Toyota has announced MY2021 will be the end for the J200 LC. No great surprise as it seems to have become a Sequoia priced against the Lexus LX, with annual sales ~3,600 vehicles. Rumors are that a J300 LC is in the works. Toyota's 1958 LC (first year sold in U.S.) was a CJ-5 look-alike. Maybe the J300 will be a G challenger - boxy, turbo-charged and $150,000.

 

Here is a good shot of both. I’m looking forward to adding the next generation LC to the stable. I’ve had 3 Land Cruisers as daily drivers and driven them a combined 500,000 miles. Obviously it’s nothing at all like a G but they are very tough very reliable trucks.

 

Toyota hasn't sold all that many Land Cruisers per year in the USA for quite some time, so the annual sales numbers aren't a shock. What is potentially a shock (especially for LC fans) is that there are rumors that the Toyota 300 series won't be sold in the USA, though there's a lot of speculation that it will come here as the Lexus version. One of the problems with Land Cruiser sales in the USA is that the Land Cruiser is a LOT more expensive than just about anything else on a Toyota lot. Buyers who are looking to spend $85K or more are a lot more likely to end up at a Lexus dealership, so selling the 300 series only as a Lexus in the USA may make a lot of sense. I just hope they rethink the hideous front grill that the LX570 currently has.

 

*I have garage ceiling height envy*

 

It was underpowered, I traded in my Lexus GX 460 Luxury for my G 63. I’ve owned 9 new Lexus and won’t be going back. After the fuel pump recall on the LC 500 and the fuel pump recall on the GX 460, I’m done with Lexus. The service at the dealership didn’t meet my expectations. They installed the fuel pump improperly on my GX, it didn’t idle properly/rough idle after the fuel pump recall, once the idle dropped so low, I lost my power brakes at a stoplight. I told the dealership that it was not running properly after the recall. The shop foreman came out and said if something was really wrong, it would trip the check engine light which it did a week later. The service manager was rude and told me I have three options, take it to Toyota for a scan, if fuel related they would reimburse me, send it to the dealership on a rollback at my expense or take my chances and drive it to the dealership. I drove it to the dealership 120 miles away leaking fuel. It was outrageous, they didn’t even have a loaner vehicle. I waited in the showroom for 3 hours waiting to find out they installed the fuel pump improperly. They told me not to walk somewhere to get something to eat because they wanted me to be around when they found out what was wrong. I’ve entered into a class action lawsuit against Toyota/Lexus. The LC 500 had both high and low pressure fuel pumps replaced because of a fire risk. I couldn’t drive it for 2 months. Lexus was supposed to reimburse me for the equivalent of 2 payments which never happened. They made it almost impossible to get a rental car. The LC 500 was recalled again for the low pressure pump. I sold it for a Porsche GT3. I was in a rental car for 95 days with my GX waiting for the redesigned fuel pump that was inadequate and installed improperly.

 

i have a 18 foot garage ceiling as well! But my opening barely allows for the G. Can’t consider lifting it by too much if that ever happens down the road.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with your local dealers. My experience with the local Toyota and Lexus dealers over the years has been very good. I had a 2006 Lexus LX-470 that had the infotainment unit (the screen and controls) fail while under warranty a couple days before I was planning to leave with it on a trip to Canada. They had the replacement part shipped overnight and told me I could take the RX loaner on the trip if the part didn't arrive in time; they had it fixed in time for the trip. Their 3rd party installer botched a Lojack install when I initially bought the car to the point that the vehicle had to be replaced - that was a bit more challenging to deal with, but they did replace the vehicle without having to get a lawyer involved.

My Mercedes experience was a bit more of a mixed bag. The dealer I bought my 2014 G550 from tried to tell me that the driver window going up and down MUCH slower (and half the speed) than the passenger window was fine because another one that was in for service was doing the same thing. When a new dealer located much closer to me opened, I took it to them and they fixed it. That closer dealer changed owners and has gone downhill since. They still aren't bad, but not like they were under the first owner. I did have some issues with parts availability on my 2017 G63 - it took the dealer 9 months to get replacements for cracked tail lights (covered under warranty) and when they finally arrived, one was defective. The 9 month wait started in September of 2019, so only part of the long delay could be blamed on Covid (they made the mistake of trying to blame the entire delay on Covid). All in all, I loved my 3 G's, but keeping them long term definitely means keeping some money in the budget for expensive repairs as even seemingly minor and routine things are expensive, which is the nature of the beast. I decided to move on because I wanted to shift a larger percent of my budget into preparing for retirement, but even though I'm really happy with my new Land Cruiser, I do miss the G63 in some ways - the extra horsepower was definitely fun (and useful at times) to have, there's no denying the G has much more distinctive styling, and the quality of the interior materials (leather, wood / carbon fiber) is definitely higher.

