Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series V8 order books remain closed

There is still no word on when orders for the LandCruiser 70 Series V8 diesel will resume – amid reports suggesting the 4.5-litre engine has less than two years left to live.

Order books for the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series V8 workhorse will remain closed for the foreseeable future as Toyota Australia continues to work through a backlog of existing orders.

It comes amid unverified overseas reports the 4.5-litre V8 will be cut from the line-up over the next two years – casting doubt over whether orders will ever resume, and for how long.

Toyota Australia says it still has 12 to 18 months worth of V8-powered Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series to clear – even though orders were paused 18 months ago, in mid-2022 – however the company is hopeful wait times will be reduced next year.

LandCruiser 70 Series buyers without an existing order can freely order the newly-introduced 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel engine option – with a six-speed automatic transmission, rather than the V8’s five-speed manual.

Customers with an existing order will be given the option to remain in the queue for the V8 – or switch to a four-cylinder model and take delivery in a shorter timeframe.

MORE: 2024 Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series review – Australian first drive

Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley told Drive at the recent local launch for the 70 Series that wait times for customers at the end of the 70 Series V8 queue are “actually closer to 18 months”.

However, the executive said: “I suspect by mid next year, we can bring that down to under 12 months.”

“We do believe a number of the [customers in the] V8 order bank – which is quite significant – will probably opt to move to the four-cylinder. Meaning we can get that [vehicle delivered] a little quicker for them,” said Mr Hanley.

Asked why Toyota Australia is not ready to resume orders for the V8, Mr Hanley said that “until we could see a clear path to exhaust the existing order bank, it wouldn’t be right to open it up.”

“We will constantly monitor the V8 order bank. And if we see an opportunity to open that window, we will do it.”

The Toyota executive told Drive there are no plans to discontinue the option of the 4.5-litre 1VD-FTV diesel V8 isn’t going anywhere for now.

However days after Mr Hanley made the above comments to Drive, reports emerged out of South Africa claiming the V8 will be dropped from the 76 Series wagon in August 2024 – followed by the other body styles in August 2025.

Toyota is yet to comment on, or confirm the reports.

“We have no end date, and our first priority right now is to exhaust what is a fairly extensive V8 order bank we have,” Mr Hanley told Drive at the media event – prior to the publication of the South African report.

“We are committed to try and exhaust that first, and then we will determine [if we re-open orders] – based on [the sales] mix [between four-cylinder and V8] and the environment we go into – but we have no end date on V8 right now.”

MORE: Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series V8 to be axed within two years, report claims

If a large number of buyers in the V8 queue choose to move into a four-cylinder 70 Series LandCruiser, the order bank – and wait times for buyers at the end of the line – for the V8 will naturally shrink.

“I think fleet customers in particular will gravitate towards the four-cylinder LandCruiser, once they understand its capability,” Mr Hanley told Drive.

However the high-ranking Toyota executive also understands the inherent emotional appeal of the large-displacement engine in the V8 LandCruiser, in comparison to the four-cylinder model:

“We think the only barrier to going from the eight to the four cylinder will be more emotional and psychological because from a capability perspective, the four cylinder will do everything [buyers] need it to do.”

When asked whether there was any chance of increased production of the LandCruiser 70 Series, Mr Hanley said any changes would be “incremental” as production is limited by factory capacity.

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