I'm Selling My Toyota Land Cruiser on Cars & Bids!

This is my 2013 Toyota Land Cruiser and I'm selling it on cars and bids. Yes, that's right, my Land Cruiser. I bought it two years ago and I vowed that I would own it forever and now I'm selling it after only two years on cars and bids. Today I'm going to explain why and strap in because this one has some ups and downs and they're going to ban me from the Land Cruiser forums after this because I'm going to say that it wasn't very reliable. Let's get started. Okay, so today's video, selling my beloved Toyota Land Cruiser. First I'm going to explain why I bought my Land Cruiser. Then I'm going to explain what went wrong with my Land Cruiser and then I'm going to explain what's making me sell it and I'm going to explain also what makes my Land Cruiser so great and why you should buy it on cars and bids. Then I will take one final drive in my Land Cruiser. Let's get started with why I bought it in the first place. The basic plan was this. I spend about 70% of the year here in Southern California and the remaining 30% I live on the East Coast, which is as far away as humanly possible and still being in contiguous United States. So I have cars that I drive here in Southern California and I decided to buy this car to have it live over there on the East Coast far, far away so that when I go there, I have something to drive. It sounds pretty simple. Now, when I am on the East Coast, I do a lot of driving off road. It's usually on the beach, on soft sand, but also some like rutted trails and mud and some climbing and some rocks and that sort of thing. I'm off road basically every single day without exception. Truthfully, people are going to be like, no you're not. Yo, I am. Every single day without exception. And so I also bring a lot of people to come and visit me when I'm on the East Coast. My friends refer to it as an adult summer camp. Basically all of my friends that were on the East Coast, I lived there for like 13 years, all of the friends who were there, I only really see them when I go back there and so they all sort of come and gather at my place and we all get together. We go to the beach and we play board games and we spend nights stargazing and drive out to remote spots and have bonfires and it's wonderful. It's all fantastic. But it means that I have some fairly significant needs for a vehicle. To be specific, I needed something that could sit for 70% of the year and do nothing when I'm in California. And then the other 30% of the year, it could carry as many people as I needed it to and go on whatever off-road adventures I asked of it on a moment's notice. And so the conventional wisdom said, well, you need a LandCruiser. It can do that. It can off-road, it can carry a lot of people and it's reliable enough to just sit. It's perfect. It can take you to the remote wilds off-road. You'll never have any problems. That's what it's good at, people said. Carries people, goes off or does it all. It'll do whatever you ask of it. That's what everybody said. This has not entirely been my experience. So I bought this car in late 21. So I've had it for a little over two years and less than a month after I bought it, I hit a deer with it. Now this obviously was not the LandCruiser's fault, but in retrospect, it was not the best beginning of my time with a car. I still had a temporary license plate on it at the time, paper temporary plate, when I hit the deer and it was not a good start. Now I didn't hit the deer intentionally. I was driving down the road and the deer ran out in front of me into the road and I slammed on the brakes and I just clipped the very corner of the car on the very corner of the deer, but it was kind of the wrong foot to start things off on. So it was broken almost right off the bat. Got it fixed, replaced the headlight, replaced the grill, replaced like a front fender, something like that. By the way, that is not on the Carfax report, but I am disclosing it to you as an honest and truthful seller. When you sell it to the next guy, do what you want. Anyway, after that got it fixed, LandCruiser, now it's time for you to do the LandCruiser thing. So the summer of 22 happens, car was fine. It was great. I'd leave it at the end of August to go back to California. Winter comes on the East Coast and I go back to the East Coast briefly for like a week, get in my LandCruiser. It's been sitting for only about 60 days at that point, maybe less. I go to start it and nothing. The alternator had failed. So I thought to myself, okay, you know, whatever. This is the reliable car, but an alternator is not that big of a deal. It had almost a hundred thousand miles. I can handle an alternator. So I had it replaced. And then I got this idea that I really didn't