Back to the Original Topic...
Full disclosure: I have a Rover that I bought in the UK several years ago. I did not pay six figures.
The reason the US Spec models are so expensive in the US is they did not import that many of them. Any demand with negative supply (not all are still on the road) and prices go up. Everyone but Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren knows that.
Also, this person is a salesman. He is selling his stuff, and is talking down "other stuff" like the Santanas. Anyone who knows anything about Rovers knows the Santana story, and also knows about the crates that were sent to South Africa for assembly and understands the changes that were made for things like the Tithonus.
The reason imports (to the US) tend to be expensive has a lot to do with process:
First, you need to find one that is 25 years old. People are so willing to duck this requirement they have tried changing VIN stamps. These people have been caught, and are ruining things for the rest of us. This also means you still have to wait to get a Td5 here, or a Puma. You're not getting around that one.
When looking at "Older" Land Rovers (or Jaguars, for that matter) you must keep in mind that when a lot of the designs were being designed, marketed, and sold, they were part of a consortium called "British Leyland". British Leyland was owned by the government, and if you think bean counters had too big a role at General Motors, the bean counters at British Leyland brought it to a high art! There were efforts to get around some of the silly strictures (the reason the engine bay is so narrow on an XJS is the Jag engineers knew they wanted to fit the V-12, but Leyland wanted them to use the Rover V-8), but in general... When Margaret Thatcher broke up British Leyland, quality went way up. But the damage had been done, and not even Ford or BMW could fix the inherited problems... Not without far more money than would ever be profitable. And don't get me started on the mistakes Tata has made!
So basically, the Used Car Salesman (i.e. the original video) needs to find an old truck. He will probably want a left hand drive variant with low rust. This will probably send him to Italy or Turkey (but not necessarily) He could find them in Spain, where he would find decent Santanas, but now he has a parts compatibility problem. Avoid Spain, and talk down others who do not. Then, to make it easier to sell, he's probably going to make it "like new". This will involve completely stripping it down, finding any rust/corrosion that is there, and building it back. This will take many man-hours, as well as a high cost in parts. Of course, to keep those man-hours cheap, he's going to want to do the work before it hits US shores.
So now he's got a 10 to 20K euro truck with another who knows how much (50k?) work in to it. This gets even worse when you get to the Arkonik models. And then he's going to sell it for whatever he thinks the market will bear. And there's probably a large margin in there for people who have a great deal of expendable income, combined with what they believe is a sense of adventure, and an understanding of off-roading that probably comes from watching a lot of Marlin Perkins as a kid. Land Rover (at least in the 90s) also had a great marketing campaign (i.e. Camel Trophy), which, like most marketing campaigns, are only tangental to reality.
I have British cars not because I think they are "best", but because I know they will require maintenance, and the requirement for maintenance keeps me alert. I also know a healthy sense of humor is essential to counter panic and fear, and I understand that the reason the Brits drink warm beer is because Lucas makes their refrigerators as well.
On the NAS-ROW Land Rover forum, there is a thread in the "General" area called "Land Rovers that Suck". It makes for entertaining reading.
