Almost had it! (1 Viewer)

[IslandTimes]

So I don't know what it was like when you guys were looking to purchase a new LC, but I've been having quite a hard time. The first dealer I went to said he could get me one as soon as I wanted, that it'd be no problem and I could pick my options...

Yeah right! After an entire month of him telling me to give him just another couple days to find one, he finally admitted that'd it be a couple months minimum before he would even have the possibility of getting one in.

Fortunately, I live in Texas, right in between Dallas and Austin, so I figured I'd have some options by calling up other dealerships. Well, 30 odd phone calls later, it turns out that apparently there isn't a single LC in the Dallas area, and only three in and around Austin!

I was excited though because one of those three was the color I wanted (dark grey)! About an hour after I made the call to the dealership, I jump in my car and drove two more hours to work out a deal to buy this LC. When I show up, what do I find? No LC... they had sold it about an hour after I called to some lady who just walked in and threw down some cash.

That's right, I missed getting my LC by TWO HOURS!!!!

Now, I realize that Toyota doesn't make that many LC's for the US per year, but with the way the economy has been, I thought it would've been a little easier to find such an expensive SUV.

 

[Billfish]

I sympathize with you IT. Still waiting for my 200 LTD V8 TTD, also in graphite as it happens.

I'm told it will be March. Sold my 100 series to the first cat that rang off my add. I'm a builder and being without wheels is a bloody drag. Should have waited a bit as I'm now forced to beg borrow and steal rides. My brothers in Auzzie for a spell so I've nicked his Mitzi ute.

As an aside: I kinda always knew it but I must say I was pleasantly surprised at the amazing resale value of LC's. I paid NZ$50,000 for the 100 back in 2001. Sold it 9 years and 280,000kms later for $26K. How many other vehicles could compare with that - still worth just over 1/2 9 years later. Wow, and I reckon I sold it cheap. I suppose thats a mitigating consideration for the daylight robbery of Toyota with the new LC 200s. Mine, absolute top possible spec- a lexus without the L- is costing NZ$120,000. A kiwi dollar buys about 70 cents US so thats US$82,000. How does that compare with the cost up there ?

 

[FirstToyota]

Island, I had been searching every day for 6 straight weeks. I finally gave up on finding one locally and decided I would buy one from out of state and have it shipped to me for an extra grand. Then, out of the clear blue, I see a brand new listing on autotrader.com for exactly the LC I was looking for, Black on Sand Beige with the Upgrade Package. Prior to this, I had called at least 10 local dealers (and emailed no less than 20) who all claimed online to have one available, but after calling them, they were all full of BS. Fortunately, the new listing was legit and I gave them my CC over the phone to hold it for me. I then hung up, and at 7:00 PM on a Friday night, I drove 2 hours to the dealer to finalize the purchase. They did give me 3K off msrp, so considering how difficult it was to even get one, I was fine with that.

I really was shocked at how difficult it was to find a Land Cruiser, and even more so about how shady so many Toyota dealers are, but after lots of research, the challenge made me want one even more. If you are willing to have one shipped to you, just check out cars.com and autotrader.com, but you have to call each dealer as most of them do not have what they are advertising. With a little patience and leg work, you will find one who does. I picked mine up 3 weeks ago.

 

[chimyz]

Crazycarl is selling his Rhino lined rig...he's in Texas.

 

[sptsdn]

I think it's hit-and-miss and depends on where and when you are looking. A year ago the local dealers were still sitting on unsold 2008's and they had them advertised at $11k off. Once those sold, it took several months for the 2009s to arrive. I picked up the last local 2009 (Magnetic Gray ;p with UP) at the end of October and have yet to see any new ones on the lots. Funny thing is, I had to almost beg them to show me the LC. The salesmen always tried to steer me towards the Sequoia.

I say keep looking and be willing to travel. Autotrader is probably the best place to watch and you can even set it up to have them email you when a new listing is posted. Also, if you want a no hassle quote, and don't mind traveling to southern California, Dianne Whitmire at Manhattan Beach Toyota (last I checked) tends to be pretty upfront and will give you a simple and quick quote. May be worth contacting her and letting her know what you are looking for to see if she can find you one. My dad bought his truck from her years ago and it was totally painless. Again, that was years ago and when she was at another dealer but it's just another option to try.

I think dealers have really cut back the amount of inventory on all these large SUVs (I hardly see any Sequoias on the lots anymore) so just keep looking. Believe me it's well worth it; after a few months with my LC, I am SO glad I got it. Best of luck!

 

[donjuanmiguel]

So I don't know what it was like when you guys were looking to purchase a new LC, but I've been having quite a hard time. The first dealer I went to said he could get me one as soon as I wanted, that it'd be no problem and I could pick my options...

