’Cruiser scales the market heights

FOR sheer loyalty, reputation and just plain dominance in its sector, you cannot go past Toyota’s LandCruiser.

It is the rock on which Toyota’s leadership in commercial vehicles – and its overall reputation – was built all those decades ago and, it could be argued, is therefore the rock on which the company’s market dominance sits.

With the release of the 200 series in May 2007, Toyota cashed in on the market’s ingrained loyalty to the ’Cruiser, moving the range further upmarket and giving Australia its first $100,000 LandCruiser if you wanted the diesel V8 at launch in 2007.

Now even the top petrol model exceeds that threshold, with the diesel $10,000 more again. Yet, despite this distinct repositioning with the latest model, it still sells and sells.

Toyota has attempted to burnish the LandCruiser’s image with references to its early days in Australia as a workhorse on the Snowy Mountains Scheme in the late 1950s, trying to trigger feelings of national pride with Australian buyers.

From top: Nissan Patrol, BMW X5, Land Rover Discovery.

The LandCruiser is a phenomenon. The chart shows just how much pent up demand there was when the new model was released. People waited for months for their new 200 Series, which was the first all-new ’Cruiser in 10 years.

There is clearly a distinct fall-off in sales in the first half of 2008 but, while it was down a whopping 50 per cent, it was mostly about coming off the crest of pent-up demand. LandCruiser owners do not worry about fuel prices, it seems.

The ’Cruiser is still far and away the sector leader, selling at least 50 per cent more than the next best competitor. The large SUV sector took a hit during the petrol price surge, falling from 3.7 per cent of the whole market to a low of 2.7 per cent in December, but it has since bounced back to 3.4 per cent in April.

Nissan’s Patrol has soldiered on basically in second place, although it appears to be losing ground to two luxury models, the X5 and the Discovery, which are challenging for second outright.

This is less a head-to-head battle with the Patrol than a reflection that the Patrol is nearing the end of its cycle, with a new model due in 2011. Sales are slipping as more Nissan buyers choose to wait.

The performance of the X5 has been notable. The development of the high-speed SUV market was BMW’s last win in the find-a-new-niche game and the X5 and X3 have kept BMW at the top in luxury SUVs. Their sales are lifted perhaps seven per cent by the X6 – the car with no niche.

Lexus has had a similar success with its RX range, which includes the only luxury hybrid SUV. The RX contributes about a third of Lexus sales in Australia.

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