Thread: The rising price of vehicles

The merc and 70 series are specialist vehicles and there isn't much to compare them to on the market as far as strength goes. They are built to work hard and the volumes are small, so the manufacturer can ask silly money.

DC Utes are pretty affordable IMO, if you don't get sucked into buying a Ranger Wildtrack. Top of the range Triton is a steal, lower spec Amarok is well priced and even the recently released bottom spec V6 Amarok looks like good value. HiLux SR5 auto with luxury pack can be had for low 50s which isn't too bad IMO.

Depends what you are wanting to buy I guess.

i'd argue that the Puma Defender offered the least value for money on the market at the time, if you start looking at specs/features/safety/NVH etc.

The Defender was a specialist vehicle too. Hence the second hand prices now. Similar infact to equivalent second hand 70 series. Defender was always under priced in the market IMO. If they'd put airbags in it, would have been better spec than 70 series.

What is specialist about a Defender?
It was the most agricultural vehicle sold in the last 20 years. Owners just will not admit it.
I think any other 4wd built in the last 20 years was ergonomically superior to the defender.
I also think I have heard every reply I'm about to get.
I also know that for every reply I get I can give you a horror story about defender reliability back.
Facts are facts and if your defender puts a smile on your dial every time you get in and drive it then I am genuinely happy for you.
I have owned 2 Land Rovers and have enjoyed many happy times in both.

ok blaze away....

btw, I agree though that the upper end of 4wds are rediculously priced.

If it wasn't for the faithful nutters, defenders would never get sold. Least features of any 4wd on the market, they are only good for their intended purpose because of the work that the owners put in to make them better.

I've done more outback K's than most and the only thing I did to my defenders to make them better was fit axle flanges.They have the least amount of features but what they have works. Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

I've done more outback K's than most and the only thing I did to my defenders to make them better was fit axle flanges.They have the least amount of features but what they have works. Pat

Yep, I agree, although mine was over 20 years old and needed a rebuild to bring it back up to speed. They are simple things, but they work very well.

have a look at the 2nd hand prices of any 4wd with low range and solid front and rear axles is bloody silly
for anything decent you are looking at least 10k no matter age and it goes up from their.

for the cruiser's pretty much everything they can land is sold on arrival, and most large companies like mines dont care about their price because its a tax write off so more is better, but their resale is so good as well because its so hard to get a new.

defenders well their was so little sold here that their rarity and people who desire them keeps the price up.

with Suv prices i really cant work out what is happening, all i can put it down to is people (mostly grey nomads, or those who were lucky and got a house in a city 10 years ago are buying them with their property equity) are buying them ether for a lap or for status for a lap they want something comfortable large and are willing to pay, for status more expensive = more status.
but unlike before where their was massive losses on luxury sedans because the masses where buying falodore's but now everyone wants a suv and due to their being a lack of second hand suv's due to only being massively popular for the last 20 years their is not this massive amount of vehicles that has everything flooded.
so with the exodus of families from sedans and cars to suv's and dual cabs its keeping used suv's up so manufactures see this and assume well we can put our prices up and make more money and people will still buy and they have.

i guess in anther 10 years when the current flood of suv's and the continued amount sold will flood the market and drive price's down, depending on how the newier vechiles last over the longer term which is up in the air due to emissions and fuel consumption regulations (ie ford ecoboost is replacement only atm)

Originally Posted by Zeros

....

It seems that rather than competition reducing prices of 4x4 vehicles in Australia, they are increasing more rapidly than ever. .....

From about 2014 the Aussie dollar has taken a massive hit. From close to 1:1 parity with the USD, down to 0.7USD by the end of 2015.
That conversion rate would have taken some time to affect the price of new stocks, so from about 2016 and onwards we'd have seen the price impact ... of course upwards!

That's the price you pay when you don't have any locally sourced product, it will fluctuate with the value of the currency.