In Australia - Where are the Jeeps?

[Mr Miami]

Wife and I are completing about 10 days here all over Australia and I'm still shocked about how few Jeeps we have seen. We do travel a lot and see Jeeps in many countries but expected to see many here in Australia, especially the Outback.

Well folks, got to tell you, after driving about 1,500 miles all over the place here (Alice Springs to Darwin in the Outback [1,100 miles] and around Cairns and other places near the Great Barrier Reef) and being in Melbourne and Sydney, we have seen at most 2 Wranglers, 2 Gladiators and a GC. That's it folks. That's it.

I will tell you, Toyota must own this place. Especially in the Outback, about 3 out of 4 vehicles or more are Toyota Hi-Lux pickups. Most are decked out with the front brush guards, large tires and most have the 2.8 D insignia on the side (for 2.8 Liter Diesel). I stopped to buy gas at a place and all five other vehicles at the pumps were Hi-Lux diesels.

There is a much wider range of vehicles in the big cities and a lot of Mitsubishi's and Ford Rangers in the mix but still predominantly Toyota. I looked at the Jeep website here and there are 5 vehicles shown; GC, Wrangler, Gladiator and Compass. The other is called an Avenger which appears to be a 2 door electric 4x2 car that may slightly resemble the discontinued Renegade, but only in 4x2.

Certainly not what I was expecting. Now on to New Zealand for a couple of days before coming home and hope to see more on the roads over there.

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[smlobx]

Sounds like a great trip!

The reason you don’t see many Jeeps there is because, just as you expected, Toyota offers the Hilux and the 70 Series trucks there with a diesel. We have driven both a 78 and 79 Series Toyotas and there is no better, more durable rigs on the planet. That’s just a fact. They’re not fancy but they can go where most other vehicles can’t.
When we got back from our first trip to Africa I tried desperately to buy a 79 Series pick up but they are not offered here in the US. Interestingly there is a company about 15 miles from me that buys these rigs and sells them to various government agencies and NGO’s but they would not sell me one under any circumstances…

 

[Minty JL]

The import fees and need to be RHD are the two main contributing factors.

Spent a month in Melbourne and I was to busy drooling of the Holden's

 

[smlobx]

The ones we used in Northern Africa (The Sahara) were left hand drive… Toyota makes both variants.

 

[nanook12]

They had a diesel that they choked down with smog crap. Dumb Europeans running the place

 

[NC_Overland]

Iirc they’re crazy expensive in Australia. That’s probably a big part of it.

 

[MT1]

I decided to VPN to Australia and give prices a look.

In $ ASD, a Mazda BT-50 is something like $60k.
Toyota Hi-Lux is something like $70k
JTR is something like $90k

So price is part of why JTs are rare in Australia. And there have to be other reasons why the BT-50 and Hi-Lux are not available in the US

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

In the country regions and the outback, reliability is a massive factor. It’s not a place where it’s practical to break down. That will sound odd. But it’s really not odd. It’s real.

There’s a scale and at one end is “costing tens of thousands” and at the other end is “slowly dying of thirst”.

..when there’s a break down out there in those regions, the victim is going to land somewhere on that scale. With it likely to involve alot of cost and a near death experience.

Jeep used to do a lot better when they sold diesel vehicles. They opted out of diesels about the same time they jacked up pricing/Christian Manure era , and sales simply vanished.
It’s a diesel market.

That “no-diesel” / “we’re changing to 4xe” (that never got here) strategy killed jeep here. At one point the GC ecodiese was the highest selling 4x4 in the country. Around 014 from memory.

 

[alpineovernappa]

Places that get the hilux and 70 series tend to use those. I’ve been dailying wranglers for 20 years but I’d never look back if the 70 came here (to the USA).

 

[Orange01z28]

Places that get the hilux and 70 series tend to use those. I’ve been dailying wranglers for 20 years but I’d never look back if the 70 came here (to the USA).

Especially if we got the SWB 70 from the Middle East
https://www.toyota.ae/en/new-cars/lc70-hardtop/

 

[Minty JL]

I decided to VPN to Australia and give prices a look.

In $ ASD, a Mazda BT-50 is something like $60k.
Toyota Hi-Lux is something like $70k
JTR is something like $90k

So price is part of why JTs are rare in Australia. And there have to be other reasons why the BT-50 and Hi-Lux are not available in the US

$90k AUD = $60k USD

 

[MT1]

$90k AUD = $60k USD

Yup, but still much more expensive than the Hi-Lux ($46k USD) or BT-50 ($40k USD), and diesel too.

 

[Mr Miami]

In the country regions and the outback, reliability is a massive factor. It’s not a place where it’s practical to break down. That will sound odd. But it’s really not odd. It’s real.

There’s a scale and at one end is “costing tens of thousands” and at the other end is “slowly dying of thirst”.

..when there’s a break down out there in those regions, the victim is going to land somewhere on that scale. With it likely to involve alot of cost and a near death experience.

Jeep used to do a lot better when they sold diesel vehicles. They opted out of diesels about the same time they jacked up pricing/Christian Manure era , and sales simply vanished.
It’s a diesel market.

That “no-diesel” / “we’re changing to 4xe” (that never got here) strategy killed jeep here. At one point the GC ecodiese was the highest selling 4x4 in the country. Around 014 from memory.

Back home now (Florida, USA) and I totally agree with you about reliability as THE major factor in the Outback. I spoke to a couple of guys near Alice Springs (Central Australia) when I noticed they were driving Toyota Hi-Lux diesels (along with about 75% of other people). One guy simply mentioned reliability and parts. He said in a couple of days he could get whatever he needed with the flights that come into the area or the trains and busses that cross the Stuart Highway (north/south). I would have been ashamed to tell him about my living within a 45 minute drive of at least a dozen dealerships and not being able to get a lot of parts for my JTR if needed. I kept my mouth shut and just commended him on his truck.

Although being a Jeep guy for life, I would most likely have a diesel Hi-Lux in my driveway if I lived in Australia or New Zealand. I did notice that Mitsubishi and Mazda are also very popular closer to the cities, followed by the occasional Ford Ranger. But driving all over the place for about 14 days (2250 km. or 1,400 mi.), I must admit I saw only one, yes one Jeep dealer in Australia and another one in New Zealand. So goes life.

 

[Stuntman Mike]

That “no-diesel” / “we’re changing to 4xe” (that never got here) strategy killed jeep here. At one point the GC ecodiese was the highest selling 4x4 in the country. Around 014 from memory.

Funny thing is that they sold the JT here in Europe only with the Diesel. And of course it is now discontinued.

Maybe the managment is getting bonus for doing as much wrong as possible.

 

[Mr Miami]

Funny thing is that they sold the JT here in Europe only with the Diesel. And of course it is now discontinued.

Maybe the managment is getting bonus for doing as much wrong as possible.

When you said, discontinued, do you mean the JT or the diesel engine? If it is the diesel, what are they replacing it with?

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