This £14k Toyota Vellfire Is The Bentley Life On A Dacia Budget

We recently spent a week with the Lexus LM, a curious luxury MPV with an unashamed emphasis on rear passenger comfort. We liked it a lot, but there’s a problem: the LM starts at a lofty £94,595, and to get the ultra-posh four-seater version we drove, you need an outrageous £117,595.

That puts it out of reach for a great many of us, so is there a solution? Well, the LM is effectively just a rebadged, gussied-up version of the Toyota Alphard and Vellfire twins, a duo of people carriers designed primarily for Japan.

An increasing number are finding their way over to Britain, though, to the point that when we jumped on Auto Trader today, we found a total of 374 different examples for sale across the two models.

That meant a bit of trawling through to find something that could recapture some of that LM loveliness on a budget, but we reckon we’ve found a corker. This is a 2012 Vellfire – marketed as the sportier of the duo – in Royal Lounge specification.

This means that, like that six-figure version of the LM, everything rear of the front seats is given over to just two private jet-style reclining seats. Sure, they don’t look quite as plush as the ones in the back of the LM, but they’d still be an ultra-pleasant way of whiling away a long journey, sipping Champagne/Diet Coke/Kestrel Super from the onboard drinks cooler (oh yes) while some other, less fortunate soul goes about the business of driving.

Like the LM, there’s a TV screen back there. This one’s not as big, and we’re not sure it has HDMI capability for some on-the-move Mario Kart sessions, but we’re really splitting hairs, especially because this one’s still hooked up to a surround sound system.

Oh, and one more thing – the LM we can buy in Britain has to make do with a four-cylinder hybrid setup, not quite befitting its price tag. This Vellfire, though, has a proper engine, a 3.5-litre V6 sending what most sources say is 276bhp to all four wheels.

It’s covered a little under 85,000 miles, and its one MOT test so far since being imported resulted in a clean pass. And the price being asked for this magnificent box of leather and technology? £13,995. No, that’s not a typo. Over £100,000 less than a brand new LM four-seater.

We’re struggling to find a downside with this. Parts availability, maybe? Even then, it’s a Toyota, so it shouldn’t be too trouble-prone – especially not compared to the usual crop of second-hand German or British luxury saloons you can get for this sort of money.

There is, we suppose, the fact that it is, fundamentally, a van. But if that puts you off, fine – just means more of a chance for us to buy it instead.