Toyota Confirms Land Cruiser Buyers' Greatest Fear

We've known since last year that demand for the all-new 300 Series Toyota Land Cruiser has been exceptionally high. In Australia, for example, Toyota dealers were instructed tokeep their demo modelson hand for at least six months, suggesting there areproduction issues. Not even local VIP customers were allowed to buy them, no exceptions.

Last September, there was a rumor the waitlist could last up to four years. If that seems unbelievable then you'd better start believing. Toyota's official Japanese language website has just posted an update and an apology to customers confirming what these people fear most: afour-year delay.

"Thank you very much for considering and ordering our vehicles," the translated post states. "The Land Cruiser has been very well-received in Japan and around the world. We sincerely apologize that it will take a long time to deliver the Land Cruiser to you after you place an order. We sincerely apologize for this." And then it gets worse. "If you place an order now, the delivery time may be up to 4 years. We will do our utmost to shorten the delivery time for our customers. We appreciate your understanding in this matter."

Somehow we doubt a majority of these buyers will be completely forgiving. This is a deeply frustrating matter and it'll be interesting to see if Toyota somehow manages to fix the situation. Alternatively, these customers might decide to shop elsewhere. Four years is a very long time.

The new Land Cruiser is not coming to the US and Toyota has no future plans to do so (though anall-new Sequoiawill debut shortly). What the US is getting is the Land Cruiser's more luxurious twin, theLexus LX 600. Due to go on sale in the coming few months, the new LX does not appear to be affected by this delay. That'll be a huge sigh of relief for a lot of people.

Like the Land Cruiser, the LX 600 comes powered by a new 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 generating 409 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque. The motor is paired to a 10-speed automatic transmission that routes power to a full-time 4WD system.