want anything to break ever again. I had this reliable car. I wanted it to be bulletproof, reliable. It would never leave me stranded ever. It was capable of traversing any terrain. And now I wanted it to also be able to have no issues ever at any moment ever. And part of the reason for that I should mention is where I go, the place I spent time on the East Coast, it's an Island and there's no Toyota service department there. There's nobody who can really do work on this car. And also the population of the Island jumps for maybe 10,000 people in the winter to sometimes a hundred thousand people in the summer. And the result of that is that services are very difficult to come by just in general in the summer, especially vehicle servicing, because there are real tradesmen and contractors and commercial users who have much greater needs. And obviously the service departments there sort of take care of the locals a little bit more than people like me. So I really didn't want it to break and I really wanted to make it as reliable as humanly possible. It can go anywhere. Now let's make it make sure that it comes back always at all times ever. So with that goal in mind, I took my trusty Land Cruiser to a Toyota dealership, Coons Toyota outside Washington, DC. Now Land Cruiser people who are watching this are going to groan right here. Oh, you took it to a dealer. They don't know how to work on an enthusiast vehicle such as this, but the truth is this 5.7 liter V8 was probably in like 2 million Tundras. They see probably 20 of them a day. They know how to work on it. And I wanted to make sure that I got some work done with genuine Toyota parts and a Toyota dealer and a Toyota mechanic, like someone who really knew what they were doing using the best quality stuff. That was my goal. And I took it to the Toyota dealership and I told them to fix all of the big issues with the 5.7 liter V8 that powers this vehicle, my Land Cruiser. Now in researching the 5.7 liter V8, I must say I was a little bit surprised with just how many big issues there are considering that this is the reliable Land Cruiser, the sturdy, never let you down, giant thing. This can go anywhere, do anything. Well, it turns out the radiator is known to fail. The starter is known to fail. The idler pulley is known to fail. The water pump is known to fail. And of course my alternator had already just failed. But I figured, look, these are some of the known failure points in the Land Cruiser and they don't fail at 10,000 miles to this engine's credit. You got to get up there in the mileage range before they start going. But I figured those are the issues. Let's replace all of them, all of them at the dealership using genuine Toyota parts. I spent, I am not joking, this is where the real eye rolling is going to start. I spent over $13,000 at Koons Toyota in late 22. So like a little over a year ago fixing all of this stuff and a bunch of other stuff. I also replaced brake pads and all the rotors. I replaced wheel bearings, wiper blades, all the fluids. I did everything you could possibly do to a Land Cruiser. And some of this stuff, I mean obviously dealership pricing is higher than like an independent, but some of this stuff is pretty expensive. The starter in this engine is hard to replace. It's located in a difficult spot to get to and it's difficult to replace and I wanted to do it. It's in the middle of the engine and I've always heard it fails around 100,000 miles. Well, mine is right around 100,000 miles. I figured let's just replace it preemptively so it doesn't strand me. That alone was $2,200. But I just wanted this truck to be totally bulletproof and never strand me again. Now some of you are going to say, why fix all that stuff if it isn't broken? Why do all of those repairs if it hasn't caused a problem yet? But the truth is some of the places that I go are pretty remote and if you broke down or got stuck, they would require a long and very expensive tow back to paved roads. And if, let me put it this way, if you ever spent, if you ever broke down somewhere with no cell service and no paved road within an hour and you're with your in-laws, that $13,000 was money well spent. Let me just, let's just put it that way. Anyway, I did all of that. Over $13,000 in fixes and repairs and maintenance and fluids and upgrades and improvements for reliability. And then six months later, the alternator failed again. And I was on my third alternator in a year. And then the tire pressure monitoring system failed and it wouldn't read the correct tire pressures. And I kind of decided this is not the situation for me. I fixed all that stuff and now I'm selling my LandCruiser. Now, when I think back on it now, now that I'm selling it, truth be told, I think the