Buying a Toyota Land Cruiser: £5k vs £100k challenge

This is the new Land Cruiser 300, and when imported to the United Kingdom, they can cost around £100,000. But look what I found on the internet. This Land Cruiser 100, which is that car's ancestor. And I picked this up for the priceless arm of £5,000. And my question is, that car actually 20 times better than this car? Or have I gone and bought myself a money pit? Whoops, it's a bit wobbly. The first Land Cruisers were designed for Japan's National Police Reserves back in 1951. And since then, more than 10 million have been sold in over 170 countries. They're used by the UN, Arctic expeditions and various emergency services all over the globe. Toyota even built a one-off 2,000 horsepower Land Cruiser in 2016 that could hit 220 miles an hour. And I wanted a piece of this action, specifically an early noughties car with a V8 petrol engine and a tow bar. So how did I end up with this particular Land Cruiser? Well, I actually set myself the task of finding one for as cheap as possible without it being completely ****. Unfortunately, only about 1,500 are still registered in the UK. And most of the cars for sale are either diesels, MOT failures or far too expensive. But then I found this car. Although there was a very good reason why it was so cheap. The odometer is reading 281,185 miles. So this car has travelled further than the distance to the moon. Also, this doesn't have any service history, which means this car is one big gamble. But would it be? Because Land Cruisers are known for their bulletproof reliability, able to cross continents on and off road. But would that still be the case after two decades and almost 300,000 miles? Later in this video, I'll get my car professionally inspected to see if I bought a lemon. But as I started to look around the car, I was already feeling buyers remorse. Tell you the truth, I sort of bought this car with my heart instead of my head because I love green paint and it looks great in this green. And the paint finish, it's not dulled really. It's stood the test of time. Stone chips here and there, dotted about the place. This bumper, though, is looking very sorry for itself. That has well and truly faded. But, you know, five grand. What are you going to do? There are some kind of like areas where it's kissed walls or the cars, or I don't know what else. But yeah, a bit of a mess, the bumper. Wheels aren't great either. Look at this. Love to get those refurb. I've had to put some new tyres on it. I've got some Devanti off-road tyres there. I've taken this car off-road. It's really, really impressive. The scuffs on the door mirrors, just the usual harking dings and stuff like that. Nothing too terrible. Scratches over the paintwork, scratches and some lacquer coming off the door handle there through use. 280,000 miles. What do you expect? But check this out. Oh, that sounds proper, doesn't it, that? But when it comes to the back door. Interestingly, that sound matches something else on this car, which I'll show you later. Oh, and this is the worst bit. We have a slight rust issue down here. This part is coming loose. In fact, where... What was that? Unfortunately, it was more rust. And this is a common issue with these Land Cruisers. Toyota doesn't under seal its cars in Japan because they don't salt their roads in winter. Cars specifically sold in the UK did get better underbody protection, but Toyota didn't galvanise their ladder frame chassis. So rust is inevitable. Older 90 Series Land Cruisers have huge issues with the fuel tank and rear axle corroding. And this newer 100 model also has rust problems, specifically around the rear wheel arches and the fuel filler neck. Round here, once again, bumpers all faded, not looking great. We do have a tow hitch. That's really useful, though. This electrical connection has been bent. Hands up to that. That was me. Now, this is a tough vehicle. Let's have a look at the boot. Love the split tailgate, but beware. That is pretty heavy and it's not damped like it would be on a modern car. Big boot, though, really practical. And we've got these extra seats in the back. And I'll try those out in a bit. But have a look up here. Rust issues, more rust issues. That's not great. But that's just the reality of owning one of these old Land Cruisers. Unless you pay top money for a low mileage car, you will find rust. And if that bothers you, the new car is going to be a safer choice. This car is brand new. So it's in mint condition. We've actually been lent it by a company called Proctor Car. So thank you very much, guys. Link is in the description if you're interested in buying this, because it's for sale right now. In terms of the design, I sort of prefer the old one. There's a lot of plastic grill going on with this. I do like this kind of indentation in the bonnet. That's quite cool, though. Obviously, modern headlights, which I'm sure will be way more expensive to replace than the old ones. And obviously, one thing that's changed on vehicles, wheel size. Look at the size of these. These aren't designed for going off road. They're designed for cruising, aren't they? Moving down the side, we've got more chrome bits here. You've got those key bits there. Look, those actually improve the airflow down the side of the vehicle to stop wind whistle and improve aerodynamics. One thing that would concern me with this is if you look at the running boards, I feel like they're a little bit more for show. The ones on those are separate and they look like they can be easily replaced when you ding them off roading. There seems to be a lot happening on my left hand side, Graham, like I'm wedged in the shrubbery. I think you might have directed me incorrectly. These look like they'd be more expensive to replace because you've got this whole panel. Anyway, let's have a listen to the doors. No creaking there. And the back door sounds better than the one on that. Moving to the rear, it's quite a