Toyota Australia has confirmed the V8-powered 70 Series LandCruiser workhorse is no more.
Customers who have just received their vehicle might feel like they’ve won the lottery as their car is now worth a lot more than it was yesterday, according to Toyota Australia’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley.
“Obviously the value of these cars is going to go up incredibly overnight,” he said.
Near-new versions of the final V8-powered LandCruiser 200 Series were selling for incredible prices on the used market when it was announced the new 300 Series wouldn’t feature a V8 option, and it’s likely the 70 Series will follow suit.
Hanley promised there would be no funny business in allocating orders to customers.
“We will be speaking to our dealers and we will be putting in very strong processes in place to ensure that those that have got orders get prioritised.
“So my advice to consumers who have been waiting: Do not pay over retail. What they choose to do with those cars is their business beyond that, used cars are used cars. I can’t control that,” he said.
The writing was on the wall for the beloved rugged four-wheel drive as the Federal Government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) comes into effect next July.
Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series
Hanley said community expectations for environmentally friendly vehicles also forced the V8 LandCruiser into retirement.
The Japanese giant launched a four-cylinder turbo-diesel version last year as a more efficient alternative to the vaunted V8 70 Series.
Toyota had already effectively deleted the V8 70 Series from its line-up by pausing orders for the past two years.
Production of the V8-powered wagon, troop carrier, Workmate and GX utes will end in September with existing orders expected to be filled by early 2025.
Production of the high demand V8-powered GXL single and dual-cab utes will continue into next year with deliveries continuing until the end of 2025.
Hanley couldn’t guarantee all existing V8 orders would be filled, though.
“We’re requesting the maximum possible allocation for Australia. We still have considerable time. It’s our goal to fill those orders. That’s what we want to do. So, we’re working to fill those, we want to satisfy as many of those customers as possible,” said Hanley.
Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series
“We’ll have a better understanding of the number of V8s available for Australian customers when final production is allocated in the next few months. So we’re working through that, but we’re quite confident that we’ll be able to get the majority, if not all.”
Toyota is hoping to draw some customers away from the V8 LandCruiser by adding a new five-speed manual transmission to the previously auto-only four-cylinder LandCruiser 70 Series.
Hanley said customers overwhelmingly wanted the V8 but was confident customers would warm to the four-cylinder version.
“Clearly there’s a preference still for V8, so we can’t hide from that, that’s reality,” said Hanley.
“People want the V8 and culturally you can understand that and we understand that. So it’s going to take some time for people to move, but what we are finding is once they drive the four cylinder, they experience the four-cylinder and the torque they moved to it.”
“There will always be diehard V8 people. That’s a fact of life.”