Toyota plans to bring back the Land Cruiser to US next month

NEW YORK: Two years after telling Americans the Land Cruiser would end sales in the United States, Toyota Motor Corp has switched its tune.

During a July 26 phone call, Toyota spokesperson Nathan Kokes said the Japanese car manufacturer would announce details of a US-bound Land Cruiser on August 1. Toyota executives have been hinting for months that the brand’s longest-running nameplate would return to the United States.

On July 6, a teaser photo on the Toyota website showed a first-generation Land Cruiser parked opposite an unnamed four-door sport utility vehicle (SUV).

“With 65 years of heritage, you can choose to slow down or reinvent yourself. We chose the latter,” said the caption.

Instagram posts from the 85-year-old company on Wednesday morning included the mud-splattered flank of an unidentified vehicle and a vague caption about a new adventure beginning.

A concurrent post on the ToyotaUSA Instagram account announced the reborn US Land Cruiser.

Kokes declined to specify the expected platform for the vehicle, but said it would be confirmed during the Aug 1 news event.

Early reports in several trade publications predict that the new Land Cruiser will be built on the same structure as the Lexus GX; the best guess is it will be close to, if not the same as, the model that debuted in 2021 in Japan. It was the first such revamp in 14 years.

Developed in the early 1950s, the large Land Cruiser made its name as a trusted off-road conveyance reliable under harsh extremes, from Australia’s outback and Russia’s tundra to Africa’s savannah.

Production began in 1951 when the US government asked Toyota to manufacture something with the capabilities of a Jeep.

The vehicle became wildly popular in Japan, where deliveries continued during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emboldened by the popularity of glamping and the adventuring lifestyle-and dealership waitlists stretching four years – used-car sites were flipping the new models for a premium of around 15 million yen (RM597,102) compared with the suggested manufacturer’s suggested retail price of around five million yen to eight million yen (RM162,038 to RM259,261), including tax, Bloomberg reported.

Toyota, however, hadn’t widely marketed its gem in the United States for years.

After sales steadily declined over the past two decades, it ended production in 2021, before Japan’s newest model was announced.

A post shared by Land Cruiser Lifestyle, said: “We remain committed to the large SUV segment and will continue to explore future products that celebrate the Land Cruiser’s rich off-road history.”

Now, it seems that the potential of the massive SUV market and the value of a long-recognised nameplate turned into folly for Toyota to ignore. — Bloomberg