Toyota Australia has stopped taking orders on the supply-restricted LandCruiser 70 Series workhorse, as customer wait times spiral out of control.
The company says the combination of ongoing production issues and historically high demand are responsible for its decision, with current multi-year wait periods becoming untenable.
“Available supply is being impacted by ongoing production disruptions being experienced by the global automotive industry,” the company said in a bulletin today.
“At the same time, the model’s popularity among Australian customers remains at historical highs.”
Toyota Australia vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley said today the decision came amid ”an evolving situation”.
“The Toyota team has been working diligently to deliver a record number of vehicles with extraordinary support from our parent company. At the same time, strong demand and industry-wide supply challenges globally mean we simply cannot fulfil orders more quickly,” he said.
“Therefore, we have decided to pause new customer orders for the LandCruiser 70 Series. Dealers will be in direct contact with customers about wait times for individual existing orders over the coming months.
“We are monitoring the global supply situation closely and will continue to make decisions based on the best interests of our customers and dealers.
“I understand this news will be disappointing and want to sincerely apologise to our customers and assure them we will continue to provide updates as further information becomes available.”
It’s unclear what this means for the upcoming LandCruiser 70 updates, which TMC Australia said in April this year would arrive in local showrooms around November.
We’ve reached out to Toyota Australia with requests for comment.
The updates detailed a few months ago centred around the addition of more modern safety features to the old workhorse, as well as a GVM upgrade that re-categorise it as a medium goods vehicle, allowing it to meet ongoing ADRs.
The LandCruiser 70, which is built in Japan at low scale for select markets, is one of Toyota’s worst-affected vehicles amid semiconductor shortages and COVID running riot in the supply chain. It’s also among its most profitable.
Toyota dealers navigating ongoing chronic stock shortages are telling some customers in Australia to prepare for multi-year wait times on core models including the LandCruiser, as well as the RAV4 and Camry.
Indeed, one dealer was telling customers the wait times of a 70 Series were three to four years, “or never”. Toyota contested that claim at the time…
In the meantime, expect the price of used LandCruiser 70s to spike even further, as demand will stay sky high given the lack of competition – new Ineos Grenadier aside.
The classifieds are full of LC70s being sold with low mileage for well into the six-figure range.
