You Sold How Many?

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
12/31/2014 at 00:07 • Filed to: car and driver

...at selling. The Land Cruiser 200 - its an archaic, expensive, pseudo luxury off road vehicle that drinks fuel and is both anti-social and under the radar at the same time. And it sold more in the US in 2014 [2793] than !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! did. Frankly its amazing. Some of these are no brainers, others are head scratchers. Thanks Car and Driver for making the excellent Land Cruiser feel like a runaway sales success. FYI - This poor selling land beast outsold Lamborghini and Ferrari combined.

DISCUSSION (33)

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:09

I 've always said, the price of that land cruiser is too damn high!

Jedidiah > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:10

G-Wagen

Chevy SS

Viper

People need to buy more of these >:[

HammerheadFistpunch > Jedidiah
12/31/2014 at 00:11

I feel the same about the land cruiser...but I'm biased.

Milky > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:13

Poor Z4.

Also ….. mmhmhmhmhmmmmmm.

Kinja'd!!!

CB > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:13

... so they're counting low production vehicles as "worst-selling"? Huh.

HammerheadFistpunch > CB
12/31/2014 at 00:14

well they didn't sell very many did they?

shop-teacher > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:14

Wow, Chevy had very a modest sales target for the SS. They only expected to sell 5000 of them a year ... They didn't even get halfway there. Great car, but too damn expensive.

HammerheadFistpunch > shop-teacher
12/31/2014 at 00:15

I think the SS suffers from the same marketing neglect as the land cruiser and g-wagon.

Jedidiah > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:18

I didn't see the Land Cruiser on the list, but more people do need to buy them.

wantafuncar > shop-teacher
12/31/2014 at 00:18

I agree — way too much $. Knock $10k (maybe more?) off the price, and you've got a winner.

CB > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:18

Low volume doesn't mean worst-selling. Worst-selling would be if Honda made ten thousand Insights and sold a thousand. If a manufacturer allots 100 cars to be sold in the United States and sells 95 of them, I wouldn't call that worst-selling, even if it is a tiny number compared to other models being sold.

shop-teacher > wantafuncar
12/31/2014 at 00:20

$10k would do it for me.

shop-teacher > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:21

That certainly doesn't help, but IMO the price for both is the bigger issue.

HammerheadFistpunch > CB
12/31/2014 at 00:24

I see what you are saying but you can also look at it from the perspective of setting realistic sales targets and meeting them is still poor selling. If you had two products and you made 10,000 of one and you sold 9500 of them and made 3000 of another and sold 2980 the second product is still the worse seller because you sold less...because you anticipated less demand. the 918 is a little bit of a cheat because they probably could have produced more than they sold...but not many.

Textured Soy Protein > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:26

Brand new Land Cruisers used to be purchased by rich people in northern locations who wanted something premium but not snobby.

The problem with the Land Cruiser nowadays is that the understated-luxury buyers don't want big gas-guzzling SUVs, and the type of people who still want a big gas-guzzling SUV want something flashy.

HammerheadFistpunch > Textured Soy Protein
12/31/2014 at 00:29

And the third buyer desperately vehicle for its base virtues and is happy to pony up the dough but would be happier with less leather and frippery. Seriously, I think there is a definite untapped market for 6 figured income people who have a strong urge to use the vehicle as intended and wouldn't mind buying a 70 grand cruiser that more suited their needs.

Doug DeMuro > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:31

Toyota does very well with the Land Cruiser in other markets — and given the demographic in the US, they would be insane to cancel it here.

A lot of normal people don't "get" the Land Cruiser.

Go to New England... the Hamptons... Aspen... Vail... Jackson...

You'll get it.

And they all sell at MSRP for cash.

HammerheadFistpunch > Doug DeMuro
12/31/2014 at 00:33

1. 100% yes.

2. yup

3. Yes.

Toyota sucks balls at marketing them though...there is no excuse for that.

CB > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:35

Fair point.