But the fact of the matter is that 1 or 2 bad experiences will sour people on a brand. It doesn't matter if the brand is widely considered the most reliable brand on the planet because that doesn't help when you're the recipient of poor service.

 

Wow. That’s a surprise I wonder if the 2021 Heritage Edition will become a collectible in the future. I’ve always wanted an LC and if I didn’t like the G more this would be a reason to get a new heritage edition for me

 

My detailer posted this picture on their social media showing my G with some nice company--new RS6 and a heritage edition Land Cruiser. May be worth something in the future, LC seem to hold their value pretty well also like most Toyota trucks/SUVs.

 

The dealers apparently think so. There was a 2020 heritage edition at a Denver dealer that was listed at MSRP + $5K (HE MSRP is already ~ $3K more than the standard LC for a set of BBS wheels and some special badging). But with 1 out of 3 LCs sold in the US being HEs, I think they'll get discounted substantially. LCs are great trucks, but Toyota has to do something to clear their lots of a discontinued vehicle, and a special version must be it.

 

I’m surprised that it took so long for Toyota to realize. Love the LC but with lx570 and sequoia, there has been a redundancy. I do think tho LC still kinda stand on its on

 

wow, this is a bit of a surprise. My wife an I still swear by best experience at Lexus dealership workshops, experience it first hand in Austin TX and then in San Jose CA. it just takes one bad experience to ding the brand and it seems like you got more than one. I’m glad you got the gt3, Porsche reliability and service from my experience has been awesome.

 

Same here - Lexus has treated me like a valued customer. MB regards me an annoyance -- "we cashed your check - now go away".

 

Porsche St. Louis has great service and they’re great to deal with, they always give me a new SUV to use when I have my vehicle serviced. Both STL Lexus dealerships are terrible. Lexus STL changed their general manager about 3 years ago and the dealership went downhill. Plaza Lexus IS also terrible, the general manager acted like since I was one of the first to receive the updated fuel pump, I was a guinea pig even though they had step by step instructions on how to install the fuel pump and still installed it improperly. The Lexus central zone office has been great, but not everyone has access to their office or manager. Lexus customer relations treated me like the insurance company, bean counters and I refused to be treated that way. Lexus IS getting stale and going away from V8 engines. The central zone office promised the equivalent of 2 payments when I couldn’t drive my LC 500 for 2 months. I never received anything. They made it almost impossible to receive a rental vehicle and both times wouldn’t store my vehicles. I had to take a car service to pick up a rental vehicle even though I have 2 Enterprise locations where I live. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I would have had to go back to STL every 30 days to renew the rental agreement and would have had to drive the rental vehicle back to STL to return it. They offered to flatbed my vehicles both ways, but if there was any damage, I would be responsible. They sent me back to the dealership 120 miles from my home leaking fuel!

 

Sorry to hear that. My service has been great with Toyota on the LC, though its mostly been routine maintenance brakes, oil change, tires and a couple of timing belt changes on the prior LC’s 1997 and 2003 models. The 2017 I have now hasn’t had any problems and it’s approaching 85,000 miles. I’ll trade it on the next generation in 2022 if it’s more rugged as the rumor mill promises.

 

It sounds like you may have to switch to an LX to get one in the USA. Not sure if you're a member of the IH8MUD forum, but Eric Sargeant, who is the general manager of a very Land Cruiser friendly dealership in Ohio, has said the 200 won't be sold in the USA as a LC. I wouldn't be shocked if we don't get the LC for a few years, perhaps to build up demand, and then they bring it back. But there have also been some theories that Lexus will offer a more off road biased trim level for the LX, which would presumably have a less ridiculous front bumper than the current LX570 has. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. Either way, I'm really interested to see what they do with the 300 series, but I'll most likely be keeping my 2020 LC for a while.