big old slab of a vehicle. See if you've got an electrically operated tailgate. And yes, of course we have, but we have lost the split tailgate, which is a shame. However, once again, you open the boot and it just smells new and lovely. I guess you get what you pay for, right? Toyota doesn't officially sell the 300 series car in the UK, and once you've imported one, it'll cost you around £100,000. That sounds like a lot. But if you adjust the old car's 2002 price tag for inflation, it comes to over £81,000 in today's money. So it's not that far off. But how much will these cars cost to live with? Well, when I factor in tax, insurance, fuel, servicing and a set of tyres, here's how much it would cost to run each car for three years. And when you include the cost of buying the car in the first place, the old Land Cruiser works out at about £98,000 cheaper. But being cheaper doesn't mean you get shortchanged when it comes to engines. This new Land Cruiser 300 is powered by a 3.5 litre twin turbo V6, not a V8 anymore. Oh, dear. But you've got 409 horsepower and 650 newton metres of torque Now, you come to the old Land Cruiser, it's only got four speeds. So that car's got a whole gearbox more gears than this one. Whoops. It's a bit wobbly. Anyway, we do have a 4.7 litre V8, so more capacity, but less power. 235 horsepower and 434 newton metres of torque. Still, there's one area where I'm sure this will be better than that. Go on, start the engine. Try again. Now, it does this. It's a bit weird. Sometimes it just doesn't turn over. Seems to like it when I do it. Yeah, give us a go. No, come on. Come on, don't let me down. I just don't know what that's all about. Anyway, let's listen to it. Come on. Oh, that's nice. No soft limiters. Is that right off the red line? Let's move on to the new car. I can't even see the exhaust pipe. Where is it? There it is. Sounds smooth. Give it some revs. It's not terrible. I don't hate it, but it doesn't quite have the character of the V8. One of the reasons manufacturers have downsized engines over the years is for improved fuel economy. But still, this is a big, heavy car. It's not great. And I'll reveal exactly how the fuel economy compares on these cars later in the video, because it probably isn't what you're expecting. 0-60mph on this bad boy is supposed to take 6.5 seconds. I'm going to put the driving mode into sport plus left foot on the brake, floor the throttle. We don't have launch control, but there's lots of boost building. And oh, my God, the pickup on this. Yes. 6.38 seconds. It flies. Which made me want to test the old Land Cruiser's much bigger V8. But then it started to rain quite heavily. So I waited a while for it to dry up to give this old Land Cruiser the best chance. After all, despite having a much bigger engine, it's down by 170 horsepower compared to the new car. 0-60mph is supposed to take 10.7 seconds. Let's find out what this thing can really do. Oh, come on. Come on, old girl. Don't brake. Woo! 9.67 seconds, which is over a second quicker than Toyota claimed 20 years ago. Part of this could be down to modern tyres having better grip than in the early noughties. Or maybe all that rust has saved a significant amount of weight. After all, rust is lighter than carbon fibre. But now it's time for the brake test. And I wasn't sure if the old Land Cruiser would fare so well. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. 43 ain't great. That's the same as an old Rolls-Royce Phantom in the drive. And it's worse than I managed in an old Bentley Continental GT in the wet. So it looks like the brakes might need some attention when I visit the Land Cruiser specialist later in the video. But first, how will the new car compare? Surely it's going to brake a lot better, right? 3, 2, 1. Oof. A little better, but how much better? My goodness. 37 metres. That's a big difference. That's like more than the length of the car. It's all well and good, isn't it? Going on about blowing old cars just as long as nothing goes wrong, because the safety on new cars is just way better. So they're fine right until the point they're not fine. How much is your life worth? So clearly the new car is quicker and safer, but a £95,000 cost difference is huge. In fact, here's a quick montage of all the cars you could buy in addition to my old Land Cruiser for the same price as this new car. But would you really want to live with the old one? Well, for me, the deal breaker would be what it's like to sit in, because that's where you'll spend most of your time. Land Cruisers are famous for being tough and rugged, but this model was supposed to be a market too and luxurious. And I guess this is like early noughties luxury. But today it feels a bit meh. Also, the interior colour, it works with the green, but it's a little bit beige, isn't it? And it's got years and years of grime on it. I mean, look at these seats. These need a thorough clean. And this leather is very, very slippy. I feel myself sliding around in the chair when I'm driving it. Look at this centre console as well. At least your climate controls are easy to access. Proper old school dials. And I do like my aftermarket sound system. And the owner before me put in a digital radio antenna there, which is handy. Plus, look at this. I've got a modern infotainment system here already integrated into the car. Just have to do that. We're good to go. There's also a little Bluetooth mic there, which is handy. So what else about this vehicle? Well, the thing that really gives the age away is the steering wheel. And I can tell exactly how the previous owner used to like to drive. So they clearly like to have their hands at ten to two and occasionally a dead on midday like that. Hopefully not like that. You do sometimes see people driving like that. Look at it. That feels horrible. That needs fixing. What else have we got in here? So we've got some storage under here. Some bolts. Put that back in there. Storage in here. What else