Yeah right! After an entire month of him telling me to give him just another couple days to find one, he finally admitted that'd it be a couple months minimum before he would even have the possibility of getting one in.

Fortunately, I live in Texas, right in between Dallas and Austin, so I figured I'd have some options by calling up other dealerships. Well, 30 odd phone calls later, it turns out that apparently there isn't a single LC in the Dallas area, and only three in and around Austin!

I was excited though because one of those three was the color I wanted (dark grey)! About an hour after I made the call to the dealership, I jump in my car and drove two more hours to work out a deal to buy this LC. When I show up, what do I find? No LC... they had sold it about an hour after I called to some lady who just walked in and threw down some cash.

That's right, I missed getting my LC by TWO HOURS!!!!

Now, I realize that Toyota doesn't make that many LC's for the US per year, but with the way the economy has been, I thought it would've been a little easier to find such an expensive SUV.

I live in Victoria, TX. If you find one locally (Houston, San Antonio, or Corpus Christi) I'll happily drive it up to you!

 

[CWK2]

I just went through this and finally found one in January after expanding my search. Dealer had it for less than 10 days before I bought it. I had been looking in a 300 mile radius of Seattle. During my search time they sold a Silver 08' 14k miles w/ Up in Edmunds WA for 59k. A Black in Aberdeen WA for roughly 56k with Up and that was it. Not a single New LC in the state that I could find. I spoke with 3 good dealers and even the auctions were tough to find a LC. I just happened to expand the search to nationwide and found mine in Reno NV. I negotiated my trade and jumped in the car and did the 1550 mile round trip in 28 hours. Exhausting. Pretty happy now.

One of the things that I like about the LC is how rare they are but Toyota is going a little overboard right now with Supply/Demand. Mine was an 08' with 33k miles and Upgrade package. Also have Sat radio. I plan on having this car for a long time. It is everything people say it is. Very happy I held out for the new body style as well.

 

[GordJ]

CWK2 that is too funny.
I bought my 08 in Auburn with 125 miles on it, never titled, in Oct 09. I don't know how it was on the lot for 2 years and only had 125 miles on it, you would think that was about 3 test drives,.
I was looking all over for 6 months and fell across this one. Got it for $58k and had to import it to BC. I found that this site was good to search with. Auto Repair Advice, Car Reviews & Values - DriverSide

 

[OGBeno]

Dealers only get a quota of 1-2 LC's per year, if they are lucky. And generally even then, they are already sold before they even hit the dealer. There is a certain client out there that wants one regardless of the year; they just want the new Land Cruiser and are willing to pay for it. When the 80 series came into NA the same thing happened.

These do not come into the US in boatloads then say Yaris's or 4Runners.

Some other considerations:

1. According to Mot, the Yoshiwara Plant was slowed or stopped LC production for a time period late last fall/early winter due to the economy. And many of the LC's produced went to markets where there is demand for these vehicles: Middle East/Australia/SE Asia/Africa.

2. Due to the number of worldwide disasters and humanitarian efforts, Toyota Gibraltar is getting many of the LC's produced which then go out to war zones and other locations where there is an abundance of need for UN/NGO vehicles.

3. Dealer support. Parts and service.

4. TX actually probably has a large number of people who can buy a new LC right off the boat and pay for them up front.

Here at American Toyota in ABQ, we just got our 3rd LC in the 2 years that the new 200 series has been out. The first one was on the lot a total of a couple of months before it was purchased, the second one was an immediate purchase and then we didn't have one for almost a year. Then we recently got another one and supposedly it is already pending sale.

Good luck. You might also be better off looking at other geographical areas if you really are serious about the 200 series.

 

[CWK2]

I am sorry I should correct myself. I mispoke. There was a Red LC in Auburn and there is still an 08' in Montana in Red as well. Unfortunately Red is just not my color.

Kirkland WA had an 09' that I offered 65k and they laughed at. Silver w/ Up package. Once I returned home with mine I stopped by after work to see if there were any small items that I was missing on mine and to compare with this new rig. Car was already Sold to out of state buyer for $71,995. It seems that the right color combo in Up package leaves little room for negotiation. This lack of current inventory should keep the used market strong for the forseeable future. Things are obviously worse on the West Coast USA than other parts of the country or World.

 

[IslandTimes]

So I've got a bit of an update.

I took yall's advice and expanded my search distance out nationwide. On top of that, I tried using some of the car finder websites instead of just going through lists of dealers and calling each one... I don't know how I overlooked that in the first place because it's MUCH easier. I did find it interesting that some of the dealerships listed on these car sites that they had a LC, but when I would give them a call it would turn out that they had none in stock but could order me one in 3 months... not what I was looking for.

