A Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series seller has been slammed on social media after resorting to drastic measures to preserve the value of his new vehicle.

According to the original Facebook listing, the seller said he had his 2024 LandCruiser V8 ute towed to his garage after taking delivery.

The brand-new car is listed with just 28km on the odometer, with the seller stating it will “[stay] like that until sold”.

Related: What was Toyota’s first car in Australia?

“No more of these gonna be made very good investment [sic] last of the V8 waited 2 years for it,” the seller wrote.

Despite retail prices starting from approximately $83,500, this owner is looking to capitalise on the exclusivity of the vehicle by selling their Toyota LandCruiser V8 for $117,000 – potentially pocketing an additional $33,500 if a buyer is willing to meet their inflated selling price.

The seller’s post erupted on social media. In a now-deleted Reddit post, users on the social media platform condemned the owner’s decision to tow the new vehicle back to his garage in a bid to increase the value of the car.

“Definitely purchased the car to flip it at a higher price, wasn’t towed for any other reason than to maintain the low km. Car flippers are only valid if they actually restore/maintain neglected used vehicles, this is leech activity,” a Reddit commenter posted on the thread.

“These types of people wait for the news that a model of [a] car is going to be discontinued then buy them as an investment knowing they’ll go up in price once [the car] is out of the dealership due to rarity,” another user wrote.

“Maybe [its] time for scalping laws to affect more than Taylor Swift tickets.”

“Car scalpers are a different breed.”

However, some Reddit users came to the defence of the reseller’s actions.

“I wouldn’t say [he’s a] car flipper, just opportunistic. Who wouldn’t want $40k+ tax-free doing **** all,” one user commented.

While another alluded to buyer’s actions that condone this type of behaviour.

“I used to hate scalpers but I feel the buyers that feed this grey industry are just as much to blame,” they said.

Though this specific seller has garnered negative attention from social media, it is worth nothing other sellers are also looking to capitalise on the limited release, with a range of 2024 LandCruiser 70 Series V8s listings popping up online at a similar resale price.

The inflated prices could be the result of the Japanese car giant previously announcing the end of the V8 engine in the 70 Series line-up.

As reported by Drive earlier this month, Toyota Australia confirmed the V8 variant would be axed from the LandCruiser 70 Series rnage, starting in September 2024.

Toyota said orders for the popular V8 ute would not reopen as it continues to fulfil a two-year backlog of customer allocations.

Sean Hanley, Toyota Australia’s sales and marketing boss, said the decision to cull the LandCruiser 70 Series V8 was “inevitable due to the changing regulations and community expectations”.

“This [decision] was not completely driven by [the] NVES (New Vehicle Efficiency Standard), though it played a part. I wish I could tell you we were so agile that we could move so [quickly] from March of this year.

“But the hardcore reality is we’ve been planning this for a long, long time.

“Community sentiment has played the biggest role – consumer expectation that companies will take care, and be aware of their environmental commitments,” Hanley previously said in a media statement.

While Toyota cannot do anything about the price-gouging that would come as a result of the limited runs of its final V8 LandCruisers, Hanley said Toyota’s leadership will clamp down on dealerships inflating the prices on these exclusive models.

“Obviously the value of these cars is going to go up incredibly overnight. We are acutely aware of behaviours that could be brought on because of this and we are going to put in very strong processes to try and negate those behaviours,” Hanley previously told media, including Drive.

The post This brand-new LandCruiser V8 just got towed to a garage – but not why you might think appeared first on Drive.

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