might we find? Nothing particularly interesting. Oh, yeah. Look, it's our MOT. That's an MOT. Down here, door bins are quite small. Let's have a look in here. Oh, what? Whoa. That's horrific. OK, let's move on. So there is a damp smell in this car. I think it's damp dog, actually. Whoever owned this definitely had dogs. The headlining. How is the headlining so filthy? That's grim as well. And oh, oh, the technology. But we do have an opening sunroof so I can tilt and slide. Let's slide. Please do not freeze open. That's the risk with an old car opening the sunroof. It's absolute high stake stuff because if it breaks open, the car's just going to fill up with water when it rains. That's good. I will never use that ever again. Right. We've got. I would never put my glasses in there. I don't know what else has been in there. Oh, check this out. Proper sun visors. Double sun visorage. Will it slide as well? Look at that. That's a shout out to the straight pipes, that is. Right. What else? Lots of handles. Tough handles. One for everybody. Clearly meant for holding on to when you're going off road. It's all right, I guess. Five grand. That is horrible though. I just don't want to have to drive it like that. Thankfully, because I hold the steering wheel like that, I don't have to put my hands on this horrible bit here. It's so nasty. Let's just check out some of the electrics. Does this work? Oh, come on, please work. Oh, this is another thing. This main key is broken. Can you see? So that's the one with the blipper on. This is the backup key, which you have to use because we don't want that to get stuck in the ignition barrel. Will the steering column move? Why won't you move? Oh, it's not adjustable anymore. Seats work, though, thankfully. And that's quite noisy, but it still works. They'll have a look at this. We've got a tint on it. I think it needs removing. I can't be bothered to do it now, though. Air conditioning. Come on, please work. Yes, compressor has kicked in because the revs have risen. Come on, go cold. Go cold. It's gone cold. That is good. That is bugging me, though. Mirrors. They'll work. All the key electrics. Apart from the fact it's got adjustable suspension. When I press this, no, it doesn't do anything. Oh, dear. Damn. I hope that's not too expensive. Oh, here's the aerial. No, you can hear the relay. It's definitely a manual aerial now. Did I just make it a manual aerial, though? And here's something I've never seen before. Look, the mirror is sort of peeling. There's a couple of cup holders down here. Look, that's the bit out of the tow hitch electrical connection that I broke. There's lots of dust in this car, dust everywhere. It needs a jolly good clean. Look at this on the dash. Lovely. The final thing to check, the all switches work. The sound of that. You know, back in the day, this was luxury, but that does not feel particularly luxury, does it? Here in the back, this old Land Cruiser has enough space and the seats are comfy, though I'm not comfortable sitting on them because they're just so horribly filthy. Same with the carpet. We do have seat heating here in the back. Look at that. And some form of client control. Look at this, though. Whoa, what's in here, I wonder? Ah, three cup holders. And look at this netting on the back of the seats. It's seen better days. And this is a classic feature of older cars. Remember this? Ashtrays in cars that actually, by the looks of them, might have got used. Have a look at this last thing. Just an old school armrest. Nothing to see here, really. And no ISOFIX anchor points to see either. Wait a minute. That looks like blood. This car is a seven seater, and we're going to time how easy it is for me to get into the back and put up the rear seat. So here we go. Oh, I've never done this before. I'm going to try around the back. Oh, ow. How the heck does this work? Ow. Oops. Ow. OK, actually, this is all right. I feel like I'm sitting on the floor a bit, but plenty of room, good view out, enough headroom. New car must be better, right? The first thing I noticed about this new Land Cruiser is the new car smell. It doesn't smell like someone else's life. Also, it just feels way more luxurious. They've taken this car significantly upmarket. All the material, soft, squidgy, yielding, lovely. And it's also got a more sporty feel to it. The design of the centre console, the dials, the steering wheel, which is smaller and obviously everything absolutely works. And these switches just are damped nicely. Yeah, they're blurred. And check this out. Remember the sound of the window in that car? Listen to this. It's almost silent. That sounds expensive. And oh, while we're at it, double glazing. And you still have like the Land Cruiser vibe like this. Oh yeah, your grab handles. Also, the door bins have got bigger. And check this out. We have USB ports there, as well as the old school 12 volt. Not sure why, though. In 2025, we've got a car with a CD player. A bit old fashioned. There's a button there to control the diff lock. And for low range mode, you just move this little switch there rather than having an extra knob to yank. And thankfully, unlike other car manufacturers, still physical controls for the climate. So it's nice and easy to operate. Yet you've got the benefit of your infotainment screen, which you can connect to your phone to do all that kind of stuff. Storage is good as well. And look at this. Yeah, I like that. What's not so good, though, is this. Despite 20 years between these cars, Toyota hasn't figured out how to do an electrically operated sun blind. We've still got the same sunroof, though, open. But I'm not worried with this one that it's going to jam open so I can actually use it and enjoy it, which is good. The headlining. Yeah, that feels nice and expensive. The seat upholstery. I'm not entirely sure whether it's leather or leatherette. Leather. Feels nice and soft. It's a much nicer place to sit in. It really is. But then