Hello all. First post on this forum but have enjoyed reading it for a few years now...
So I'm sharing my plan with you experienced LC owners because if anyone can poke holes in my plan, it'd be you all who already own the vehicle.
Background:
Right now my wife and I own a 2007 4Runner limited. It's a great midsize SUV and it does everything we need it to and more. We bought it used in 2012 and have had no issues with it. I'm a engineer so I enjoy performing all my own maintenance and keeping our vehicles in top running condition. Right now it's just me and my wife, no kids but not for a lack of trying so I anticipate our family will expand in the coming years, we're both in our 30's.
In 2012 when we bought the 4Runner we briefly looked at LC's but came to the conclusion it wasn't a smart financial decision for us at the time, while we could have afforded a nice used one, it would have made us vehicle poor for the time being (wife is in PhD school so her income is minimal right now, but she's graduating in 2016)... so we opted to forgo the LC (it's really both our dream SUV) and go to the smaller and more affordable 4Runner as a stop gap measure.
The Plan:
We both still dream about one day owning a Land Cruiser and we both really like the 2016 redesign (exterior look as well as the addition of the 8 spd) and I love that over the years it has got the crawl control too since we like to head to the beach on the weekends (it's nice piece of mind to have even though the 4R has never left us stranded or given us cause for concern).
After all that, I guess what I'm asking is it a bad plan to wait 3-5 years after the 300 is released and try to find a lightly used, last model year 200 to pick up?
Is there some drawback to this other than not having the latest and greatest in creature comforts? I feel like the 2016 LC already has more than we'd ever need or want in that regard so for us it could be a 20-40K savings in purchase price to buy used.
When we buy one, we're buying it with the intention of keeping it for at least 15 years, 20 is the goal.
(my biggest fear with this plan is the LC300 will go unibody and the late/last model year 200's will be hard to come by and prices will inflate because of this...)
So I'm sharing my plan with you experienced LC owners because if anyone can poke holes in my plan, it'd be you all who already own the vehicle.
Background:
Right now my wife and I own a 2007 4Runner limited. It's a great midsize SUV and it does everything we need it to and more. We bought it used in 2012 and have had no issues with it. I'm a engineer so I enjoy performing all my own maintenance and keeping our vehicles in top running condition. Right now it's just me and my wife, no kids but not for a lack of trying so I anticipate our family will expand in the coming years, we're both in our 30's.
In 2012 when we bought the 4Runner we briefly looked at LC's but came to the conclusion it wasn't a smart financial decision for us at the time, while we could have afforded a nice used one, it would have made us vehicle poor for the time being (wife is in PhD school so her income is minimal right now, but she's graduating in 2016)... so we opted to forgo the LC (it's really both our dream SUV) and go to the smaller and more affordable 4Runner as a stop gap measure.
The Plan:
We both still dream about one day owning a Land Cruiser and we both really like the 2016 redesign (exterior look as well as the addition of the 8 spd) and I love that over the years it has got the crawl control too since we like to head to the beach on the weekends (it's nice piece of mind to have even though the 4R has never left us stranded or given us cause for concern).
After all that, I guess what I'm asking is it a bad plan to wait 3-5 years after the 300 is released and try to find a lightly used, last model year 200 to pick up?
Is there some drawback to this other than not having the latest and greatest in creature comforts? I feel like the 2016 LC already has more than we'd ever need or want in that regard so for us it could be a 20-40K savings in purchase price to buy used.
When we buy one, we're buying it with the intention of keeping it for at least 15 years, 20 is the goal.
(my biggest fear with this plan is the LC300 will go unibody and the late/last model year 200's will be hard to come by and prices will inflate because of this...)