main problem with my LandCruiser experience was that I just asked too much of it. I really did. It is tremendously capable. Probably the best, lowest drama off-roader that I have ever owned, including my old Defender, my new Defender. This thing always felt like it could go further without questioning what you're doing better than any other car I've ever had. But it's still a 10-year-old vehicle with about a hundred thousand miles. And I was asking it to sit at my house for like 37 weeks out of the year, just sitting there, not moving at all. No garage, by the way. About 800 feet from the ocean, the salt air. It is not the best situation for any car, let alone an aging one. And so you look at the LandCruisers, it is a tremendously capable, reliable, sturdy vehicle, but that would be hard conditions for basically any car, especially one that is getting up there in age. And so you have this aging car, not getting driven the salt air. It's just not a great combination. Fortunately, it never did sit there for a full winter. It would come down to DC for at least a couple months during the harshest part of the winter. But it became clear to me that this is just not a great plan for actually keeping this car alive if I want to see it continue to live through the rest of its days with me. And so I'm selling it. I don't think that I can use it for the purposes I want to. It's not that the LandCruiser wasn't reliable, like I mentioned earlier. It's more that I think my use case was a bit too extreme for the LandCruiser. I think I asked too much of it, and it responded by being unreliable because of the circumstances I put it in. I don't really blame it, but I also can't keep doing this to the LandCruiser. Having it sit outside, not really sure if it'll work. You don't have a lot of faith in it because you're letting it sit forever. You're coming back to it. I mean, you show up, it's covered in lead. It's just not a good situation. And I don't think that's the best way to own this. And frankly, I can't put another alternator in my LandCruiser. So it's time for the LandCruiser to go to someone who will use this car properly and drive it like a normal car and not let it sit forever outside and abuse it with kids on the beach and sand everywhere and beach toys all throughout the back. This car is ready for a better life. So with all of that in mind, my explanation for why I bought my LandCruiser, how I used it, and why I'm selling it, let's talk about my LandCruiser in case you might be interested in buying it. And you should, because this is the best LandCruiser. Of course, all LandCruiser owners say that about their LandCruiser, and they all truly believe it. That includes me. I think the 200 Series LandCruiser is the best one. That was the LandCruiser sold from 2008 to 2021. And I happen to think that this version of it is the very best. Of course I do. It's the one I bought. But the 2013 to 2015 model specifically, those three years are my very favorite. The earlier ones didn't look quite as good and they didn't have quite as much stuff standard. Beginning in 13, Toyota made all of the previous options in earlier years standard on all the LandCruisers. So if you get a 13 and up, you get basically everything. I also happen to not really like how the later models look. The 16 through 21 LandCruisers, to me, their look is like my LandCruiser asking for permission. It's just, it just isn't quite as muscular and brawny as the earlier 200 Series. So I really wanted this one. This is the one I got. I also wanted this color, Blizzard Pearl, they called it. This beautiful pearlescent white, absolutely gorgeous. And it was new for the 13 model year. And so I got a 13 in Blizzard white. The drawback I always felt was the interior. Some white cars were made with a black interior, but they are hard to find. The vast majority of 200 Series LandCruisers with the Blizzard Pearl got this beige interior, which looks like it was specially designed for the elderly. Beige seats, beige lower dash, and then this sort of light wood trim as well, complimenting it. It's just not the best look. For 2016, Toyota replaced beige with this sort of earthy brown that looked way, way better, but I got the beige. That was the drawback of getting the cool exterior color. As for condition, my LandCruiser is actually pretty good, despite some of the things I've said about it. Mileage for one, just ticked over 100,000 miles. It's at like 101,700. And if you've been looking for a 200 Series LandCruiser, or frankly, any LandCruiser, you know that's pretty good. A lot of these are approaching 200,000 or even 300,000 miles by now, but this one is relatively tame at about 101. Then you got the powertrain and you benefit from the fact that I've replaced all of