it's much, much, much, much, much more expensive. I wanted to take the. Wait a minute. I say that. I just noticed this. What the actual. Is this like this is like a prototype piece of plastic. Who signed that off? Just like the old car. I wouldn't use this because it just feels too horrible to touch and it ruins the vibe to the inside of this car, which otherwise is way better than the old one. This new Land Cruiser is lovely here in the back seats. The seats are so comfy. What's it on a big sofa? Got lovely carpets in here as well. Plenty of space. Feels expensive all the way back here. I've got an infotainment screen that's massive. And look, I've got climate control here in the rear as well and various connections to obviously run through that screen. We've got this is a brand new car. We've got covering on certain pieces to protect it. I'm so tempted to rip this off the screen and tell you the truth. Lovely back here. Way better. And is this really important to someone who's got a young child? Eyes fix anchor points. The new Land Cruiser also has a neat party trick for when you need to carry passengers in the third row of seats. This is going to be a whole lot easier. Ready? Three, two, one, go. Whoops. And then I just press this button. Oh, quickly, quickly, quickly. And that is job done. Plus, I've got to show you this. You can even recline the backrests. It's madness. Oh, new is feeling better. Better by far right now. But I do need to check this. What happens when I put the seat back? Actually, that is pretty roomy. Oh, and I've even got like USB. Yeah, I can charge my phone, which is good. I'm quite happy with this. Wait a minute. What happens if I pull this? That's a bit extreme. That was almost too easy. I don't think I gave the old car a fair chance. Now I know what I'm doing. Let's try again. Oh, come on, move. Why won't it move? Blimmin' old cars. Let's try again. Finally, I'm done and I'm exhausted. Actually, you know, space back here is all right. Loads of headroom. Great view out. Got a cupholder there. We've got a cupholder here. An ashtray there in the very back for the kids. And some more storage there. Anyway, I'm worn out now. But would this 23 year old car feel just as worn out to drive? I can tell you instantly right from the get go that objectively speaking, this old Toyota Land Cruiser won't drive as well as the new one. It's going to be slower, noisier. It's going to handle worse and it's going to be less efficient. However, there's something about having an older car that's just way cheaper. Sort of makes it feel like you're cheating the system and you end up a little bit smug. You know, look, look, I can pretty much drive wherever you can drive. I can go pretty much as fast as you can go. I can go off road like you can go off road. And then what you start doing is excusing all the problems because you just feel like you're winning. For instance, this car has a load of rattles. In fact, it's like an orchestra of rattles. There are so many rattles that your brain can't focus on an individual rattle and then just gives up and just blanks them out. Whereas in a new car, if you spot a rattle, it's usually just the one rattle and you really focus on it. With this car, I just don't care. Can't hear them anymore. White noise. Then there's the mystery as to whether things are working or not, which adds a bit of intrigue. For instance, this car has adaptive suspension. I can go from comfort to normal sport. Can I feel a difference? Well, I'm not sure. Maybe I can, or maybe it's just a change of road surface. One thing that I'm pretty sure isn't working is the high-low setting of the suspension, because I just can't alter it. One thing I'm not sure about as well is this. I've got no oil pressure, according to this gauge. I'm pretty sure I must have some pressure. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to drive the car. That gauge is obviously faulty. Now, later in the video, I'm going to actually take this Land Cruiser to some Land Cruiser experts. They're going to give it a thorough going over and we'll find out. Exactly whether I'd bought a bargain or an absolute money pit, because that, to be fair, is one of the key risks when you're buying older vehicles. Then there's the handling, which is not terrible, but it's not great either. However, the flip side to that is that if you can make swift progress down a twisty road, you feel rewarded. It's like, look what I managed to do. You feel like you're actually driving the car rather than it driving you. Now, to be fair, I'm clearly being lenient because I've got a bargain here. But there are some ways in which this old car is objectively better than the new one. You see, I personally think that the late nineties and early noughties was peak car. The engines were quick enough. There was enough comfort. You've got enough mod cons. You've got power this, power that. But there's not too much insulation, which just separates you from the driving experience. There's not too much comfort. There's not too much tech getting in the way. There's not too many safety systems just nagging at you. And there's not such strict emission rules to take the fun out of the internal combustion engine. For example, I think the engine in this car is more comfortable than the new car. Right. So you floor it. We have enough performance and we've got a good roar of a V8. I like that. Then there's a steering. Yes, the wheel is rather big. It's rather slow, the steering. But because it's an old fashioned hydraulic system, I can feel the road and I can tell exactly how much grip I've got. Also, the car leans in the bends. Pitches under acceleration, it dives under braking, but it's always telling me exactly what it's doing. And it's the same with the brakes. They're not the sharpest brakes in the world, but there's feel to them. I know what's going on underneath my right foot. Same with the throttle pedal. And that's the thing you see with these old