It’s a Lexus, so it must be dear

Hello Mr Baraza,

I recently saw some car dealers on Facebook selling the Lexus LX 570 for Sh25 million while the Toyota Landcruiser V8 was going for roughly Sh12 million.  I did some research and learnt  hat the two cars are basically the same, going by their specs.

Furthermore, the most expensive Lexus cost $90,000 (Sh9,090,000), according to their website. What could be the reason for the huge price difference? 

Clinton

Hello Clinton, and welcome to a very contentious issue: the pricing of Toyota and its various products and sub-products.

The big-boy Landcruiser has been Toyota’s flagship for many years, serving up equal doses of unbeatable reliability, everyday practicality, off-the-chart off-road mettle and sensible pricing. Things changed a little when the 200 Series came around: unfortunately, Toyota had been paying too much attention to American rap videos and they noticed two things in them: a Cadillac Escalade and a Range Rover Vogue.

So what did they do? They first transformed their overachieving off-roader into an Escalade by making an already large vehicle even bigger,  heavier, flashier, and thirstier and full of electronic stuff no one really needs. This seriously compromised its previous mud-plugging talents — though admittedly the 200 is still very capable, just not as capable as the old 80 or 105.

It seems like they wanted to get a Toyota into a rap video and the idea of creating a whole new Toyota model for this must have been met with threats of mutiny from the bean counters at Toyota City, so they decided the Landcruiser will just have to serve the purpose. Instead, what happened was the car was bought by members of parliament and possibly drug dealers, people who have no business going off-road unless they are seeking votes or escaping from the authorities, oftentimes both. In America, which is the sole reason the 200 Series transformed into what it is in the first place, home-making, soccer-mom dentists’ wives were the target market because over there politicians and drug dealers ride Cadillacs, not Toyotas.

There was still the sweet Range Rover action to get in on and the burgeoning Mercedes-Benz GL market to interfere with, just in case some dentist’s wives were unswayed by the bright work now festooning the Landcruiser’s sheet metal... also because politicians locally seemed to have bottomless pockets and were buying them by the boatload. How to compete with a Range Rover? Simple.

HARDCORE CAPITALISTS

Turn up the wick on the price index. Charge it like money is going out of fashion, which is why the latest URJ202 (if they sell it at all) or VDJ202 now costs Sh22 million from Toyota Kenya. That price is difficult to justify, especially considering that this same vehicle cost about Sh14 million before the facelift.

Now, the Lexus. In the highly discriminative mind of the American car buyer, Toyota is a Japanese company selling cheap cars for ordinary folks, like the Tercel and the Corolla. As a dentist’s wife with a combined annual income well north of half a million dollars, one cannot be seen driving a vehicle of the same brand that terrorists, freedom fighters and insurgents believe in.

There are also people who remember the Second World War and Pearl Harbour and want nothing to do with Japan. But Toyotas are reliable and incredibly well built. So how to have a Toyota without actually having a Toyota? Enter Lexus.

Even the name sounds expensive and lunar. Lexus evokes images of extraterrestrial or astrological bodies, like the name of a star, or a galaxy or the thirteenth sign of the zodiac. Originally highly specced and rebadged top-rung Toyotas, the Lexus now has its own discrete-from-Toyota vehicle models in the lineup (with one or two Toyota twins still clinging on to the L badge), vehicles that are tacky and  ostentatious.

With the current 200 Series Landcruiser, they took an already compromised vehicle and hobbled it further by adding more flash (extra bodywork and low-profile tyres) and more electricity (things I’ve never heard of like BSM and RCTA) to create the LX570. They then imbued it with a face that looks simultaneously threatening and disapproving and slapped a $97,000 (Sh9,797,000) price tag on it then sold it to high-flying, uber-rich snobs.

To this Sh 9,797,000 add the various import taxes and dealer markups at every step between the Lexus factory and the end user to get your Sh25 million. The car is targeted at hardcore capitalists, so expect to pay capitalist money to get one. With an astrological name comes an astronomical price.

You want to know what is a good deal? A 100 Series. Capable and comely, along with all those other aforementioned Toyota virtues, used examples are going for as low as Sh2 million, perhaps 3.5 on the upper side: the same price you’d pay for a used Prado. And yes, this also applies to the Lexus version, the LX470.

Anecdote: back in 2012, Toyota Kenya had a Camry that they sold for $95,000. Yes, you read that right: a car that slots below the Mercedes-Benz C Class cost more than an E Class, and inquiries as to why were met with stony silence. Is it any surprise, then, that the J150 costs Sh10 million and the J202 more than twice that much?

The answer to your question is simple: because they can.

****** 

Hello Mr Baraza,

I’m a huge fan of your Car Clinic column. Keep up the good work.

Now to my question: after you mentioned the 2017 Mercedes Benz E Class, I was very intrigued so I wanted to know if they have started selling it in Kenya and if they are, will you give an in-depth review of the car?

Keep up the good work.

Clinton

Hello Clinton,

We seem to have a number of Clintons today, huh? Anyway: yes, the new Mercedes-Benz E-Klasse is currently on sale in Kenya. You can avail yourself of an entry-level E200 at about €90,000 if I recall correctly. Later on, DT Dobie will provide the E250 and the E300, after which they will introduce the AMG-lite E43. Pricing on these unintroduced models is still unspecified as we speak, but expect the range to vary between Sh90,000 for the E200 and Sh150,000 for the AMG (*Note: this is conjecture on my part and in no way reflects the actual pricing when the 250, 300 and 43 come out).

An in-depth review will definitely be in the books since they promised me a test drive in the foreseeable future. I am particularly looking forward to its self-driving abilities; it is not fully autonomous but it does have some level of Asimov-esque, droid-like sentience which I am deeply curious about.

****** 

Dear JM Baraza,

I am a big fan of yours. I really enjoy reading your informative articles which have a tinge of humour in them. I buy the Wednesday paper just to read your pieces, which by the way should be increased from two to four  pages. I have learnt a lot about cars through them. I no longer consider myself a novice in this area.

My only regret is that I have missed a couple of your articles and fear asking questions which you have already tackled. Kindly advise on where/which site we can find the previous articles or if you have online publications.

Keep up the good work!

Kev

I hope the powers-that-be upstairs are reading this. An increase in page occupancy would be welcome (I can tell longer stories and maybe put up more pictures!), more so if it comes with a corresponding increase in take-home pay (I can afford longer and more elaborate road tests!).

You may have missed one or two previous write-ups, but don’t be alarmed. There is an archive of it somewhere on the Internet. In fact, just such a repository exists for more recent material (www.motoringpressagency.com) which has the added benefit of featuring a motorcycle-loving colleague whom I refer to as a “staff writer”.

Some of the articles in it too are the raw, original unedited versions of what I submitted for publishing. Some of them have never been published. There are videos also (not many, though...)

Happy holidays everybody, and see you next year!