Toyota Land Cruiser

[Mrcodes]

Hey all,

My brother is moving back from Japan and is looking into getting a Land Cruiser (4x4) before he leaves. He currently has a 2013 Nissan frontier with 250k+ miles. I don’t know much about them so I’ll ask the experts. Are there any years/models to stay away from or any years that have proved better than others? Thanks in advance!

 

[Dilldog]

I'm not super up to speed on much when it comes to those rigs but what I will say is make sure your brother reads and re-reads the importing process and checks than double checks with the county/ state where he will be moving to if the vehicle is legal and licenseable in the US or that state.

Long story short, technically speaks anything that does not meet US DOT safety and US EPA emissions requirements cannot be licensed for road usage in the US. So ANY rig that is bought in another country can be denied license, simply because it wont have the sticker saying it complies to US laws and the VIN number will show that it never had those considerations for the US market. However anything that is 25 (?) years old typically slide through. But there is one state (Maine I think) that has started denying license renewals on JDM trucks and vans that were imported previously for the reasons listed above.

 

[KonzaLander]

Any 70 Series (pickup or troopy) that is 25 years old can be legally imported. Since the 70 series was never sold stateside it would have tremendous value once registered in the US. A left hand drive/5speed/diesel model would have most of us Cruiser enthusiasts drooling in the states. The 1998 105 series can now be imported as well and since it was never available in the states I imagine it would be extremely valuable.

The import section of ih8mud has a lot of information provided by folks experienced with importing these things.

 

[smritte]

As @Dilldog said
You have to watch out for different state laws. The 25 year rule doesn't apply to emissions and some states will not allow right hand drive. Then there's the part availability issue on the older ones. There's a bunch of NLA parts on my 96 FJ80.
If you want an older one, 96, 97 FJ80 were the best of that body style. Not sure of the 100 series. Diesel engines can be a fight on parts and anything 96 and newer may not smog if you have emissions testing in that state.
There's an import section on the IH8MUD forum that covers importing. Go there and read some of the threads.