cars. They just talk to you more. And with every relationship, communication. Another thing I like about really old cars such as this is I like to think about what life they've had before they were in my care. For instance, this has done 280,000 miles. What has it been up to? What caused that scratch on the front wing? Which driver sat with their hand like that? Where has it been? What has it done? It's had a life. And that gives it personality. Now, most people who aren't into cars will just see the age and it'll go against it. But if you are into cars, these are the kind of things that make you really appreciate older cars. They just have more character. And that, quite frankly, can make them more interesting. And in some ways, they can also be easier to live with. So one of the things you forget about old cars is thin pillars. Right now, they're going to go against you in an accident. But until then, they're an absolute benefit because you get so much better visibility. Huge door mirrors as well. We're less concerned about dragging this car. I have parking sensors at the rear, but there's just two, one on each corner. They're also intermittent. You can't rely on them. And now, even though I've got a massive back window, I'm starting to get a little bit kind of concerned about how close I am to that Tesla. Is this OK? Do you know what? I'm so unsure. And I haven't driven this much, so I'm having to do multiple manoeuvres. So while visibility is good, I am missing modern driver's aids. Also, when you're going slowly, even though it is power assisted, the steering is quite heavy in town. That's close enough. Wasn't too bad. Safety regulations have changed massively since the old car was made, and these strict rules mean cars need stronger, thicker pillars, which can cause bigger blind spots. So most modern cars compensate with loads of technology designed to make them easier to manoeuvre. So let's give this a go. Right, indicating that I can. This is bigger. 10 centimetres longer is quite a difference. And with this, I'm worried about dinging this particular car, not just any other car I might accidentally reverse into. So that's one definite disadvantage of this new model. OK, thing is, though, reversing camera. Front right. Oh, I've got audible warnings about rear. Oh, that's really good. The parking sensors, which aren't just two on the corner of the rear bumper, but all over the car, are really helping direct me. God, OK. Closer to the kerb, much easier, less stressful. Apart from that constant beeping noise to remind me I'm in reverse, even though I clearly know I am because I'm going backwards. But yeah, that is progress. But there's one area where it seems like Toyota is still stuck in the past. When Land Rover made the new Defender, they got rid of the old car's ladder frame chassis and used a unibody or monocoque instead. This is where the engine, gearbox and suspension all bolt directly onto the car's body. However, a few hardcore off-roaders like this Land Cruiser, the Mercedes G-Class, the Jeep Wrangler and the Suzuki Jimny still use a separate ladder frame chassis. These have a dedicated frame that holds every part of the drivetrain, and this whole assembly gets bolted to the car's body. This makes the car stronger and stiffer and stops it twisting when you max out the axle articulation. Ladder frames like this are also easier to repair than a normal unibody chassis, but they raise the car's centre of mass, which results in worse handling and poorer ride comfort. To help counteract this, Toyota fitted the new Land Cruiser with double wishbone front suspension, adaptive dampers at all four corners and a new electronic anti-roll bar linkage to reduce body lean, which should make it more comfortable and more fun to drive. But has it worked? Now, while the old Land Cruiser had bags of charm and character, being brutally honest, this is a much nicer car to drive. It's more comfortable over bumps. It's quieter. The engine has way more punch. It's smoother. Doesn't sound quite so good, but everything else about it is superior. Visibility is generally pretty good as well. I've got all the tech I could possibly want. I can connect my phone to the car rather than having to have a thing attached to the dash. It's got all the latest mod cons. It's going to be safer. There's so much going for it, apart, of course, from the price. And that's the thing, you see, when it comes down to value for money, this can't get close to the old car. It just can't. But when you're actually comparing what you've got, this is a much nicer car to spend time in. And really, anyone's going to like driving this car. Only car fans are going to like driving the old car or farmers. One thing I will say about this car, though, is when I compare it to its competitors, like a Land Rover Defender, that car is better to drive. I'd rather have one of those. Part of the problem is, though, that this is still just like the old Land Cruiser built on a ladder frame chassis. And that does mean that it's tough and rugged. But it also means that when you're driving down the road and you hit imperfections, you get this shimmy and shake going through the car. So, yes, while it is more comfortable than the old vehicle, it still has that characteristic, which doesn't make it feel quite as plush nor as luxurious as something like a Land Rover Defender, despite having all the necessary tech and leather throughout the car. Also, do you notice this? Just peace and quiet, not even white noise. So the new car is clearly going to be a better everyday car and much easier to live with. But the difference in the price compared with my old Land Cruiser is a big problem, especially if my car turns out to be a good one. And to find out exactly how good it is, I'm taking it to Arctic Trucks. This company actually started as an official branch of Toyota in Iceland in the 1990s, specializing in making extreme off-roaders with giant tires, long travel