That’s the craziest part. It’s happened so fast with Defenders.That was only 12 years ago...
+ they became fashionable + loose monetary policyI think what also changed was the defender went out of production
That's basically what Land Rover is doing now, except the RR and Disco have been moved farther upmarket too. I prefer Defenders to stay utilitarian. I love how they were available in so many different configurations to suit actual work, on the farm, industry, military, etc. Now they are just people movers like all the other boring SUVs.Would have been better for the market if Range Rovers had stayed expensive and Defenders cheap.
Now it's reversed and it's popular to try to turn Defs into Range Rovers, and end up with something that's neither.
Hard to see how any of it makes sense.
Why didn't Rover just pimp out Defenders instead of building Range Rovers and Discos?
This is why I want a new 4runner (or wrangler or GX460). The prado is still made along with the 4runner in Japan and I think the GX460 too. I am not sure what a 97 prado goes for these days, but nice LHD 70 series cruisers are very expensive. And I don’t care what it is, it’s 25 years old so not new so they will need stuff (even if it is just service things). And when newish and I was at the dealer, I would not say my beloved NAS defenders, discovery, and Range Rover classics would be considered reliable. Durable yes.After look at a few way overpriced rusty, crusty pieces of crap I came to the conclusion that it was time to move to a new platform. That's what brought me my 97 Prado.
That seems fairly reasonable although only one prado has a price on the site. I wonder what the LHD premium is. I know a lot of people don’t mind (or even prefer) RHD, but ….Average Prado is in the $19.500 range. Check out Vansfromjapan.com , that's where I got mine. Briggs did a PPI with knowledge given to him by @mgreenspan