So, I used my algorithm to find two things this week:
- The cheapest car to own in America for over five years.
- The most reliable car in America.
Both turned out to be the Toyota Land Cruiser. Giving just about any Toyota a reliability award is cliche… So that one was not a surprise. But I was sort of amazed to see that 16.3% of all Land Cruisers made reached over 300,000 miles. That’s nuts.
What did surprise me, however, was the price of ownership. These SUVs are irrationally expensive. A 2021 Land Cruiser (based on an old platform and archaic technology) can run close to $100k new. The trick though is this:
A 2016 Land Cruiser with 75,000 miles can sell for as much as $65k. These things don’t breakdown, need very little as far as servicing, and the resale vale is almost as insane as the purchase price.
Editor’s Note: My algorithm is a work in progress, but after double checking some parameters, I think I’m getting fairly accurate results.