4th Generation Toyota Century Thread [Officially Revealed]

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ssun30

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They sold only 83 Century SUVs in China last year. And the situation in Japan isn't much better. I don't think they will even reach the 50 units/months target of the 2018 Century sedan.

It's safe to say it's a sales flop at this point. The local brand is doing worse than import brands. Mitsubishi Group now use a Maybach Pullman as its VIP transport not a Century.
 
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carguy420

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ssun30 said:
They sold only 83 Century SUVs in China last year. And the situation in Japan isn't much better. I don't think they will even reach the 50 units/months target of the 2018 Century sedan.

It's safe to say it's a sales flop at this point. The local brand is doing worse than import brands. Mitsubishi Group now use a Maybach Pullman as its VIP transport not a Century.
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That's what TMC gets for being stingy and overly risk-averse. Literally using the mindset that's best reserved for econoboxes to make luxury cars.
 
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carguy420 said:
That's what TMC gets for being stingy and overly risk-averse. Literally using the mindset that's best reserved for econoboxes to make luxury cars.
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It's also a problem of TMC developing a path dependence on artificial scarcity to maximize profit, which is never a sustainable strategy because they don't exist in a vacuum.

They intentionally constrained the supply of many low volume products to drive up prices: most GR products globally, IS500 and LC500, Alphard/Vellfire/LM in Asia, LC300/LX in non-GCC countries, Crown in Japan, and almost every single product in China prior to 2021. Their goal was to make every low volume product a Veblen good, which worked briefly for the Alphard/LM in China. But in order to be a Veblen good, the product itself needs to be so good that it's irreplaceable by products of lower cost.

The reality is many potential customers were driven away by this artificial scarcity and lost trust in the brand; they instead go to other brands that have products available. I for example lost any interest in buying an IS500 or LS or LC because whenever I walk into a dealership I always get the answer "sorry we don't have the car available maybe come back in a few months".

Over time this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: Toyota limits supply to drive up prices -> customers lose interest -> demand for the product drops -> Toyota further limits the supply because they think lowering supply is the correct solution to dropping demand -> kill the product because the cycle becomes unsustainable.

So now they cap Century SUV production at 30 units per month which is a 70% drop from the G50 sedan (the one with the V12) and pat themselves on the back "we sold out every Century we produce, good job everyone".
 
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F1 Silver Arrows

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ssun30 said:
It's also a problem of TMC developing a path dependence on artificial scarcity to maximize profit, which is never a sustainable strategy because they don't exist in a vacuum.

They intentionally constrained the supply of many low volume products to drive up prices: most GR products globally, IS500 and LC500, Alphard/Vellfire/LM in Asia, LC300/LX in non-GCC countries, Crown in Japan, and almost every single product in China prior to 2021. Their goal was to make every low volume product a Veblen good, which worked briefly for the Alphard/LM in China. But in order to be a Veblen good, the product itself needs to be so good that it's irreplaceable by products of lower cost.

The reality is many potential customers were driven away by this artificial scarcity and lost trust in the brand; they instead go to other brands that have products available. I for example lost any interest in buying an IS500 or LS or LC because whenever I walk into a dealership I always get the answer "sorry we don't have the car available maybe come back in a few months".

Over time this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: Toyota limits supply to drive up prices -> customers lose interest -> demand for the product drops -> Toyota further limits the supply because they think lowering supply is the correct solution to dropping demand -> kill the product because the cycle becomes unsustainable.

So now they cap Century SUV production at 30 units per month which is a 70% drop from the G50 sedan (the one with the V12) and pat themselves on the back "we sold out every Century we produce, good job everyone".
Click to expand...
This would end if they just stopped using the allocation system and built cars to order, but they're quite slimy in this regard.
 
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carguy420

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ssun30 said:
It's also a problem of TMC developing a path dependence on artificial scarcity to maximize profit, which is never a sustainable strategy because they don't exist in a vacuum.

They intentionally constrained the supply of many low volume products to drive up prices: most GR products globally, IS500 and LC500, Alphard/Vellfire/LM in Asia, LC300/LX in non-GCC countries, Crown in Japan, and almost every single product in China prior to 2021. Their goal was to make every low volume product a Veblen good, which worked briefly for the Alphard/LM in China. But in order to be a Veblen good, the product itself needs to be so good that it's irreplaceable by products of lower cost.

The reality is many potential customers were driven away by this artificial scarcity and lost trust in the brand; they instead go to other brands that have products available. I for example lost any interest in buying an IS500 or LS or LC because whenever I walk into a dealership I always get the answer "sorry we don't have the car available maybe come back in a few months".

Over time this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: Toyota limits supply to drive up prices -> customers lose interest -> demand for the product drops -> Toyota further limits the supply because they think lowering supply is the correct solution to dropping demand -> kill the product because the cycle becomes unsustainable.

So now they cap Century SUV production at 30 units per month which is a 70% drop from the G50 sedan (the one with the V12) and pat themselves on the back "we sold out every Century we produce, good job everyone".
Click to expand...
Exactly, TMC is trying to sell their mass production style vehicles as if they are ultra high end hand built luxury cars or hypercars.
 
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CRSKTN said:
Can we confirm this thing rides on some mass market platform? Still have trouble comprehending that level of corner cutting.
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Isn't it built on a heavily-revised TNGA-K (Camry, Crown, ES, RX, TX) platform?
 
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ssun30

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It uses MacPherson Strut front suspension with coil springs. No air springs. No active stabilizer bars. The sedan has both.
 
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carguy420

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It's crazy how heavy the Century SUV is. Looking at the PDF specs from Toyota Japan's website, the Century SUV weighs 2570 kg/5666 lbs.

A Bentley Bentayga S with a 4L TT V8 weighs 5439 lbs according to Car and Driver. 227 lbs lighter than the Century SUV.

Btw, even the heaviest Land Cruiser 300 from the factory (3.3L turbodiesel V6 GR Sport) is 22 lbs lighter than the Centrury SUV.
 
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