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TBH I think a Lexus TX would be a lot better vehicle for what the use case is. Add a fun 4x4 of choice for the occasional off road trip.
Agreed, There are reasons to buy a boxy solid axle 4X4 but daily driver, minimal off-road trips and driving kids all over for tournaments aren’t it.
I thought you needed a GX to get the kids to Lacrosse tournament 
Lol. My GX has a bunch of deep scratches/divots in the steering wheel leather on the left side and clear coat scratched around the door handle. My wife and I have theorized it was likely an oversized diamond wedding ring for the Karen, the P.O., whom purchased the GX new in Greenwich, CT in late 2007.
Thats the thing. $72000 and you dont even get heated seats or axle locks. The axle lockers are $3000 more and who really is using a front locker regularly?
Seems like a lot of coin for what you get.
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I just watched the first one. The Grenadier's traction control was truly subpar compared to the competition.
Sounds like the TFLTruck video with the $90000 quad motor Rivian R1T and the $38000 Colorado Trailboss. The Trailboss with a simple G80 locker made the Rivian look silly.
I was about to compare it to a new JL Rubicon with the 4:1 T-case and lockers until I saw most are going for $60-65K in my area. Yikes. These prices are making anything non-Toyota even a harder sell. I don't know if I'll ever buy a new 4x4 at these prices.
I fantasize about the day I will finally replace my 2002 LC with something shiny and new. Then I take a good look at the scratches, dents, dings, etc on my LC, remember how they got there and laugh at the idea of dropping 60-80k on something new and then repeating the same sort of trips that put all those things there in the first place. Can't wait to buy a mall cruising 2021 200 series Heritage Edition in about 10 years though.
Would this be your only/primary vehicle? I think the Grenadiers are cool and hope Ineos succeeds, but I also wouldn't trade my GX, our current primary vehicle, with one because there are too many unknowns. If I had a 3+ car garage and was looking for an interesting off-roady thing that doesn't suck to drive to trails, I would put the Grenadier on that list.
Yea you definitely don't want a Grenadier for that. A unibody crossover like a TX/Grand Highlander/etc is really the 2nd best option for your use case and the best option is a minivan, because minivans rule. However, if you like the idea of a boxy, body-on-frame SUV with luxury features, then a GX550 or LC250 will be leaps and bounds better than the Grenadier for everything; comfort, on-road handling, off-road handling, reliability, service network, gas mileage, range, etc.
Thats crazy because Gladiator Rubicons with the 3.0 EcoDiesel were going for sub-60k in my area when I was looking earlier this month. A lot of them were ~$10k off MSRP. There is one listed right now for $58900 with an MSRP of $73600.
I've been watching LC200's for over a year now, because I want something that can pull my trailer better than my GX460, and the prices are just stupid. I looked at a 2018 with 45k miles and they wanted $72K for it.
At that price, I'll buy a GX550 Overtrail brand new with a full warranty. And it will tow my trailer way better than the 5.7L would.
Yeah I'm thinking at some point the new LC and or GX 550 will drive the prices down finally.
The Bronco is probably the best value right now. A 4 door Badland's trim can be found around $50k and has all the basics - double lockers, sway bar disconnect, skid plates, rock sliders, etc. The deal killer for the Rubicon as a long range all-around overland/offroad rig for me is that they're just so exhausting to drive on the highway. I'd rather just tow a side by side to the trail. $55k for an LC250 that will bolt on 35s starts to look like a pretty decent value.
Prices appear to be dropping from what I can see. I think it'll still take 2 years before we see the market really react to the LC250 because it looks like we won't even see them in driveways until fall of 2024.
Can't trade in your LC200 for a LC250 if there aren't any LC250's to buy.But I see some decent prices on LX570s - this one is 50k miles 2016 for $50k. I'd probably rather have an LC250 over an LX570 at the same price, but the $50k range LX market seems to have a lot of pretty nice units for sale. More than I saw a year ago. What's more telling to me about the future is that many of these $50k units have been sitting for 4-6 months already. If you look at price history many have had $5k price drops already. And floor plan financing is skyrocketing. It's just a matter of time before the dealers can't afford to keep sitting on them and they start blowing them out cheap.
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...edEntity=d3042#listing=372499247/NONE/DEFAULT
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Both the GX and 250 also border on the ridiculous for those stated mundane tasks.
No thanks on the Bronco due to lots of reports of poor build quality. I'm in the market for neither but (if I was) would probably consider the Jeep due to the simplicity and all of the problems being "known". In a vacuum the Bronco does look better and I still prefer IFS over a SFA.
It's kind of sad how none of these new options offer anything close to a value proposition over my 16-year old 470 with 175K on it and lots of mods dumped into it.
The more people who buy GX550s and LC250s for mundane tasks, the more good condition GX550s and LC250s will end up on the used market for us to ruin in a few years.
Also people are allowed to enjoy things even if it is not the objective best option. In this case it's just between a decent option or one of the worst options lol.
The more people that buy the right tool for the job, the more availability for those who actually use it as intended. But posers need to pose lol.
