I have a friend who is desperate for some kind of vehicle appropriate for doing off-road adventuring, though he admits that he’ll never seek to rock crawl or even come close. Mostly, he wants something that will look cool driving around the desert Southwest. It might be that the 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser shown here on ebay would fit his fantasies. It’s therefore my job to put him onto this ad, which has six days remaining. The price sits at just over $12 grand, and the reserve is not met. Whoever wins will find a one-way ticket to Vail, Colorado and then, for summer adventure, drive this truck home. Note that within the ad, a price of $29,500 is mentioned, so the auction reserve is likely nowhere close to being nailed at this stage.
When my buddy, Robert, approached me for some advice about his desert-driving dreams, our conversation quickly ran to Land Rover-Range Rover ideas, and so I took him by a classic Land Rover restoration and service shop nearby. He was quickly put off by the stories told about the lack of reliability and the cost of repairs. His ideas then zoomed to new cars like the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler. A Land Cruiser never occurred to me, so thanks, Barn Finds!
What are the virtues here? The vehicle is vintage, but not too, too old. This means parts are not made of “unobtanium” and features include some safety, if not quite the multi-air-bag fitment of the newest models. But there’s also the styling, which is contemporary to the 19990s if not prior, but now pleasantly retro. It has a rugged, boxy, kind of devil-may-care attitude that might well see you safely off on a safari and home again. In fact, the Land Cruiser is tested and proven in the Australian Outback, some of the toughest conditions in the world.
This one is part of the desirable 70 series, with a removable hard top and an inline six-cylinder of pretty hefty proportions, at 4.5 liters of displacement. The current owner is candid about condition—this is a used truck with 1q41,000 miles on it, but it drives reliably and can be used now and brought up a level in future if that’s what you desire. In the meantime, it is described as an excellent overland, expedition, hunting, or mountain vehicle. I think for Robert’s sake, we need to add “desert cruiser,” though admittedly, there might be a better word than “cruiser.” Maybe the five-speed manual with low range and four-wheel-drive is more off-road capability than my English professor friend really needs, but look at it the other way: He could be having a heck of a good time climbing the dunes in the Mojave within a couple of weeks, and if he dings this truck up, so what? It’s meant for driving and already has some road rash to prove it.
The F70 is one of the best Land Cruisers of all time IMO. They are some of the toughest, most dependable vehicles ever built, made to withstand serious environmental punishment. This one appears to be in good shape and it will likely get $25k+ easily. This is likely a foreign market import, as I don’t remember them being sold directly in the US. Rarer than hen’s teeth, especially in the 2 door “troop carrier” variant with the removal hard top. If I lived closer, this would be impossible to resist.
It’s a Land Cruiser. This means it can stand up to any abuse you can imagine to throw at it.
It’s a Toyota. This means it is easy to drive and easy to work on. Parts are abundant. It will crawl any mall you point it at.
The ad states she was originally manufactured in Columbia. This explains the gauges reading in metric units while being a left hand drive vehicle.
If I was in the market I’d be on this lovely lady like a dung beetle on dookie. 💩