[Stribog]

Many are mocking Toyota but Toyota Tacticals are a Jihadist favorite.

The TFTP of the US Treasury department ACTUALLY summoned Toyota officials over this.

In 2013 when the ISIS was running on Hilux and LC tacticals the US state department urged Toyota to figure out ways these vehicles were ending up in the hands of these outfits, create tracking mechanisms and report to the US State department. The supreme irony here though is the US itself delivered 100's of these to Syrian "rebels" during the Obama period.

Many wars have even been colloquially known by some variant of the Toyota name.

The NYT wrote about this way back in the 90's. Link,

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/23/a...-discreet.html

A Mujahideen commander during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was even nick named the "Toyota Mujh" because of his penchant for Land Cruisers (this was in the mid 80's)

Here is the list of the equipment used in that war - amongst kit like AK's, BMP's & BTR's (APC's) you will see the LandCruiser.

Fun fact - the Landcruiser was born as the 50's Japanese forerunner of something like the Hummer, which is why maybe it resonates with militas and militaries.

https://www.toyota.es/world-of-toyot...-cruiser-story

There even was a "Toyota War" between Chad and Libya - a brilliant masterpiece of mobility defeating a much larger, unwieldy conventional force. "Chad" Chad crushed a Virgin Libya (insert that meme here).

Libya, oil rich had a huge conventional army with decent MBT's (T-55's), dirt poor Chad had a 400 Toyota tacticals with the MILAN Saclos weapon mounted on it and much smaller numbers of the Panhard AML French reconnaissance tracked vehicles. Using this small force they ran rings around the Libyan Elephant.

Fact is, Toyota must be terrified of getting more summons or bad press and hence are at the very least getting plausible deniability.

[arun_m5]

There are US sanctions on a huge list of countries across the globe and almost all these places love the Land Cruiser. Avoiding resale to other countries through the grey market protects TMC against the violation of such sanctions which is a very serious issue and also limits their exposure from a PR stand point, as there has been increasing criticism and investigations on the use of Toyota vehicles by terror forces. Also one must not discount the ongoing chip crisis which has caused entire auto factories to come to a halt.

This is definitely a good move by Toyota, one that also ensures that rightful owners receive their cars and that scalpers that profit off selling through the grey market are held on a tight leash. A ban from buying a Toyota vehicle is definitely a strong deterrant.

[Mustang Sammy]

Makes perfect sense IMO.
After all, the new car smell is a must-have for the Taliban, ISIS and other such big Toyota customers.
</sarc>

[Everlearner]

Originally Posted by arun_m5

There are US sanctions on a huge list of countries across the globe and almost all these places love the Land Cruiser. Avoiding resale to other countries through the grey market protects TMC against the violation of such sanctions which is a very serious issue and also limits their exposure from a PR stand point...

True. If US decides to put some sanctions on Toyota, it will be hugely detrimental to its business as a global conglomerate. If and when an investigation happens, this event will act as a sort of insurance to prove Toyota is innocent.

BTW, negative marketing really works

[CarNerd]

Toyota should start making military vehicles I'm sure they would be profitable from the word go..

[PratikPatel]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

I'm assuming this Ad was orginal and created by Toyota itself and not the handiwork of pranksters.

While ad may or may not be true, it does represent a very bitter fact about Toyota & it’s business practices. It was a open secret in the late 90s and early 2000, that Al Futtaim, Toyota’s exclusive dealer and distributor in UAE had corporate sales division that dealt exclusively is bulk sales. Most of the sales was to African warlords & other such fringe organisations. Banned Organisations like Hizbullah would freely order vehicles through phone calls and wire transfers. Large batches of Land Cruiser and Hilux used to be loaded every week with minimal paper work from Dubai port. In those days financial controls were lax in UAE, one could (many did so) transfer huge sums without any scrutiny and bag loads of cash would be accepted without a blink of eye.

[Turbanator]

Both LC & LX have been in demand in some of the markets where either Toyota does not sell directly or there is a huge difference between prices of Brand new from Toyota vs barely used Old. As an example, LX retails in Canada at 1,15 K CAD, one of the cheapest worldwide and until about last Year, there was a large demand for one year or less old cars. Some of the dealers will pay you over the MSRP. So, Toyota Dealers will insist on a Lease rather than an outright purchase. Similarly even 2 or 3 year old vehicles will hardly depreciate as these will be picked up by wholesalers and then shipped to Russia/ China and many other East EU countries as old Cars.

LC-300 will have a huge demand, irrespective of how the vehicle delivers and we can already see the long wait list. It’s only natural for Toyota to keep a tab on the sales as they have planned for a region. Given the present day demand for these vehicles, I won’t be surprised that this huge mismatch continues for a couple of Years. To give an idea, I can practically sell my 3 Year old LC at about same rates as I had bought originally despite being a 12 Year old Model. I can’t think of any other make or model that can come close.

[avira_tk]

It seems people have swallowed American propaganda about middle eastern terrorists and African warlords without questioning. The Americans have imposed sanctions on organisations that refuse to have their kids shot in the head for throwing rocks, but supply arms to countries that have their soldiers shoot the unarmed kids. The reason Toyota is being targeted is simply because it is Japanese. Imagine using Ford/GM/FCA products in a war zone, unless you have a dedicated garage, most of your vehicles and fighters won't come back. African warlords are A OK when they run the mines that supply the raw materials for the EV batteries. The good kind according to the OFAC, even they use Toyotas, I saw a recent documentary from the Congo(DRC) about a "rehabilitated" warlord, going around in a Prado convoy.

The Land Cruiser is something an American brand can never hope to make, so they go crying to big daddy government to shut down the competition. American brands consider their manufacturing operations as a distraction from their financing operations, that is why their junk falls apart in 3 years i.e. whenever the lease expires.

Toyota should not be allowed to put restrictions on resale, they have no business with the vehicle after it is sold. The restrictions I believe have more to do with their distribution agreements in those regions where this car is top dog.