Newbie advice needed! Opinions on this rig..

[grizzle08]

First I want to start by saying thank you for taking the time to give me a little feedback on my situation.

So I have been lurking around the forum here for about a month now and have gone from one car to the next as possible rigs to use. Well I have finally come to a 94 Land Cruiser I found here http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...mt=[TOYOTA[LC[]][]]&listingId=383224008&Log=0. This post is mostly to ask your opinion on pricing and just overall first impressions as well as what to look for in a land cruiser if I go to look at this one.

To give you some base for your opinions I plan to DD and do mild to medium over-landing trips most likely in the southern states for now (weekends and one maybe two week trips). As far as the price range I'm not really in a hurry to buy but if I can get something pretty close to 5K so that I can just about just do a one for one trade with my car. Thanks for any information you can give. I am really looking forward to joining the community.

 

[zimm]

you have to physically inspect a truck, and see if theres a maint log, otherwise its just a clean looking digital picture. 5k is a bit thin on a DD and a 20yo rig, especially if that rig was 80g new in todays dollars. just because its old, doesnt mean it no longer thinks its a primadonna in the parts department. i assume you do all your maintenance and are 4 banana qualified under the shade tree, otherwise, if a 5000 dollar cruiser is what gets you to work, worn out parts are spendy and the hourly rate for mechanics is high monday thru friday at the dealer.

 

[CJones]

x2 what zimm said. In person is the only way to know for sure. Even though I am quite skilled under the hood, I still take a vehicle to my trusted mechanic. 30-50 bucks, depending on what your mechanic charges, is usually the difference between buying a gem or avoiding a lemon.
In my opinion, 5k is too little to spend for a Land Cruiser. I have a mechanic friend who works almost exclusively on Cruisers and he is the one that first told me that. Either you are getting something that is going to require a lot of your time and money to keep it going or the seller has no clue that it is worth more. I looked at a few anyway and for 6k (in the Austin TX area) they all had 200k mi on em and were pretty beat up. I just recently bought a new to me vehicle for 5500. I told him my price range and he said to avoid any cruisers or 4runners especially if they have a lot of off road add-ons. On his recommendation, I got a stock trooper, though he also said a montero was a good choice for the price range. He said I wasn't in safe territory with less than 7-8k to spend on a cruiser.
Not sure if that helps, and I bet I catch flack for saying it. But that is what my experience was.
Happy Hunting and I hope you find the diamond we all know is out there.

 

[grizzle08]

you have to physically inspect a truck, and see if theres a maint log, otherwise its just a clean looking digital picture. 5k is a bit thin on a DD and a 20yo rig, especially if that rig was 80g new in todays dollars. just because its old, doesnt mean it no longer thinks its a primadonna in the parts department. i assume you do all your maintenance and are 4 banana qualified under the shade tree, otherwise, if a 5000 dollar cruiser is what gets you to work, worn out parts are spendy and the hourly rate for mechanics is high monday thru friday at the dealer.

Hey Zimm, Thanks for your perspective I am aware that the 5k mark is low and that not really a cap, I just always shoot low so if I got over its not as bad. Also you assume right I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. I'm currently rebuilding a little 4 banger eclipse for my wife, and the only time I've taken my current car to the dealer since I bought it was to get a recall taken care of because well it was free. lol.

I am for sure going to be looking at the truck before buying anything. I mostly wanted an opinion of prices to miles and features. I've looked around a bit and other rigs of the same style but a lot more miles were a bit more steep in price. The truck is mostly going to be a DD for the next 6 to 11 months and then I wont be driving much.

Id love to know if there are any issues with these cars that if you find it would be a deal breaker? again thanks for your information.

 

[grizzle08]

x2 what zimm said. In person is the only way to know for sure. Even though I am quite skilled under the hood, I still take a vehicle to my trusted mechanic. 30-50 bucks, depending on what your mechanic charges, is usually the difference between buying a gem or avoiding a lemon.
In my opinion, 5k is too little to spend for a Land Cruiser. I have a mechanic friend who works almost exclusively on Cruisers and he is the one that first told me that. Either you are getting something that is going to require a lot of your time and money to keep it going or the seller has no clue that it is worth more. I looked at a few anyway and for 6k (in the Austin TX area) they all had 200k mi on em and were pretty beat up. I just recently bought a new to me vehicle for 5500. I told him my price range and he said to avoid any cruisers or 4runners especially if they have a lot of off road add-ons. On his recommendation, I got a stock trooper, though he also said a montero was a good choice for the price range. He said I wasn't in safe territory with less than 7-8k to spend on a cruiser.
Not sure if that helps, and I bet I catch flack for saying it. But that is what my experience was.
Happy Hunting and I hope you find the diamond we all know is out there.