the known issues with this car. The idler pulley has been replaced. The radiator has been replaced. The starter at Big Job has been replaced. The alternator, of course, was recently replaced. The brake pads and rotors all replaced. All the fluids replaced. The water pump recently replaced. Everything that I think might go wrong based on my extensive research on the LandCruiser 200 Facebook page has been taken care of and replaced, and it's ready to go on to the next person and live a good life. As for rust, although I owned this car for two years in a salty climate, the rust isn't that bad because I bought it from Kentucky. I knew I'd be taking it up to a salt air situation, and I wanted to start with as minimal rust as possible. So I wanted to start with a Southern car, LandCruiser from the South, and when I bought it, it had no rust on it at all. These days, a little bit more. A little bit more surface corrosion on various things in the engine bay and under the car, but mostly it still doesn't really have that much rust. There's a long, long, long life left, especially if you're in California, where rust isn't really going to be added very quickly. But with that said, there are a few flaws with this LandCruiser. The windshield is currently cracked, so you'll have to replace that if you want, given that it was like a second car beach cruiser for me. I never bothered, but it is cracked and could be replaced. Also, there are some cosmetic dings and dents, and there's a scrape that my nanny did. She didn't tell me she did it, but she took the car out. The car came back. There was a scrape. I kind of put two and two together. We touched it up with touch-up paint, and frankly, it doesn't really matter. That's the point of the LandCruiser. You can kind of be a little less careful with it. It's not supposed to be this thing that you're so protective over. It's tough, it's rugged, and so it's had a few scrapes and dents. Also worth pointing out, the tires are pretty old. I don't know the date code, but they're probably four or five years old, and they're kind of cracking and dry rotting. I didn't want to replace them before I sold it, because these are all-terrain tires, and not everybody wants those on a LandCruiser. Some people will use this as a family car on the pavement. They don't want the sound of the all-terrain tires. Some people prefer all-terrains to go off-roading, and so I didn't want to make that choice for you. You can decide which tire you want to put on when you buy my LandCruiser. So there you go. That is my 200 Series LandCruiser, my Blizzard Pearl 200. I've wanted one of these for years. It actually was the achievement of a dream for me to buy this car, even though it may not be a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. I always wanted a Blizzard Pearl 200 Series, and I was so happy to get it, and I love it, and I'm sad to see it go, but I'm thrilled that it's going to go on to someone who's probably going to be a better steward of it than I will. And in addition to that, I'm kind of sad to see what's happening to the new LandCruiser. It seems like it's going to be awesome. It looks cool. I'm sure it'll be capable, but there's no more V8. There's not even a six-cylinder. There's no more third row. It doesn't have the big brawny top-of-the-range, this-is-the-Toyota-truck-that-rules-all-the-other- Toyota-trucks kind of persona. Again, I'm sure it'll be great, but to me, and I think to a lot people out there, the 200 will feel like the very last real LandCruiser ever to come to North America. It will always hold kind of a special place in our hearts, and I have a suspicion they'll hold value as a result because of that. And overall, I still have a strong respect and appreciation for the LandCruiser, despite my trials and tribulations. This was a seriously useful, impressive, excellent vehicle. I truly did love it, and I'll be sad to see it go. I already have a new car ordered to replace the LandCruiser, which I will announce soon. The LandCruiser's replacement is inbound, and the LandCruiser is outbound. And so with that, now you've heard all about my LandCruiser experience, and now I will take it out on the road and give it one last drive in my 200 series to tell you what I think of the driving experience. All right, driving my 2013 LandCruiser, my Cruy, as I came to call it. Getting in this car, it just reminds me why I loved this car so much and why I wanted so badly to buy one, which is you feel totally indestructible in this thing. And in large part, that's because you are. You know, I've got my old Land Rover Defender, I had it. I had my new Land Rover Defender. I've off-roaded with a wide variety of different vehicles. This has always felt the most comfortable and capable