This 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser is attracting decent bids despite being an early model project. The 80-Series is riding a bit of a roller coaster right now, with a big run-up in prices during the pandemic as consumers began looking for a way to explore the great outdoors. As someone who owns the Lexus-branded twin to the Toyota, I watch these trucks pretty closely – and prices have definitely come down, but aren’t exactly cratering. This 1992 model listed here on eBay has some deferred maintenance needs but is a rust-free California truck, and bids currently sit at $7,400 with no reserve.
The 80-Series Land Cruiser is one of the best starter classics you can buy, in my opinion, owing to its impressive reliability and usability as a daily driver. This is not to say they are impervious to failure, as my truck is just now coming out of a long-term engine rebuild after we discovered a headgasket failure that went undetected when I purchased the truck and was likely being band-aided for years by the previous owner. That being said, my rig did have 250,000 miles on it, and this one has a full 100K less, which means it’s seen very low annual mileage for its model year. The old-school California license plates from the middle 90s are a nice touch and speak to long-term West Coast ownership.
The interior of the Land Cruiser is quite basic, and this one predates the standard leather and woodgrain interior that came with the later trucks. The earlier models like this truck have cloth interiors that are fairly hard-wearing, if not exactly attractie. Another tell-tale sign is the three-spoke steering wheel and the lack of an airbag. Overall, Toyota didn’t mess with the basic formula for this truck all that much over the years, but if you can find one with a center locking differential, you’re siting pretty. Fortunately, if you buy this truck, there’s plenty of aftermarket options ot make it the ultimate rock crawler.
The inline-six doesn’t make a ton of power but as mentioned earlier, it’s one of those profoundly reliable engines, not unlike a W123-series diesel. They are under-stressed, for the most part, and aside from the random failure like I experienced – which was likely due to neglect by a previous owner and not any fault of the truck – you should be able to do basic fluid changes and cooling system updates and be in good shape for the long-term. This Land Cruiser needs new tires, according to the seller, and it’s currently in-op in the California DMV system.
These trucks are beasts. Others may chime in here but I thought this engine had issues with cracked cylinder heads. Personally I would want the J100 series because it has the bombproof 2UZ-FE V8. Finally got the much needed power and you still have legendary reliability.
I was interested until it showed 145k miles I know that’s typically nothing for Toyota but its California so its 145k miles sitting in 20mph traffic
Early 80 series, has the pushrod copy of the venerable chevy straight 6, the 3F/3FE, from the 2F family
the later 80’s have the 1fzfe 4.5 liter twin cam 6 cylinder and updated interior
I have a 96, it is a beast, with front/rear lockers on 35″ Goodyear MTR’s/ARB winch bumper/dual batteries/rear tire carrier/Borla exhaust etc. Currently suffering from the dreaded tin worm, but I luv it, so it will be fixed
I bought my Xwife a 96 low mile green one thing ran great she traded it for an Audi quatro twin turbo wagon while I was in Iraq bummed me out.
I never thought about having to check for water damage on a California car until seeing the weather reports from the Bay Area and LA today. 10-14″ of rain in some areas. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!
I live n the Bay Area, the storms this year have been oversold, we haven’t gotten much more than an inch in a 24 hour period since last winter. Just like with earthquakes, damage, if it occurs is isolated to areas that have a specific geography, 99% of people just have to do a bit of cleanup. It’s the news that makes it appear there is widespread devastation, that’s simply not the case. That being said, every car needs a thorough inspection, especially one 30 years old, regardless of its current location.
Steve R
Here in the east they are selling it as an atmospheric river caused by climate change. lol
Chris, before it was called an “atmospheric river”, it was the Pineapple Express, but that predated climate change and would now be considered culturally inappropriate.
Look up The Great Flood of 1862 on Wikipedia. It dropped 35 inches of rain on San Francisco between early December and late January. So much rain and snow fell further east that the Central Valley flood plane measuring 300 mile long, 20 mile wide, up to 30 foot deep.
What happened in LA last weekend is not uncommon, it happens somewhere in the state once or twice a decade. Nowadays it comes as a “shock” and is picked up by the media because it can be used to fit a narrative.
Steve R
I got to drive a white 87 for a few days on Nantucket in 2021. What a magnificent beast. Mine was fully loaded with leather and a built in aftermarket cell phone that still had service. I took it all over the sand roads on the island and never missed a beat. It had 30k miles and had never been off the island. Based on that experience, I’ve been looking for one ever since, but everything I see has 150-200k miles. I’ve been told that’s not really an issue if proper maintenance was done, but haven’t found my diamond yet.