suspension and huge wide body kits. They're now based in the United Kingdom, which is where they built the modified Toyota Hilux that Top Gear drove to the North Pole in 2007. So they know what they're doing. Now, James is going to inspect my Land Cruiser and hopefully not discover any serious or expensive problems. I don't know whether that's a death rattle, but it doesn't sound good. So let's start off here looking at the exterior. And you probably noticed something already. Yes, I think your headlight's a bit fogged up. Could it hit like a humidifier in there? I would say you probably have some water in there at some point. And that's condensated the headlight pretty bad. The thing I noticed, that's actual glass. It is old school. And down here as well. Look, I mean, that's even worse. Now, there's something that I did the other day. We took this thing off-roading and it did a really good job. But I managed to drive into a piece of tree which sort of snapped that and did that that bit of damage there. Yes. Abuse. Yeah, so I think we can we can probably straighten that panel out fairly easily. Good. And then we'll replace your headlight washer jet bezel. So it matches the one that's managed to survive. Is there anything you notice about the bodywork that would suggest that it's had an accident of some sort or not at all? I would say at first glance, I can't see any evidence that this car has been involved in a major, major accident at any point in its life. That's not to say that a panel hasn't been dinged at some point in its life. And then down this side, this is a little bit of age related rust starting, which I mean, it's minor. It's only surface rust. There's nothing. There's no holes. It's not breaking off again. Cosmetic. So outside's pretty good condition. Not much to do. Just the lights and the bit of damage that age related marks. Welcome to the inside of my Toyota Land Cruiser. What do you think of the condition? It's not fared too badly over the years. Obviously, as aged and it is weathered, the seats are showing signs of wear. But all in all, for a car of this age and mileage, you have to say it's all right. It's pretty good. So far, it's going pretty well. I might have got myself a bargain, but now it's the moment of truth because James put my car up on the ramp to get a good look underneath. Would there be any hidden issues and would the adjustable suspension prove to be an easy fix or potentially something a lot more serious? So there's a lot of mud because I took this off roading. And look at me. Look at all that caked in there and there's mud everywhere. But what can you see that's I don't know, any warning signs here, any issues? What do you think of it? Obviously, it's not without fault. It does have faults. Some of them silly, some of the bit more serious starting at the rear. Obviously, the handbrake is applied in the vehicle at the moment. Yeah, look, that doesn't turn. That passenger wheel doesn't turn. But this driver's side one, I can quite easily turn that with my hands. That is down to what I can see, a handbrake adjustment. So, I mean, if I pull gently on this cable, you'll notice all of a sudden this wheel doesn't turn anymore. OK, so that's easy. Simple handbrake adjustment. Back to your suspension issue. Yes, I think we found the culprit. If you look at the mud on the bottom of this car, it all looks very dry. Yeah. Now, if you look around your shock absorber area, it's all a bit damp. It's all a bit, very bit damp up there. Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that something has failed with that shock, whether it be pipe work or the shock absorber itself. This car has hydraulic suspension. This means the weight of the car is supported by coil springs, but you can adjust the ride height and stiffness by pumping high pressure fluid into the shock absorbers. This is different from air suspension, which supports the weight of the car using rubber bags filled with compressed air. Air suspension is usually more comfortable, which is why it's used for lots of road focused SUVs. But hydraulic suspension is more robust, which means it's better for serious off-roaders like this Land Cruiser. What about this is a bit of like what's going on here? So your prop shaft is lubricated through its universal joint and its slip joint. It's showing signs of a little bit of oil starting to weep out of both. It's a case of we take apart, clean, re-grease, change the seal if needs be. OK, the slip joint allows the prop shaft to stay connected to the rear differential, even when the rear axle is severely twisted, such as during extreme off-roading. If the seals perish, then dirt and dust can get inside this joint and stop it sliding smoothly, which could affect its power delivery. And through the mid section of the vehicle, the exhaust systems are all in very good condition. The gearbox, the transfer box, it's bone dry. So no leaks there, no gasket leaks? There's no leaks. Right about there, there's a bit of leakage there. So what we've got here, this is your front prop shaft. The front UJ, again, looks to be weeping a little bit of oil or grease from its lubricating seals. So again, we can drop that off and have a look for you. Front diff looks good. Obviously, the drive shaft seals look to be in good order. There's no oil leaking from them. There's no oil leaking from any of the maintenance surfaces for the front diff. There is a little bit of grease starting to show here. This could be from a failing CV joint or it could be from a previous failure that's been fixed and not been cleaned properly. So we will have to have a look at that as well. The only other thing which we can see from the bottom, but it would be better looking from the top, is I can see from down here that the engine... Ow! Health and safety, Matt. I'm going to get you a hard hat. It's a high risk job. Right, OK. So if I shine a torch up there, you will see the rocker cover gaskets for the V8 engine. So they've obviously perished and they're now starting to leak oil onto the exhaust manifold, and that's occurring both sides of the engine. All right. So that's something else we need to have a look at for you. Well, do you know what? Let's drop it down. Let's have a look under the bonnet. Behold the magnificence. 