[Heatwave3]

This is global product for Toyota. Toyota sell twice as many 200 series than America sells Sequioa. The cost of the 200 series to the USA is almost minimal for marketing and engineering as there is no production costs from LC in America. The only cost is that of shipping. I have not seen any USA marketing.

Maintaining vehicle certification is actually a rather expensive effort for any mass produced vehicle available in the US. Financing costs for a vehicle's floor space are also expensive and probably more than the shipping.

Its a big unfair using the hi ace as a comparison to the Landcruiser as the Hiace has never been sold in NA (as far as I know) whereas the Landcruiser is in it's 7th USA generation.

Actually I think its quite fair to compare the eventual status of the LC to the HiAce. The HiAce is extremely popular around the world in many different variations and is on its 7th generation. The HiAce was sold in the US during the 80's as the "Toyota Van". Toyota Van - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Today it is gone in the US or to be more accurate it was replace by the Previa. The Previa was eventually replaced by the more modern and updated Sienna based on the Camry platform. These minivan products were sold primarily in the US (some sales in Australia and Japan).

During the launch and sale of these products in the US, Toyota continued to keep selling its outdated platform that essentially met the needs of the ROW but were no longer competitive in the US market. The HiAce remains beloved and highly profitable around the world but simply doesn't meet the higher demands of American consumers and that's why it was replaced with a modern platform back in the 80's.

Sound familiar? It certainly does to me and I think this is the exact same fate the outdated LC platform will face in the US, while remaining a very popular and profitable product in the ROW.

Not true. Toyota introduced the new 4.5 diesel engine that make 10.4 litres/100 km combined, a new Torsen transfer case, 10 airbags, four zone climate (no other car has 4 zone as far as I know), pre crash sysyem and 5.7 iForce built in Japan.

The Toyota 200 series also sets the benchmark out of all Toyota SUVs for most air bags, hi/lo ABS, pre crash, A,B,C crumple zones compared to other SUVs.

Time will tell which view is accurate. Most of the investments you referenced were part of the development expense for the new Tundra and Sequoia and merely applied to the legacy platform of the LC to keep it alive (barely) in the US for a few more years. The 4.5 diesel is not available in the US and not likely to meet particulate standards for the US in its current design. Pretty much all of the design updates you reference were by 3rd party suppliers or applications of Toyota investments from the Tundra/Sequoia design platform.