console and all that jazz that normally requires some premium option package. That being the case, every new Land Cruiser can be considered to have been fitted with every package available already.
That's part of where the price comes from, but still... It's tons of profit. They've been making it so damned long now that all the R&D was paid for long ago. You're just paying a price that they may as well have pulled out of thin air.
Over the actual sales counter, the Lexus is essentially the same price, but some of those parts are fucking insanely expensive. I think someone quoted the gauge cluster/infotainment thing as costing near $13,000 to replace new. They may have been exaggerating, but whatever it was, it was stupid expensive.
Cheers,
Kennith
hiconsumption.com