4.7 litre V8. Do you know what MPG we're getting out of this at the moment? Single digits? No, no, it's 13. Yeah, we filled it up. It's got a 96 litre fuel tank and that did us for just over 200 miles. That's pretty terrible by modern standards. However, the new Land Cruiser isn't actually much better. It'll only average about 22 miles per gallon, but at least it has a massive 110 litre fuel tank. So you should be able to do over 500 miles between Phillips. Now, I already knew these cars were going to be expensive to run. However, I also needed James to tell me if there were any costly issues hiding in my car's engine bay. Now, you'll notice that I'm holding your bonnet up because there's no way it's going to fall on your head because both the gas struts have failed. So if I let go, it slowly creeps down on you. Go on then, do it. Oh, there we go, look, there we go. So there we go. I think I'll smack you on the head. Yeah, to fix those. Yeah, so gas struts for the bonnet. Battery's good. Yeah, I've got no problems there. I think obviously any engine in any car could do with a good service. So I think, you know... So you're going to do oil and filter and all that kind of stuff? Oil, filters, spark plugs, all that sort of good stuff. This tank here. This one? This is the tank that provides fluid for your suspension system. Shall I open it and see? There is absolutely nothing in it. Without any hydraulic fluid, there is no way to adjust the ride height or the stiffness of the suspension. James would have to refill this tank before he could diagnose if there were any other issues. However, before he got to work, we went for a short test drive to complete the inspection. But I had no idea that things were about to get much, much worse. That sound like a diesel. It does sound a bit rattly, doesn't it? It didn't sound like this the other day. Although it might have something to do with the fact that the temperature needle is now off the dial. Really? Yes. It's got a bit of airflow through the radiator. It might cool that down. So I had this off-roading and the temperature gauge was bang on the middle. No problems at all. Hmm. Should keep an eye on that because we don't want to be ruining your car. No, because if we overheat it, we'll just... Well, then you're into engine work, then possible cylinder heads and we don't want that. No, you're into the scrapyard. Guys, we need to pull over. We have a problem with the... Oh, we've got an engine warning light as well and it's making a weird noise like a diesel. Is that a death rattle? I don't know whether that's a death rattle, but it doesn't sound good. At this point, the engine was severely overheating, so we pulled over as soon as possible. But it might have been too little, too late. If the engine got excessively hot, it could have warped the cylinder heads and caused permanent damage. And a secondhand replacement engine for these old V8 Land Cruisers cost over £3,500. So I really hope it didn't reach a critical temperature. I had to wait for it to cool down before I could tell if it caused any permanent damage. We've left the car long enough now. It's cool enough. Shall we get the coolant in there? Yeah, I think we should put some coolant in it there, Matt. See how my aim is. It's just pissing out of there, isn't it? Yeah, water's leaking. Right, so we have got a holy rad. We limped the broken Land Cruiser back to Arctic Trucks, where James would be giving me the bad news about how much this was going to cost. And of course, I had no choice but to get it fixed. Maybe this wasn't such a good buy after all. So, James, you've been through all the parts that we need. Can you just run through what they are and then give me a price for the parts and then the labour to fit them? Starting from the top, we've got your starter motor, a new radiator, thermostat, water pump, oil and air filters and fuel filters for your track control arms, the offside headlight that was fogging up and your fog light, your headlight washer that you've broke with your little dent. We've also got your new aerial. Tailgate locks around. Fluid-wise, we've got your engine oil, gearbox oil for your automatic transmission, the top up for the suspension fluid. How much? Do I need to hold you up? Yeah, yeah, go on. That's all good. Right, so, parts. Yeah. They're going to come to £2,167 plus of that. Okay, and labour? Labour, £1,800 plus of that. Right, so we're basically talking £4,000. Car costs £5,000 and then to do all these bits, it's like almost the same again. Oh, I'm really annoyed about that radiator going because, really, I reckon I could just forget about all the other stuff, but that definitely needs doing. And once you're starting working on it, you may as well do all the other bits. Let's get the bits ordered and we'll get the car fixed. Most of this work wasn't too difficult, but replacing the starter motor proved to be a very big job. On most cars, the starter is located beside the engine block so you can access it from underneath. But on this Land Cruiser, Toyota mounted it in between the cylinder heads. This means you have to remove the whole intake manifold and loads of pipes and hoses to reach it. Despite this, James and the team managed to sort everything. So the car started on the button when I picked it up a few weeks later. But what about those leaky hydraulic dampers? So, going from comfort into sport. Does it feel more bumpy? Ooh, yes, it definitely does. That now works as well, which is a result. We haven't managed to get the oil gauge fixed. We just didn't bother. We'll figure out that when it stops tapping or knocking, it probably is losing oil pressure. The biggest