You might get to $7000 or so if you stripped everything out, had a bare metal dashboard and a cheap ohv 4 cylinder 1000cc engine, with vinyl bench seats and a rubber mat on the floor.
Interesting you should say that. That is exactly the kind of vehicle I would buy if it were available. (Maybe not the 1L engine).
It is difficult to find even a "work truck" on the lot that has vinyl seats and rubber mats.
If I am looking for a basic utility vehicle for utility use, I don't want to have to pay for deluxe seats, deep-pile carpeting, power windows, 17-speaker CD system, etc.
After Toyota stopped selling "real" Land Cruisers in the US, I had an interesting email exchange with the head of marketing for the 4Runner, which was at the time competing against the Ford Explorer. I asked him why they no longer offered a basic, tough, no-nonsense utility vehicle, and why they felt it necessary to dress the 4Runner up with plastic running boards, etc.
He told me that what I described was a "paramilitary" vehicle, and nobody would want it. He also said he was "proud" of the styling changes he had approved....
The only Land Cruiser available here at that time was the 80-series wagon, which had been turned into a luxo-barge and cost more than my home.
That same model was being sold in countries such as Australia in basic form, turbo-diesel equipped with a manual trans. I guess there must be a lot of paramilitary types in OZ?
I see that Toyota is ready to unveil the "FJ Cruiser" here. It looks like another plastic retro moneymaker similar to the "new Mini".
If the Chinese could faithfully copy the FJ-40 Land Cruiser (itself a copy of the venerable Jeep), and it didn't cost 3 years' income, I would consider it. I hate myself for saying it, but who else would produce such a basic vehicle?