Why buy a land cruiser?

[dman93]

All I can add here is that we owned an 80 Series, a rather rare trim combo of triple-locked, sunroof and 3rd row seats, but cloth upholstery on non-power seats. Added an OME lift, joined TLCA and did the Rubicon twice in the ‘90’s … probably the first 80 to do it, certainly the first at a Rubithon event. Also daily drove it for years, took many road trips and even more kiddie carpool runs, taking advantage of its 8 seat belts. But by 2008 when we sold it, it felt old, slow, thirsty and not super safe as a family vehicle (though our son did learn to drive in it). And - get this - it took a long time to sell, even in the heart of the SF Bay Area, and for WAY under $10K with 140K miles. For a long time I didn’t miss it, and think my current Tacoma is better suited for what I want, but when Toyota came out with the Anniversary?Heritage? 200 Series I was very tempted.

 

[nickw]

We’ll they’re all over the place in Colombia and that market isn’t nearly as cashed up as the US.

They also don't have the 25% chicken tax, I'm guessing they don't have the crash requirement that add $$ but more importantly Toyota's have a much longer history of being the common mans 4x4 down there.....Jeep has had that market since right after WW2 here in the US.

 

[nickw]

All I can add here is that we owned an 80 Series, a rather rare trim combo of triple-locked, sunroof and 3rd row seats, but cloth upholstery on non-power seats. Added an OME lift, joined TLCA and did the Rubicon twice in the ‘90’s … probably the first 80 to do it, certainly the first at a Rubithon event. Also daily drove it for years, took many road trips and even more kiddie carpool runs, taking advantage of its 8 seat belts. But by 2008 when we sold it, it felt old, slow, thirsty and not super safe as a family vehicle (though our son did learn to drive in it). And - get this - it took a long time to sell, even in the heart of the SF Bay Area, and for WAY under $10K with 140K miles. For a long time I didn’t miss it, and think my current Tacoma is better suited for what I want, but when Toyota came out with the Anniversary?Heritage? 200 Series I was very tempted.

That's a cool story - I remember when the 80's kinda started to be noticed with the 4x4 community....or at least were becoming affordable in the late 90's very early 2000's...they got a lot of pushback, not 'real' cruisers, soccer mom rigs, etc (just like the 100, 200 & the 300 now) but I do remember some hardcore enthusiasts that were wheeling them.

I remember the exact same thing happening to the 100 series and there was a guy wheeling them hard over on IH8MUD when everybody was convinced the IFS would explode if you took it offroad.

Then the 200 isn't any good...oh wait.

Rinse and repeat.