thing though is this, the temperature gauge. That needle is rock solid just below the middle mark, which is exactly where I want it. Beforehand, it was just like raising off the dial and going crazy. So that is all fixed. The car is good. I mean, yeah, we've still got no oil pressure according to that gauge, but we clearly have, otherwise I'd have broken down. I think this car is going to be good enough now for another 280,000 miles, at least. But later that day, the car developed another issue, which could prevent me from driving it again and stop us doing an off-road race against the new Land Cruiser. Come on, it's Matt, it's Matt. It's off for me. There you go. Yeah, I thought it seemed a bit odd when they were revving it. Yeah, got an engine warning light. Sounds a bit misfire-y. Not already. Oh my darn, hopefully it's nothing serious. It seemed like the problem was related to the ignition system. The spark plugs had just been changed, so it could be a faulty ignition coil. I removed the one that seemed to be misfiring and found the housing was cracked. I replaced it, reconnected the wiring harness and crossed my fingers. That's better. I now just need to clear that light. Then we were ready for my rather unusual final challenge. Now we're going to have a drag race in low range mode. So we're going to put the cars in drive in low range mode, lift off the brake, and the car which completes the distance in the longest time wins. I'm going to start this race for once. Here we go. Ready? Three, two, one, go. Here we go, look at this. They're sort of going at walking pace. I think the new car is in the lead, which means that it's losing right now. It's noticeably quicker. Oh my gosh. This is quite surprising. That is a win, but also a loss to the new Land Cruiser. Look, look how slow this one is. Hello. You all right? Yeah. I feel like I won the president's cavalcade. You won. Very slow. It's very slow, but that's what you want. Control when you're off-roading. Where's he going? Are you sure that was in low range mode? I can show you. For low, I had it in low range, I even put it in manual and tried to change down in case it was in second or third. I even tried knocking down the cruise control because I know in hill descent control that controls how fast you go. And that was it. That was as slow as it would go. Oh dear, that's not progress. However, it turns out the new Land Cruiser has something even slower than low range mode. Crawl control. This is basically an ultra low speed cruise control for rocky trails. And once the driver of the new car had figured this out, we were ready for a rematch. Three, two, one, go. Oh, look at this now. The tables, they have turned. Look, I can actually crawl quicker than your car. This is how slow it is. Oh, don't roll over me. It's fine. You're so slow. Zero miles an hour. Oh, it's taking me out of crawl mode. Oh no. It didn't like that at all. You still won though, that was easy. So that's a clear win for the new car. It's obvious how much tech has improved the Land Cruiser over the years and made it a much better car for off-roading and on-road. But there's one huge issue with the new model and it's technology. That could change your mind about owning one. Toyota doesn't officially sell this car in the UK. You have to import them from Japan, which is exactly what's happened with this car. Look, the manuals are in Japanese and there's some Japanese documents for it as well. And that means there's a bit of a problem. You see, Toyota won't honour the warranty of this car here in the UK. So if something goes wrong, it could be a bit expensive to fix. Now, the seller of this car, Proctor Cars, said that you can get an aftermarket warranty, but they cost between 800 and 900 pounds a year. And you might be thinking, that's quite expensive. How come? Well, it's partly down to the cost and availability of replacement parts. These headlamps look quite nice, don't they? And they're packed full of technology. And they're great when they're working, but if they fail to work, it's going to cause you a problem. Let's say someone reverses into you in a car park or something like that, or something just goes wrong with it. If you want to get one of these, you can actually go to a Toyota dealer in the UK and they'll get one shipped from Japan. But it's going to cost you 2,600 pounds per headlight. Now, if you have an incident with a headlight on your old Land Cruiser, you can't get the parts anymore, unfortunately, but there's plenty available online, refurbished, and they'll cost you about 90 pounds a unit. But there's a reason for that. They're pretty basic. And that means the light that they give off isn't great. Have a look at this. This is just normal beam. Go. Oh, it's on. It's actually on. Yeah, it's like driving along at night with just a couple of candles attached to your bonnet. So, is buying the cheapest used Land Cruiser better than buying something new and dependable? Well, I picked this up for 5,000 pounds, which is about half the market value. And while it drove fine and held together for a few days off-roading, it's not without issues. Because it broke down rather embarrassingly while Arctic Trucks were appraising it, it meant that it cost me closer to 10,000 pounds all in due to the cost of the repairs. The new Land Cruiser should be faultless for many years to come, but it does have a much steeper price tag. And bearing all of this in mind, what is my final verdict? Well, if you want a premium SUV that you really can take anywhere off-road and it won't let you down, plus you're going to keep it for 20 years and plan to do 280,000 miles in it, get yourself this new Toyota Land Cruiser. But if you've only got 10,000 pounds and you want an SUV that you can pretty much take anywhere and won't let you down too badly, and will probably do another 280,000 miles, then get yourself one of these old classic Land Cruiser V8s. This one's actually for sale, 15,000 pounds.