The reason for me asking about these in the first place has been mostly because the link I gave in the OP was to a 94 Cruiser that has 168K miles on it and the last 40K were over like 6 or so years. it seemed to me that it should be priced higher then that. the second reason is mostly to ask what are the big known flaws to look for as a step one before I spend the money to have it checked by someone? thank you for your help and im not dead set on a cruiser I just like the size and to be honest to wealth of support available.

 

[CJones]

the second reason is mostly to ask what are the big known flaws to look for as a step one before I spend the money to have it checked by someone?

I don't know to much about the 80 series. But some of the things I have heard are that somewhere after 100k miles, the power steering pump tends to develop leaks, the auto trans. can start having difficulty shifting (I think this was due to the torque converter but don't quote me on that), and the engine coolant temp sensors tend to go out (resulting in idle issues and stalling when engine is hot). Not sure if that is all of them, I haven't owned an 80 series but have always wanted one. The auto trans would be my biggest concern. The others are relatively inexpensive and easy fixes. Sounds like you may already know what to look for though.
Hope that is helpful. To my knowledge there aren't any major issues to look out for that you wouldn't already be looking at in any vehicle of any make. Judging by the external mods, it seems like it was used for some light off roading at the very least. So the fact that it is automatic, does scare me a little (hard to know how it was driven). When an auto trans goes, its a big deal financially in my book.
As far as other vehicles that size range. Lower mileage Troopers of the manual variety (auto trans is week and goes out frequently), Monteros (not the sport) are also pretty good. Both can be had for around $6k in very good condition with less than 130k miles. But you wont have the aftermarket/mod support as you will have with a Toyota.

 

[grizzle08]

I don't know to much about the 80 series. But some of the things I have heard are that somewhere after 100k miles, the power steering pump tends to develop leaks, the auto trans. can start having difficulty shifting (I think this was due to the torque converter but don't quote me on that), and the engine coolant temp sensors tend to go out (resulting in idle issues and stalling when engine is hot). Not sure if that is all of them, I haven't owned an 80 series but have always wanted one. The auto trans would be my biggest concern. The others are relatively inexpensive and easy fixes. Sounds like you may already know what to look for though.
Hope that is helpful. To my knowledge there aren't any major issues to look out for that you wouldn't already be looking at in any vehicle of any make. Judging by the external mods, it seems like it was used for some light off roading at the very least. So the fact that it is automatic, does scare me a little (hard to know how it was driven). When an auto trans goes, its a big deal financially in my book.
As far as other vehicles that size range. Lower mileage Troopers of the manual variety (auto trans is week and goes out frequently), Monteros (not the sport) are also pretty good. Both can be had for around $6k in very good condition with less than 130k miles. But you wont have the aftermarket/mod support as you will have with a Toyota.

Hey Cjones,

Thank you for your feedback this was exactly what I was looking for, very objective. I was wondering why the thing was cheaper then others out there and if the auto tranny is a possible failure it is something that id be more cautious with. I have done work on manual trans but auto is another story. Ill have to look into the other cars you mentioned.

 

[njtacoma]

This is the info link I send friends to that ask about 80's. Good info, it has a lot of basic info, but with a land cruiser bent.

http://www.sleeoffroad.com/newbie/newbie100.htm

 

[NCFJ]

My big question is, no matter what brand, what do you expect for $5,000.00? I expect a good condition base vehicle that is clean with a straight body and 200-250k miles if it is a Land Cruiser. I think that dollar for dollar the 80 series wins as an all around platform for my needs. I think to expect that for $5K you are going to get a reliable daily driver that is comfortable and turn key and as stout as the 80 Series is asking for a lot. It will require base lining maintenance in the $1-2K range.

Go take a look at some used car lots and look at the prices for vehicles you would drive and be confident in off road, that's the point right? You really want a shock, take that same criteria to a new car lot. That $5K will look paulrty at best. My point is that I would probably not feel confident driving any vehicle I purchased for $5K much farther than my local area. We have however, driven my wife's 95 80 3 hours to Uharrie National Park to a club meet. I have $500.00 and a set of tires from another truck in it. She has been driving it for 1.5 years and to quote her "You'll pry it from my cold dead hands". She gets compliments on how nice a rig it is, she likes her lockers.

