Toyota Land Cruiser V8 axed from UK
Slow sales kill off the range-topping Land Cruiser seven years after introduction
So it's rather a shame to confirm that the Land Cruiser V8 is being withdrawn from sale in the UK. In all honesty it's not a huge surprise; poor sales have killed it off and buyers for large V8 diesel off-roaders have so much choice. Can you imagine many customers after a big, luxurious 4x4 for c.£65K going for a V8 Land Cruiser over a Range Rover Sport, Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 or similar? Exactly.
The V8 replaced the Land Cruiser Amazon in 2008 but now the range will consist solely of models with the 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel. A new Land Cruiser 200 is being launched in Japan with a V8 petrol (!) but predictably there are no plans to sell it in western Europe.
But should the imminent demise of the V8 awaken a yearning to own one, fear not! There are a few in the classifieds, nearly new and ready to depreciate for as many years as it will surely keep running. White with beige and £62K? Oh yeah! Sarcasm aside, it's sad to see another curio bite the dust. Still, reliability means they'll be around for yonks, right?
Mitsubishi are the same with the Shogun, That's desperately overdue a refresh.
If you are doing BIG miles in something like this, then chances are you are:
-loaded
-or fuel is paid for by the company you work for/own
If you aren't doing big miles, then the running cost difference is pretty tiny when you weigh in depreciation, tyres, VED and other costs.
As others have said if you own one of these newer ones you really don't care a toss about MPG and depreciation - what you do care about is how utterly awesome they are
If you are doing BIG miles in something like this, then chances are you are:
-loaded
-or fuel is paid for by the company you work for/own
If you aren't doing big miles, then the running cost difference is pretty tiny when you weigh in depreciation, tyres, VED and other costs.
http://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-...
I've had the V8D, it replaced an Amazon, that replaced an Amazon that replaced a Range Rover.
Originally, the raison d'être for me going from JLR to Toyota was for total reliability in all weather at all times. The Range could be temperamental and my local dealer were quite hopeless. The first Amazon was incredibly reliable, the second equally so and running costs were dirt cheap compared to JLR products. (I still own my first Amazon, these days it gets used to pull/push 35 yard skips about)
So after another 3 years of total Amazon reliability I decided to buy another, by this time the new model had been released.
The V8 was pig ugly, I get that, I liked it's understated looks and the fact that it didn't get any attention from undesirables.
My personal cars do a lot of towing and generally they tow other heavy vehicles that have broken down somewhere, usually blocking a busy junction etc.
With less than 50 miles on the clock my V8D ground to a halt at the side of the M27, embarrassingly for Toyota we had to be picked up in my old Amazon.
You can imagine how it must have looked when a brand new LC turned up outside the dealers on the back of an AA recovery truck.
A new gearbox was required, the old box had been overfilled at the factory apparently, I'm not sure I ever quite believed that explanation.
I ended up being the butt of a few jokes when my reason for buying this ugly brute over something from JLR was for reliability and look what happened...
And then the niggles started, creaky trim, crappy satnav, poor iPod integration, wallowy steering. I actually preferred driving the Amazon as it had an honest made of granite feel to it.
I chopped the V8D in at the beginning of the year, the dealer desperately tried to get me into another and offered some big incentives, but I just felt what attracted me to them in the first place had been left behind when they brought out the new model.
Currently driving a leased (never thought I'd say that) Touareg, this feels much more like an up to date LC, reliable, big, comfortable, discrete, great at towing and cheap to own/lease/service.
Odd that I've seen more V8D's in the last 12 months than ever before, assume that's down to big discounts and dealers getting a whisper about it's swan song?
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