off-roading. Certain cars could definitely go further. I mean, the Rivian SUV could definitely do more, but this just handled everything like it was nothing. And that always was so impressive to me. It was just so overbuilt for everything, and it really felt like that too. You're also sitting up very high, even right compared to regular SUVs. I'm behind a Toyota Highlander right now, which isn't even a small crossover. And this is towering. I mean, it's bigger, it feels bigger and better. And I will say, despite that, if you actually look at the dimensions, it's not that huge. So you have this sort of big, you know, can-do-anything brawny feel to this car, but you don't actually have to contend with massive dimensions like you do in a Suburban or a Yukon XL or something like that. The other great benefit of this truck always was the engine. This 5.7 liter V8, honestly, the big reason I bought this truck was this power frame. Everybody says, oh, your Land Cruiser should be diesel. Diesel has this benefit and that benefit. This 5.7 liter V8 is a great motor. Now, like I mentioned before, it has some drawbacks. There's some stuff that actually requires fixing, but most of it doesn't fail until very late in the car's life. And a lot of it, you fix it, and then you're good to go for another couple of years, 10 years, decade. But when it's running great, which is almost always, it is just a great engine. It is smooth, it is powerful, it is torquey, it has good power for passing on the highway or for off-roading, rock crawling. It is a great, great, great powertrain. I am still sad to see the old 5.7 liter V8 go. This was and is a great engine with great torque, very low stress, very reliable, just a good, good powertrain. And it served me well here. And it, of course, served well in the Tundra, where it was used in millions of those pickup trucks for a long time, basically from 2008 all the way until last year. And it did well. The other nice thing about this truck is it's pretty quiet. You know, by the time that the 200 series was out, Toyota was really pitching the Land Cruiser as a luxury vehicle in addition to an off-roader here in the United States. In other markets, there were base model versions with steel wheels and cloth seats and no sunroofs and plastic door handles, but not in the States. We only got the very highest trim with all of the equipment. And to justify that, they had to make it pretty nice. And honestly, it is, considering its capabilities, typically when you have an off-road vehicle, you are sacrificing some of the ride quality, some of the luxury and comfort for that. In this case, you do sacrifice ride quality, but in terms of materials and in terms of like road noise and vehicle noise around you, it's really not so bad. My particular Land Cruiser has a little bit more tire noise than a regular one because I have KO2 all-terrain tires on here. That's an easy trade-off for me. I would make that trade-off every day if you actually plan on off-roading because these tires are fantastic for that. But, you know, when you're on the freeway for long distances, they might get a little annoying. You might want to switch back to street tires. Truthfully, I am sad to see this Land Cruiser go. I only had it for two years and I asked a lot of it during that time. But it really is a great vehicle, especially if you need long-term capability, some off-road capability, and a fairly nice vehicle inside. And the tech is pretty decent as well. I mean, you do have a touchscreen. It's not the latest technology, but it's better than some old, you know, you got to touch buttons on the side kind of deal. You got a backup camera. Again, not the highest resolution, but it works well. I firmly believe the 200 Series is the very best Land Cruiser. It is the most capable. It has the best powertrain. It is the largest. It is the most do-everything. You know, I haven't spent much time in the 300, but as far as the ones that came to the U.S., this is the car. And it feels like the car. If you want a Land Cruiser, you want a 200. And this is a pretty nice one that has served me well. And I definitely have no regrets about dipping my toe into the 200 Series pool. And so that's my 2013 Toyota Land Cruiser. I've loved this vehicle. It hasn't been exactly what I've expected in some areas, like reliability. And my life changed. My needs changed. I don't really need it anymore. But it has exceeded my expectations in terms of its driving feel, its off-road prowess. And I still think after all this time that it's just so cool. And I still love a 200 Series Land Cruiser, especially a Blizzard Pearl 2013-15 model. My favorite one. I'm thrilled I have it. And now you can buy it on Cars and Bids with no reserve. Goodbye, sweet Land Cruiser.