 

[MarcFJ60]

I don't know to much about the 80 series. But some of the things I have heard are that somewhere after 100k miles, the power steering pump tends to develop leaks, the auto trans. can start having difficulty shifting (I think this was due to the torque converter but don't quote me on that), and the engine coolant temp sensors tend to go out (resulting in idle issues and stalling when engine is hot). Not sure if that is all of them, I haven't owned an 80 series but have always wanted one. The auto trans would be my biggest concern. The others are relatively inexpensive and easy fixes. Sounds like you may already know what to look for though.
Hope that is helpful. To my knowledge there aren't any major issues to look out for that you wouldn't already be looking at in any vehicle of any make. Judging by the external mods, it seems like it was used for some light off roading at the very least. So the fact that it is automatic, does scare me a little (hard to know how it was driven). When an auto trans goes, its a big deal financially in my book.
As far as other vehicles that size range. Lower mileage Troopers of the manual variety (auto trans is week and goes out frequently), Monteros (not the sport) are also pretty good. Both can be had for around $6k in very good condition with less than 130k miles. But you wont have the aftermarket/mod support as you will have with a Toyota.

I realize you gave the caveat of not being familiar with the 80 series, but I am not aware of any of those being a common issue (having owned a 60, 80, and 120 series). I don't mean to sound like an ************, but i think you may be confusing the 80 with another series (or you're totally right and i'm out of touch). There are some maintenance issues that can be a bear or expensive if paying somebody else: knuckle rebuilds, pesky heater hose. But there really aren't any weak spots. Maybe 10% of high mileage cruiser have head gasket issues. Typically, they gradually fail not an immediate catastrophic failure. That would be one area to check beforehand. The transmissions are as close to bulletproof as you can get, which is good because they are super expensive.

I have to say, if that vehicle has been well maintained and looks as good in person as the pics, that is a good price from a dealer, especially if those extras are things you would consider buying yourself like the winch and bull bar.

 

[grizzle08]

I have to say, if that vehicle has been well maintained and looks as good in person as the pics, that is a good price from a dealer, especially if those extras are things you would consider buying yourself like the winch and bull bar.

Hey Marc thanks for the feedback that's mostly what I have been looking for as advice..

To everyone else, thanks for the feedback so far. I do have to say I guess I wasn't clear about what advice i was looking for. Being new here I do feel like maybe there has been too much focus on only one part of my original post. I'm not new to having cars let alone buying a used car. I'm not trying to buy a perfect never driven rig for 5k. I fully expect that I will need to do some work on almost anything I buy.

Now to hopefully clarify, I found the rig (linked in Original post) and was wondering what to look for as deal breakers and over all opinions. I do want to thank those of your that have given good opinions on what to look for your opinion of the rig I linked and links to websites that give me more info on land cruisers. I hope to get some more opinions on Land cruisers and if or not the one linked is a good price and if its high or low base on what you can see at face value. Also when asking about things to look for id love to know about the little things like if a door hand is prone to breaking or if its normal to see heavy ware on a particular part of the interior. The reason i ask is because back when I had my Bronco II I had an issue that came done to a switch that was cutting power to my fuel pump due to it being old and too lose so it tripped going over a hard bump on the freeway or something. Not a big deal but definitely not something I expected to find in the car.

anyways thanks to everyone so far.

 

[Upland80]

I realize you gave the caveat of not being familiar with the 80 series, but I am not aware of any of those being a common issue (having owned a 60, 80, and 120 series). I don't mean to sound like an ************, but i think you may be confusing the 80 with another series (or you're totally right and i'm out of touch). There are some maintenance issues that can be a bear or expensive if paying somebody else: knuckle rebuilds, pesky heater hose. But there really aren't any weak spots. Maybe 10% of high mileage cruiser have head gasket issues. Typically, they gradually fail not an immediate catastrophic failure. That would be one area to check beforehand. The transmissions are as close to bulletproof as you can get, which is good because they are super expensive.

I have to say, if that vehicle has been well maintained and looks as good in person as the pics, that is a good price from a dealer, especially if those extras are things you would consider buying yourself like the winch and bull bar.

Agree...this does not sound like an 80 to me.

 

[redthies]

Agree...this does not sound like an 80 to me.

Me either. Maybe a 1980 something-or-other, but not an 80 series 'Cruiser.

 

[Drover]

Agree...this does not sound like an 80 to me.

X3

Doesn't sound like typical 80 issues


What to look for at that milage
PHH
Head gasket
EGR