Doug DeMuro > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 00:39

I think Toyota's trying to focus on the LX570. I think their theory is — the people who want the Land Cruiser already know the Land Cruiser. They don't want to market high-end and expensive Toyotas above the Lexus brand.

Nife - dat Wheelspin > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 01:47

Here in the middle east they sell like hotcakes, Toyota sold 41,083 units during the first half of 2014.

404 Name Not Found > Doug DeMuro
12/31/2014 at 02:02

The places you mentioned. Do people buy the LC over the LX?

Doug DeMuro > 404 Name Not Found
12/31/2014 at 02:43

In the places I mentioned, people would view the LX as gauche and gaudy and they would never even consider it. Literally it would not even factor into their decision. They probably don't even know it exists.

They buy a Land Cruiser because their father had one and their uncle still has his and their grandfather had an FJ60 and they know they can get 200k miles out of it before the next one. For these people, the "Land Cruiser" model name, and the dependability connotation that comes with it, carries a much higher brand value than "Lexus" ever will.

These are serious old money people — the kind who dress down and keep casual, yet have hundreds of millions invested. They don't give a shit about Range Rover or Lexus, and they literally couldn't care less about impressing their neighbors. They don't need to. They only think they think about is having a product that will work forever with minimal distraction and interruption to their lives.

Toyota keeps this car around because it would be insane to abandon what is undoubtedly one of the highest wealth demographics in the entire car industry — exotics included.

My citroen won't start > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 05:37

I wonder if my Subaru Pacifica was a worse seller than the Land Cruiser.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 08:59

The author of that C&D slideshow is a moron. All 918 are spoken for, and Porsche sold the majority of the 918s in the States, and others on his list are limited production models.

worst selling <> least selling

He writes: "Limited to a run of 918 units worldwide, it's a good bet that the 57 copies of the $847,000-plus hypercar sold this year make up the bulk of the U.S. allotment for the car. "

He couldn't do a quick Wikipedia search?

"As of November 2014, over 800 units have been ordered worldwide, with planned production sold out through late March or early April 2015. Production is scheduled to end in July 2015. [23] [24] According to JATO Dynamics , a total of 105 units have been registered worldwide during the first nine months of 2014. [25] The United States is the leading market with 57 cars delivered through November 2014. [26] As of October 2014, a total of 9 units were registered in Switzerland, [27] 6 in the Netherlands, [28] 5 units in Canada, [26] and 4 in Sweden. [29] Production was sold out in December 2014. The country with the most orders is the United States with 297 units , [7] followed by China and Germany with approximately 100 orders each. [30] "

sellphones2493 > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 11:13

Kate Gosselin owns one! (Don't ask me how I know that)

Kinja'd!!!

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Doug DeMuro
12/31/2014 at 12:06

These are also the people that drive $50,000 restored '89 Grand Wagoneers.

404 Name Not Found > Doug DeMuro
12/31/2014 at 12:18

Interesting. Very interesting. Thanks for the write up. I'm a senior in Economics and I like this stuff.

HammerheadFistpunch > Doug DeMuro
12/31/2014 at 16:38

its like that subaru outback bit James may did for top gear i suppose. Its funny because the only person I know (personally) that owns a LC200 owns a construction company and couldn't care less about money but has owned land cruisers from the 60 series up.

HammerheadFistpunch > Nife - dat Wheelspin
12/31/2014 at 16:39

any I'd bet they are the GXL models with the 4.0 liter and stick or the 4.5 liter v8 right?

HammerheadFistpunch > My citroen won't start
12/31/2014 at 16:39

subaru tribeca? is it called the pacifica there?

My citroen won't start > HammerheadFistpunch
12/31/2014 at 16:41

Haha no, it's just that it looks too much like a Pacifica.

Nife - dat Wheelspin > HammerheadFistpunch
01/01/2015 at 04:57

4.0L 1GR-FE / 4.6 1UR-FE / 5.7 3UR-FE are the engines available, almost all are ordered with a slushbox. Manuals are very rare. Diesels non-existent.

majority are 4.0, followed by the 4.6

5.7 are very rare, at that price point most get the Lexus LX.