The japanese cars have opinion very reliable. Technically this is the truth. Every time when I see any old cars those mostly have been produced in Japan. Some of them still working very well. A few months ago i attended Muscat Motor Show where the local distributor of Toyota cars exhibited an old Toyota Corolla with one million kilometers on the odometer. This particular car is still working! Local taxi driver still using this car. But there is one significant model which beat all records of the durability and long life. It is a Land Cruiser. One of the most popular 4x4 car on the world.
There is particular reason why exactly Land Cruiser dominating now in the every part of the world where modern civilization is still not strong. This is durability! Land Cruisers are built from the good quality materials and there is much less electronic devices then we can notice in the others car’s producers. Even recent models are made very seriously in the traditional way without many of plastic elements or subtle technical solutions. There is particular reason why exactly Land Cruisers dominating now in the every part of the world where modern civilization is still not strong. This is a durability! Land Cruisers are built from the good quality materials and there is much less electronic devices then we can notice in the others car’s producers. Even recent models are made very seriously in the traditional way without many of plastic elements or subtle technical solutions.
I have been traveling around the Sultanate of Oman since many years and i notice that more then 80% 4x4 cars in the countryside is the Land Cruiser 79 pick up with 4,5 L petrol engine and since 2010 there is 4,0 V6 petrol engine. The fishermen still using old versions of the series 7 or even series 4 which is popular in the shoreline in the fisherman villages. Some of these cars are absolutely poor conditions! Completely rusted, with many broken elements, dirty and mostly remember 80’s last century.
I am pretty sure that most of these cars have more then one million kilometers but the odometers not working from the ages. Three years ago on the Wahiba Sands i met the local beduin in the old Land Cruiser FJ75. On the odometer was fix distance around 1,5 millions kilometers. I asked about the range and the diver said that the odometer had not been working from 10 years!
So If you are thinking that your lovely Land Cruiser is old or you presume that is in not good condition just look on the photographs in this article. Most of this cars still working well and just staying in the workshop for a “periodical maintenance”.
Jerzy Wierzbicki