I decided to compromise on the color, and started looking for grey and silver LC's along with the color I wanted, black. This led me to finding another dealership only about 2 hours away who said they would have a 2010 silver with UP arriving in 2 weeks, and asked me to come down and get everything worked out to reserve it. Long story short, when I was at the dealership we worked out a good price for the car I was trading in, along with a good price for the LC. Unfortunately, it was too late for them to make the calls they needed to make everything official, so I went home with the promise that they would fax me the papers the next day.

Well, I was very excited with the "verbal" promises they had made me on the prices for my current car and the LC, knowing that I had gotten a decent deal! Sadly, when they faxed over the papers the next day, the "official" prices for my current car's trade in value and the ticket price of the LC had both changed. I don't know if they were trying to pull a fast one on me by changing the prices and hoping I wouldn't notice, or if they had just made promises the day before that they couldn't keep, but I was shocked when they valued my trade-in car about $2000 less than they had told me, and when they upped the price on the LC by almost $3000.

Well of course, I asked them to honor the prices that they had given me in our verbal agreement the night before, but they refused. I then tried getting them to at least move a little closer to what we had agreed on, but still they said no.

I have to admit that I had put emphasis on getting this LC as soon as possible when I had spoken to them the day before, so maybe they thought I was desperate, giving them the leverage to push a higher price on me. In reality though, the only reason I wanted the LC ASAP was because I'm a bit impatient, however $5000 more just isn't worth it to satisfy my impatient nature, I'm totally content to wait to find a better deal.

And with that, I'm on to more internet searching and phone calls!

 

[CWK2]

I feel your pain. Car dealers seem in some cases to accept the stereotype and manage to it daily. Best of luck in your search.

 

[kcdude]

Call Don in the Molle Toyota Truck Center. They are in Kansas City and show 2 2009's available....easy fly in and drive home. I purchased 7 cars from them over the years including both LCs. They are a great family owned business and if these are not in their inventory then they can search the area. I know in the past when I had them do a locate there were certain inventory zones. Maybe this gets you outside your current search radius. If they do have these available then I expect them to be very aggressive on price.

 

[fvunen]

I feel sorry for you guys up there, going around the car markets in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I'm spoiled for choice with literally hundreds of vehicles to choose from. Of course all provided you want it in white with a petrol engine and one of 3 trim levels. And all of that at reasonable prices (about $65K for a VX-R with leather, navigation, etc) but unfortunately with less oomph than you get. For one or another reason Toyota reserves their 370HP engine for the Lexus variation of the model, the LC has to make do with a mere 280. Go figure!

 

[FirstToyota]

FWIW - Toyota of Northridge, CA has right now a brand new White w/ Sand Beige LC with U.P.

 

[IslandTimes]

Thanks for all the advice and thanks for helping me locate some LC's. Searching the web and with yall's suggestions and finds, I now have a list of dealerships to call in the morning, so I'm confident I'll be making some good progress in finding my LC tomorrow!

I did call two dealerships today that listed online that they had available LC's, but just by blind luck both dealerships' LC's were being driven as demos by the dealerships' owners. Now, this in itself wouldn't have been too much of a problem except for the fact that both owners have been celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans for the past week and they've been either asleep or too drunk for their staff to reach them!

 

[sptsdn]

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but take a look at ebay. You can "build your own" LC and they will give you a list of dealers nearby and a price. For example, I just "built" one and it showed me 4 options- the 3 of my local dealers simply had "contact for price" (I suspect that is because the don't have any inventory) but a forth dealer that is 230 miles away showed an MSRP of $73,890 and a sales price of $66,638, saving $7,252.

Give it a shot to see if it gives you an option. (sorry for the lousy screen shot)

 

[IslandTimes]

Well, in trying to find a black lc, I came upon a black lx for a pretty decent price. In yall's opinion, are there any cons with going with the lx570 over the lc200?

 

[Mtnbike]

Not really. How many miles on it and price. Somedays I wish I bought the LX instead because it has Better lights, much nicer interior and seats are more comfy seats. The one thing I don't like about the Lx is the height adjustable suspension. I also wouldn't take it offroad like I would my LC.

 

[IslandTimes]

Has almost 19K miles on it, and has a listed price of $79K, which I have a dealer-friend of mine working on to try and get a bit lower.
I guess I can't really change much on the lx, but wouldn't have started modifying the lc for at least a couple years anyway besides small things like better lighting. I guess this way I could always just build a dedicated offroad/rockcrawler in a couple years and tow it on a trailer behind the lx!