FINALLY! While everyone was discussing the death of the Land Cruiser and alleging Lexus was unprofitable, our admin here privately shared that the big news about the Land Cruiser was its change in direction and bypassed all the pessimism in knowing the future.
Although a date wasn't given back then, I wisely figured out on my own, that the launch MY had to be 2024. I initially didn't disclose it, due to incomplete certainty, but I came out ahead in getting right. Launch was targeted for CY 2023 for MY 2024. Why?
There's no way the audience who were told this in September 2019, were going to be informed about a vehicle not in development already. I had seen documentation in early 2020, that charted out to launches through January 1, 2023. Land Cruiser, Camry, and Tacoma weren't on that list like Tundra, Sequoia, and 4Runner (delayed).
It was pretty obvious at that point in February 2020, the MY was 2024. And right it was. 4Runner, GX and Prado probably were intended to launch in late 2022 before this Land Cruiser came to USA in 2023.
With 4Runner, I can explain that.
Two years ago, my supply chain source met me while correcting my steadfast assertion, that the 4Runner redesign was coming for MY 2023, warning me it was MY 2024 for January 2024 SOP as of June 2021. Embarrassed, I chose to be diplomatic and thank him for the correction.
From there, I got a reliable, but not perfect information source. Currently, 4Runner is MY 2025 and will be announced later this year. Land Cruiser is September 2023, per another source I share with another forum member, keeping us up to date.
He has more news for us every single conversation, amongst some others I reach out to often.
Compact Cruiser production vehicle is also coming to market on TNGA-C and the prototype vehicles have come through his facility, including several others I won't name publicly.
A big thanks to
@Gor134,
@TexasFunRunner, and
@Gecko
You have it right.
I must say though, GX isn't really an LX under the skin, but the modular GA-F basis maybe just ties them closely now? Kind of like the MRA 2 modular architecture for the S-Class (W223), E-Class (W214), C-Class (W206) and at BMW, CLAR/35up for 7/5/3 plus SAVs.
