I am pretty sure Toyota's executives have seen your FACTS, and considering the fact that they probably do like making MONEY, have formed their own OPINION that the market is not there. Unless they are all just stupid?
2024 GX/Prado Release and Discussion (2 Viewers)
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I am pretty sure Toyota's executives have seen your FACTS, and considering the fact that they probably do like making MONEY, have formed their own OPINION that the market is not there. Unless they are all just stupid?
On the subject of front lockers, could someone care to explain the benefits of central lockers? Does it lock all four wheels? Does central lockers override rear lockers?
Apologies if I am asking elementary questions.
Apologies if I am asking elementary questions.
All very true. Front lockers may be the least used thing on my truck, besides turn signals lol, but when I needed them I really NEEDED them.
The center diff lock locks the front and rear axle together giving you 4WD
The Front and rear locker locks the wheels together so there is no slip
Eaton, and I’m sure others, have good videos online which I think is the best way to understand how they all work visually. There’s also a Aussie youtube channel called something like 4WD24-7 where they demonstrate all different versions.
But very basically, Center locks the axles together and Lockers lock the wheels together on the axles.
If the center locker locks the front and rear axle together then under steady state conditions, the axles are not locked together until you hit the center locker button. Doesn't this GX come with Full Time 4 Wheel Drive. Does it mean under normal conditions, the wheels are moving freely and not in unison?
Again, I am sure I am asking very basic questions. I will certainly check out the YouTube videos on this.
My understanding is that most full time 4WD have limited slip between front and rear so as not to damage the system on street driving. The center locker locks front and rear together so it basically becomes the equivalent of a part time 4WD where front and rear are always locked when in 4WD.
Kajun
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We’ll said @OGBenoThe development of every level of GA-F platform vehicles has been on-going now since 2016-2019 at the latest. TNGA was introduced in 2015. That’s 8 years ago now.
Most of the vehicles we are now seeing implemented started development well before the pandemic, and in fact have been in development, most likely, at least for 4-6 years. Especially all of the BOF vehicles.
Toyota has been in transition for the past 8 years minimum: Hungry animals. The market, the public, the customers are the hungry animals.
That is the true audience. All audiences are created— they don’t exist organically until someone places the lollipop in front of their face.
Luckily, there is a cadence that doesn’t buy into this at Toyota and that’s the fundamental, long-term planning worldview that actually guides the Toyota superstructure. Toyota has been planning now for the 2050 world view.
Everyone thinks that every jizzbucket vehicle is the be all, end all; the fact of the matter is that Toyota, globally, has many, many divisions that spend all of their time creating “buzz”, and product planning decisions that take vehicles away, “discontinue” them, retool/reengineer them, and the reintroduce them as something new or something revolutionary.
The fact of the matter remains that Toyota has to basically perpetuate its own reality all the time or it ceases to be; it’s becomes its own caricature.
What we “see” in the Toyota world as it appears: marketing and product planning conjoined to create narratives for buy-in on the customer facing world.
What is the reality? Toyota needs to sell 8-10 million vehicles/widgets every year to sustain itself. Minimum. Guaranteed. Every f***ing year.
Toyota is a nation-state at the level that controls national level business policy in Japan, for example; they have the ability to bankrupt entire cities and industries if they wanted; Toyota is nothing but a mass, amorphous entity that is trying to transform itself real time.
A product like the GX is important to roughly 100-200k customers yearly, **globally**. Think about that. Out of 10.5 million widgets they manufactured and sold last year.
The scope of the marketing and product planning becomes quite clear when you realize the pittance this vehicle really is….
And we all lap it up because, in all honesty, we have nothing better to do but sit around on Internet forums and argue about bulls***. Toyota knows this. They devote plenty of intelligence to “gauge” all of this; they can. Guaranteed they have plants here that engage in intellectual marketing and warfare. That’s how big data and information works now.
You are deluding your self if you actually think that Toyota “cares”.
Additionally, most of the automotive world is looking at pivotal change. Not transformative. Pivotal.
Every company has its vision target timeline. What is coming in the next one to two generations from most companies will be interesting to say the least.
This link is in the FAQ How Differentials Work - https://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm
Again Facts > Feelings
3000 vehicles a year for USA for a vehicle that is a US only vehicle isnt making money....its taking a loss.
Looking at past performance of land cruiser sales plummeting since 2000 in NA, can anyone actually say the team that made decisions/managed/spec'd the LC offering did a good job of producing a LC that consumers wanted/?
