Toyota Land Cruiser V8 | High Mile Club
Well, if ever there was a car built for 200,000 miles...
When looking for a High Mile Club gem the holy grail is the unusual car with an out-of-the-ordinary number of miles ticked off - perhaps a Ferrari or McLaren that's done more than 1,000-miles per year, for example. That's man bites dog territory, whereas a Toyota that's done a spaceship miles is dog bites man. It's the everyday. It's expected. But forgive us our sins, because we couldn't help directing your attention to this Toyota Land Cruiser, because it's done a sit-yourself-down-and-soak-it-all-in 192,000 miles. Even for a Toyota that's noteworthy. It's at least man nibbles dog.
Bringing out the old line about 'how many times around the earth' is a bit trite, I'll admit, but I've never claimed to have much depth so I'll carry on regardless: that's eight-times around the earth's circumference and only 38,000-miles short of the moon, if I've got my sums right. So it is genuinely a spaceship, other than small details like it's never entered orbit.
You might be thinking that's all well and good, but £23k for a Land Cruiser that's a mosquito's probiscis short of twice round the clock is a bit steep when you can buy similar-era Land Cruisers for less with fewer miles. That's true, but they would be - and correct me if I'm wrong, because the Land Cruiser line-up is a minefield - the less posh versions with a chugging four-cylinder diesel. This is the top-spec J200 with Toyota's 4.5-litre V8 diesel - the first V8 diesel from Toyota. It had common rail injection and produced 286hp at 3,600rpm, backed-up by a colossal 479lb ft of shove from just 1,600rpm. It also comes to you with a six-speed auto 'box (with manual override and low-range), four-wheel active height control and adaptive suspension.
What's remarkable, even for a Toyota, is how clean it looks inside and out. Admittedly the steering wheel has a cover on, so we cannot see whether it's threadbare underneath, but judging by the rest of the interior that seems unlikely. The driver's seat looks like it's showing little signs of use, as is everything else inside. Normally you'd expect to see the surface of the commonly used switches worn away, or the central armrest disintegrating just a little, but no: it's like it's led a charmed life pottering on the school run.
As much as we love Land Rovers on PH, the Land Cruiser is no lightweight when it comes to off roading, either, and even at this mileage, I'd still pick this example over something from the Midlands if I were about to head off into the hinterland. I remember a friend of mine going off on an African safari and in the party were two cars: a new Defender, which kept on breaking, and an older Land Cruiser, which never faltered.
So yes, £23k does seem like an inordinate sum to spend on a car that's done 3.4021559 x 10-8 Light Years, but, it seems, the materials they build Land Cruisers from are not of this world. And that makes it interesting, unusual and definitely worth celebrating. Welcome to the club.
If I had to have only one car in my garage, it would be the 200 series. If you go to anywhere even relatively remote in the world (Middle East / Australia / mongolia, etc), this is practically the only car they use.
If I had to have only one car in my garage, it would be the 200 series. If you go to anywhere even relatively remote in the world (Middle East / Australia / mongolia, etc), this is practically the only car they use.
Something like (and I paraphrase);
“If you want to get somewhere, choose a Land Rocer. But if you want to get back too, choose a Land Cruiser”
Apologies if the wording isn’t accurate of course but the sentiment is there.
Personally I’d rather have one of these over a LR, they seem to be made from granite, weapons -grade metals and industrial diamonds.
There’s an old boy where I used to live that has the previous generation version, the 4.2 diesel and I believe his is on well over 300K miles (that’s when I last saw him a couple of years ago) and can only presume from what old neighbours say that he is still driving it.
I doubt I'll ever drive a car again that's travelled as far as the 60 series Land Cruiser I had in Australia:
(that's in kilometres so 275,555 miles).
It was still running fine when we sold it several thousand miles later too.
That's nothing for these. There are 39 with that or more kms here in Oz just on Carsales
Check out these cars: https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/results?q=%28And....
There are 458 Landcruisers with more than 320,000kms for sale on Carsales.com.au.
Check out these cars: https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/results?q=%28And....
In fact there are 45 with more than 500,000 KMs.
200,000kms for these is like a Focus with 50,000kms
I only wish my families 2004 Cayenne S with 167845 miles, we have had since new and our 2012 BMW 520D (The dreaded N47) with 179,159 miles 2 owners both look astounding for their miles with no major work done on either, certainly not the timing chain on the BMW, were worth anywhere near that. Looks like we will just have to continue banging the miles on.
It's a bit of a bus to drive, properly thirsty, and not as 'en vogue' as a JLR product, but everything still works, nothing is horribly worn, and maintenance has been straight forward for the last 20k (including a lot of heavy trailering across Europe).
Very much built to last, from the leather used in the interior to the running gear. When it would need replacing, I hope we can find a tidy 200 series
If I had to have only one car in my garage, it would be the 200 series. If you go to anywhere even relatively remote in the world (Middle East / Australia / mongolia, etc), this is practically the only car they use.
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