The 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser Is the Cheapest the Model Has Been in Decades
The 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser might somehow be cheaper than the 2003 model, even before you account for inflation.
The 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser has broken cover, and surprisingly, it's not that expensive. Starting somewhere in the mid-$50,000s, it's not what you'd call cheap, but the Land Cruiser has never been. That's why it's astonishing that it's as affordable as it is, because Toyota's off-road icon hasn't been this affordable in decades... if ever.
That mid-50s ballpark is all the info Toyota has given us on the new Land Cruiser's pricing so far, as the final figure is TBA. It also applies only to the base model, which can probably break 60 with options. But it's a steep plunge from the final year of the 200 Series Land Cruiser, with the 2021 model starting at $85,815. It's basically unheard of for any nameplate to drop in price by more than a third, especially when it's an upmarket off-roader, and especially after years of intense inflation.
To be fair, our new Land Cruiser isn't the direct successor of the 200 Series. We're just getting the Prado, a sort of more affordable junior model. Technically, the two are now directly related, as they share Toyota's TNGA-F truck architecture. But while the new 300 Series is available with a variety of V6s, our Land Cruiser is four-cylinder-only—though it's admittedly a pretty punchy four-banger.
As a result, the U.S. Land Cruiser doesn't achieve the same performance as the "real" Land Cruiser, whose name is a byword for reliability. It can tow up to 7,700 pounds, whereas ours can only drag 6,000, despite making much more torque than the 200 Series did and about matching the 300 Series. On the other hand, our Land Cruiser will be 4.4 inches narrower and a tad shorter than the 200 Series was, so we're gaining ground somewhere.
Additionally, our Land Cruiser is cheaper than the 300 Series, which in Australia starts at the equivalent of $62,300. In fact, the Land Cruiser may be cheaper than it has been since the 2003 model, which Autoblog reports started at $53,955. Take inflation into account and you're looking at $88,400, making today's model a relative steal.
Again, ours will probably approach the 300 Series' price on upper trims, but it can't go too high. If it tried, then the Lexus GX would simply smack it down to where it belongs as the badder brother of the 2025 Toyota 4Runner.
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