Patrol and LandCruiser updates set to tackle new markets

Extensive changes to the local light commercial market exclusively previewed by CarPoint last week will extend into the heavy duty 4x4 market in 2007.

In key news for primary producers, towing fans and offroaders alike, the Nissan Patrol and Toyota LandCruiser ranges will change in 2007.

Toyota's new LandCruiser range, already delayed, will be launched in two stages. The replacement for the long-running 70 Series which has steadily evolved from the 1985 release, is due in the second quarter of 2007. The 100 Series replacement already described by CarPoint

However, this is not the big news.

Most Australians found that the current 100 Series grew as much as it needed to when it replaced the 80 Series in 1998. In a declining heavy-duty 4x4 market and a climate of rising fuel costs, the 100 Series replacement is arguably going to be too big for most buyers as it approaches the Chevrolet Suburban/Ford F-series in size. As the LandCruiser Prado becomes more of a city sophisticate, this opens up a gap between the Prado and the new 100 Series replacement for a rugged passenger wagon that revives the 1990 80 Series in price, size and positioning.

The clear distinction between the current 70 Series commercial and 100 Series passenger vehicle applications has not always been that way here or overseas. In 1985, Toyota launched a softer, passenger version of the 70 Series with coil springs called the Bundera in Australia.

Although the Bundera didn't take off, CarPoint believes that the market is ready for a diesel-powered short and medium wheelbase revival of that vehicle when the 70 Series replacement arrives before June next year.

It is significant that Mitsubishi has re-entered the short wheelbase heavy-duty passenger market with its latest Pajero. A new two and four-door passenger wagon version of the replacement 70 Series in conjunction with the Prado will give Toyota two totally different 4x4 ranges to counter the likes of Pajero and Nissan's Pathfinder.

This in turn will allow the 100 Series replacement and its Lexus spin-off to own the position as Australia's biggest and most powerful heavy-duty offroader. Although it will be expensive, this vehicle will be virtually unopposed even if LandRover and Mercedes-Benz are staking their claims on the luxury end of this market.

This leaves the Nissan Patrol in a challenging interim position through 2007 when its replacement is still some time away. Nissan is currently running out the old 4.2-litre diesel in its wagon and cab-chassis and won't replace it after stocks run out in 2007.

Along with the current petrol engine, the 4.2 diesel accounts for less than 20 per cent of sales.

Nissan is responding to current concerns over fuel costs by allocating its resources to the 3-litre turbodiesel which already accounts for 80 per cent of Patrol sales. This engine will be upgraded early in 2007 ready for it to take over as the sole diesel option in the Patrol wagon and cab-chassis.

CarPoint believes this move will allow Nissan to offer a competitively priced and relatively frugal top-of-the-range Patrol wagon and cab-chassis to compete against Toyota's new mid-ranger.

This leaves the powerful 4.8-litre petrol version of the Patrol in the middle while leaving the ever diminishing top-end of this market to Toyota. 

Nissan and Toyota's moves might also explain why Ford is making a real effort to clear the last of its Explorer stocks before 2007.

The second-generation Explorer (which arrived late in 2001) was a dramatic improvement over the infamous earlier model, but sales suffered immediately on the release of the local Territory.

Ford has allowed the US-built Explorer to trickle on in 4.6-litre V8 and 4.0-litre V6 petrol versions but that comes to an end at the close of 2006.

Which opens up some opportunities for canny shoppers. One Melbourne dealer is advertising fully-equipped brand new V6 Explorers at under $40,000 driveaway -- around $18,000 off normal list price. A bargain in anyone's language...