North America is obviously a niche market for the 200-series considering Toyota only sells 200-300 of them a month. Understandably, Toyota sells only the 5.7l V8 version here because that's what the market wants (we love our petrol) ... But, I think they're miscalculating.
I imagine they think the take rate of a diesel option would be somewhere less than 10%. If it were any higher, they would offer it because they'd actually make more money by doing so. Now I have no idea what their margins are, but if we're going off what manufacturers usually expect when offering more than one powertrain, any take rate above 10% seems to be sufficient enough.
That being said, I honestly think the take rate for a diesel LC here would be around 30-35%. When scrutinizing the demographics of the people who buy LCs, the average buyer tends to be a wealthy educated man with an income of $250k/yr. In other words, people who buy LCs know what they are buying when they buy an LC. Normal people who walk into a dealership and see a Land Cruiser probably wonder why that Highlander-looking thing costs $85k but when narrowing things down, the average buyer tends to be an enthusiast!
Am I missing something here? I mean, what do I know? Maybe I'm a little delusional, but I'd definitely advocate a diesel NA200.
I imagine they think the take rate of a diesel option would be somewhere less than 10%. If it were any higher, they would offer it because they'd actually make more money by doing so. Now I have no idea what their margins are, but if we're going off what manufacturers usually expect when offering more than one powertrain, any take rate above 10% seems to be sufficient enough.
That being said, I honestly think the take rate for a diesel LC here would be around 30-35%. When scrutinizing the demographics of the people who buy LCs, the average buyer tends to be a wealthy educated man with an income of $250k/yr. In other words, people who buy LCs know what they are buying when they buy an LC. Normal people who walk into a dealership and see a Land Cruiser probably wonder why that Highlander-looking thing costs $85k but when narrowing things down, the average buyer tends to be an enthusiast!
Am I missing something here? I mean, what do I know? Maybe I'm a little delusional, but I'd definitely advocate a diesel NA200.