1 month ago
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Some resellers are asking for $30,000 above the sticker price for a 2024 Toyota Prado for buyers to skip the 12-month-plus queue.
Toyota Australia’s new 2024 Prado might just be hitting showrooms now, but with high demand and low supply – at least for the next 12 months – chances are that most buyers wanting to buy one now will miss out.
At least they will if they buy through Toyota Australia.
As with any hot commodity, a vibrant reseller market will emerge as early adopters try and profit off those not willing to wait – and the 2024 Toyota Prado is no different.
Canvassing what is available on Facebook Marketplace across Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, we found 13 new 2024 Toyota Prados, also known as the LandCruiser 250 Series, already listed for sale.
The highest price was listed for a car in Melbourne, a top-spec Kakadu, advertised for $141,000 – or about $30,000 above Toyota's drive-away asking price, which includes stamp duty.
In the ad, the seller states you could be “one of the first to get your hand [sic] on the top of the line 250 prado”, and by buying from them you could “skip the queue and drive away today”.
For reference, the same car from Toyota Australia wears a $99,990 before on-road costs price tag, or about $110,000 drive-away in Victoria.
Outside of that, a seller with a Prado VX, which has a recommended retail price of $87,400 before on-road costs, is asking $108,000 – compared to about $93,400 drive-away from Toyota (including stamp duty).
In the advertisement, the seller states the Prado is finished in a “sand colour” but has a picture of a silver car.
There are also a handful of Prados over the $100,000 mark, with a seller in Sydney asking $102,000 for a mid-tier VX, about $7200 above Toyota's estimated drive-away sticker price.
A seller in Perth is asking $98,420 for a second-from-bottom GXL grade, or $9700 more than the price on Toyota’s website, due to “a change of circumstances” after the car “just arrived at the dealership”.
This markup can also be seen in South Australia, where a seller has listed a Prado GXL for $94,990, or $8833 above the drive-away price on Toyota's website (including stamp duty).
Despite the numerous listings looking to offload early Prados for a tidy profit, there are a handful of ads close to Toyota’s drive-away numbers.
One Altitude variant in Melbourne from a user named ‘Toyoda Akio’ – who appears to work at a Toyota dealership – has it listed at $102,885, near enough to the $101,062 drive-away price quoted on the Toyota website.
It may in fact be the exact price at that dealership, as included in the drive-away price of a new car is an arbitrary dealer delivery fee – which covers the cost of cleaning the vehicle, removing the shipping wrap and running pre-delivery checks – but exactly how much a customer is charged is at the discretion of the dealer, so it can differ between showrooms.
For its part, Toyota Australia has tried to stem the tide of resellers and vehicle flippers, implementing a new sales system where dealers cannot take orders for cars outside their allocation.
For the first 12 months, more than 17,000 orders for the new Prado have already been taken by Toyota Australia, with wait times for new orders exceeding a year.
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