Clearly they made not just poor but horrible decisions....and sales numbers reflect that for NA....to the point where they pulled the vehicle from NA entirely.
I know dozen people who were bent on buying an FJ Cruiser well in advance of it being released.....and without exception when it was released and they drove it and was confronted with not just poor visibility but a design that is totally unsafe.....not one of them bought one because the product execution was horrific
Similarly, not one of them purchased a post 2000 LC aka rolling living room
couple of them bought used 60's and 80's but nothing newer because toyota isnt offing a LC that appeals to consumers
Sadly, Ford is producting what people want.....and selling north of 100.000 of them ever year in the US.
In today's market, there are certain facts we KNOW to be true.
There clearly is a market for Wranglers, Broncos and the Defender. It would greatly behoove Toyota to bring out a direct competitor to this vehicle segment. And lucky for them, that would be the rebirth of FJ40. They don't have to spend too many marketing cycles on this. A replay of what the competition is offering will suffice in this case.
They will kill two birds with one stone; reaffirm and revive the brand name and compete in a popular vertical.
Appreciate your enthusiasm, but you don’t have a clue about what you are talking about. Literally as far off the mark as you can be.
The largest margin on any passenger vehicle for Toyota is the Toyota Land Cruiser (in all its versions and guises)— globally.
It’s literally 10 Corolla sales (almost) profit margin.
There are very specific reasons for this. It’s built into the platform from design to sale.
To add to what @OGBeno just stated .. Land Cruiser has always been a Halo model for Toyota. Like a Ford GT was for ford. Like the Nissan GTR is for Nissan. These models were never meant to be sold in big numbers. But it sells other models. Ford GT bumped up sales of mustangs and probes (remember what a ford probe was). GTR was able to revive the Z for Nissan. I am pretty sure Land Cruiser helped sell 4Runners and other SUVs in the lineup.
As I’ve always said for the past ten years, think like the largest automobile manufacturer on planet Earth; when you think at that level and the fundamental logic that structures that worldview, you are a nation-state at that point; Toyota is a global player that influences how nations, economies and entire industries operate.
We are talking millions and millions of humans.
Toyota controls global automobile trends—at least over 2.5 million humans globally that support the Toyota Group infrastructure— core Toyota Group companies and then, globally, Tiers 1-4 in the automotive world.
Again, think like an automobile company, and when you do, the affordances and constraints of the entire structure become way more pure and understandable.
It’s always a compromise between “money” and “returns/dividends” vs. “what —they— want”.
How the customer is defined is the lead-in to where the money flows: on the planet scale.
We are talking millions and millions of humans.
Toyota controls global automobile trends—at least over 2.5 million humans globally that support the Toyota Group infrastructure— core Toyota Group companies and then, globally, Tiers 1-4 in the automotive world.
Again, think like an automobile company, and when you do, the affordances and constraints of the entire structure become way more pure and understandable.
It’s always a compromise between “money” and “returns/dividends” vs. “what —they— want”.
How the customer is defined is the lead-in to where the money flows: on the planet scale.
Have you seen the new Sequoia?
I think a lot more effort, engineering, and development dollars go to the RAV4 and Corolla. The land cruiser isn't core Toyota. In Japan you'll barely see a mention of it at Toyota facilities. The RAV4 and Corolla are Toyota's most important products and get the most resources. Look at how long it took to update and how little was done. The effort doesn't match if it's truly a core product.
Edit: "Corolla"
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I think the new GX gives us a very strong indication of what the coming US LC will be. I do wish it had a split tailgate and a more mod friendly front bumper design that didn't require cutting, but overall it's pretty sweet.
Interesting times for sure with Lexus jumping into the off road game. I'm curious how Toyota is going to piece it all together with the TRD Off-Road, Trailhunter, Lexus Overtrail and the supposed return of the LC.
Interesting times for sure with Lexus jumping into the off road game. I'm curious how Toyota is going to piece it all together with the TRD Off-Road, Trailhunter, Lexus Overtrail and the supposed return of the LC.
I think we got it the first three times you said it.
I also think ALL of us would like to see a new modern version of the F70 or something along those lines you are wanting but it doesn't look like it’s in cards. Something something about pushing a rock up the hill. The new LC250, IF it comes to NA, is rumored to be more like the GX500 but with the turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder in the Tacoma.These days it’s good to remember that just not agreeing with something doesn’t mean the other guy is stupid or evil.
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