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Anyone care to value a private sale 156,000 mile 4.2VX TD Auto 93L Landcruiser, full toyota service history, no towing or off road, alloys are all surface corroded where laquer has gone and leather seats are cracked and bolster has gone on drivers side. Drives well enough, little smoke. I know these cars are tough like all toyotas and were expensive new but the guy wants £8500 I figure £5250 as a start. What other £35k car 10 years later and 150k miles is worth £8500? no matter how good?
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If it's an auto, then reckon on about 6/7K.
I've got a '94 auto, and it's alloys are corroded and the leather cracked/broken on the bolster.
You need to make sure everything works, including diff locks (the lights should flash then stay on when engaged).
Just bear in mind that they don't go wrong very often, but when they do it's expensive. At 156K it will probably need new injector at £250 each. Also, in Australia they had big end problems, with the bearing material being eroded, usually on no.3 big end. I stripped mine (165K miles), and sure enough it had a hole about 5mm across that had eroded. It wasn't terminal, but could easily turn that way as they have in Aus, so £400 for new shells and big end bolts was good insurance. I've also had a new steering box (£1500 new, £250 recon), a new radiator(£550), complete stainless exhaust (£450), heater matrix (£240), couple of a/c hoses (£100 each), a/c compressor rebuild (£250), brake pads all round (£100), numerous dash bulbs (£4.50 each), oil sender (£45), all parts prices, not labour!
There's hardly any parts in the aftermarket, so everything has to come from Toyota. But I looked at buying a new one, but none come with a proper front axle, locking F&R diffs, metal bumpers etc. All the new stuff has just too much bling-bling for me, so I just decided to keep it and spend the money along the way. After all, it will cost £600/month to buy a new one, and for that money I can replace a lot of parts on mine, and still have a decent off roader with all the right gear, not a hairdressers 4X4 that I'd be scared to take off road in case it got a scratch or broke a weedy driveshaft.
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Dave,
You've just done a good job of putting me off the whole idea! I don't want to spend £6k on the car and £2k to put it straight, you sound like you did most of this work yourself, I'm certainly not up for overhauling the bottom end and at labour rates that sounds like an expensive job. and 6 * £250 for the injectors!!! i could buy a new car for that! I'm attracted to the car for it's size, space, prescence and all round abilities but a four figure repair bill would seriously dampen my enthusiasm for these qualities.
Is there anyway to tell if the injectors are worn. the car started immediately from cold, with a little puff of smoke and then nothing very quiet tickover. Do you have any other pre-purchase tips to checkover. I reckon on 22mpg is this realistic?Is it a completely mad purchase if foremost it is treated as a large 4wd on road super estate, are there better ways to get loads of space for family kit, bikes etc. etc.
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Ian
Those LandCruisers *are* expensive on parts and servicing - they are in a different league to an estate car. At 156k you are bound to need some 'running repairs' - so always have £1k in hand to pay for minor repairs.
If you just want a big estate, how about a Toyota Camry estate (2.2 or V6) - they are fairly rare but often well looked after and with sensible mileage. Mega reliable.
Or for 4x4 how about a Subaru Legacy estate - fairly common and quite trendy?
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How many seats do you need? How many miles per year do you do?
Depending on these factors, taking into account fuel and maintenance, you could be looking at total expenditure similar to anything from a 5 year old E Class to a new C5 2.2 diesel.
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Rationality is beginning to kick in! I spoke to guy and someone else is coming back for a second look tonight. I'm not really feeling too bothered if they buy it before me or not now. I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that despite Toyota's reliability I could be left with a great big hulking lump of iron on the drive! as Dave N pointed out there is a problem with the bottom end bearing wear on these units ready kick in right about now at 150k miles. Combined with other factors (notably 22mpg) it may be a very expensive load of space I rarely need. I've considered legacy's in the past and this would probably be a better bet at half the mileage and 50% better consumption. I need to replace my current woefully impractical 3 dr Compact with something more up to the rigours of family life but maybe the landcruiser is a step to far! Still a lot of car(/personnel carrier!) for the money though! Thanks, Ian
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Ian, mid 20's fuel consumption is probably about right. A bit of smoke usually points to the injectors, plus by 150K they must be getting a bit tired. I didn't want to put you off, and bear in mind I'm a bit pedantic where my vehicles are concerned, and like everything to be A1. But it's an old vehicle with a lot of miles, so the same rules apply to these as any other car.
I just made the decision to keep mine for a good few years, so figured I might as well just get things done now, as they're going to need doing some time. I came to this decision simply by looking at other new large 4X4's & what they cost to buy. Even taking into account some hefty bills, I've still got a great 4X4 that I can use off-road, with a terrific engine (all the others out there have baby 3.0 diesels, except the Amazon), solid basic mechanicals, none of this electronically controlled direct injection stuff. As I said, I looked at the new small LC, but it would cost me about £500/month. So even if I spent £1500/year on maintenance on mine, that's only 3 months payments on a new one, and I'm not afraid to use it. Sure I look like a gipsy in it, but I reckon it's better than looking like a hairdresser.
You may also want to take one for a test drive, as they're not exactly lovely to drive. They're well over 2 tons, with big old heavy axles and a truck chassis, so you get shoved about a bit and the brakes aren't too hot. An X5 they aint. And you only realise quite how big they are when you get to sainsbury's and try squeezing into their tiny spaces. If you do any work on them yourself, you need a serious size socket set, some good long breaker bars, and an extra tall trolley jack and axle stands.
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LOL about the gypsy comment because that's exactly what I said to my wife about them. I think they are a fantastic tonka of a 4x4 but really for what I'm after it's a bit of a nuclear option! plus the fact that the TD bearing job you mentioned would need doing on this car and it's an expensive way to a big estate with 4x4 chunky-ness. Thanks for your advice though it's been extremely useful. Ian
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