- What appears to be an attempt at flipping a Toyota Land Cruiser brought just $4,631 over MSRP at auction.
- Considering what markups we’ve already seen, the seller might have lost money on this deal.
- Regardless, it’s a great example of why buying over MSRP is a bad business decision.
A fool and his money are soon parted. No matter how prolific that statement might be, life continues to provide example after example throughout the ages. Today’s demonstration comes in the form of what appears to be a Toyota Land Cruiser flipper. After a noteworthy auction on Bring a Trailer, the vehicle sold for $83,000, or just $4,631 over MSRP.
At this inflated price, the seller could still find themselves swimming in red ink if they shelled out for a markup themselves.
More: Dealer Discounts ‘Used’ Toyota Land Cruisers $5k After Marking Them Up To $125,000
The original selling dealer, Toyota of Seattle, doesn’t have any Land Cruisers available as of this writing. Hence, it’s anyone’s guess whether this SUV carried a markup. Its MSRP stood at $78,369. Sadly, recent weeks have witnessed numerous dealers tacking on unjustifiable markups for this boxy SUV.
One dealer asked $107,000 for their LC while another asked $119,000. If those figures sound like a hard sale, we’d say you’re right. Despite a lot of attention including 253 comments on the BaT auction in this case, it garnered only 27 bids. That’s not 27 different bidders, just 27 bids in total. The people actually willing to put their hard-earned cash down for this SUV weren’t willing to pay much more than MSRP.
That makes sense too since some Toyota dealers across the nation are willing to offer this SUV without premiums. In fact, several of the commenters in the auction called this out. “With many dealers selling at MSRP, I’m surprised that it would sell for over that… plus buyers fees and taxes and transport,” said one. “Wow my local dealer still has one asking MSRP, you guys are nuts,” said another.
That’s why this is a great example of why paying a markup over MSRP is little more than a poor financial decision. If this original buyer paid a markup beyond $5,000 it could leave him in debt for all the trouble he went to here. In cases where a flipper gets far less than they paid, it could slow the transaction down as the flipper works to fulfill the original loan amount to obtain the title.
On top of those factors, a markup typically isn’t covered by insurance, meaning that a wreck could also put a customer in the hole. Markups are bad for the customer, bad for the manufacturer, and tend to do damage to the dealer’s reputation too. At least in this case, the winning bidder didn’t pay very much over MSRP for their Land Cruiser.
