Hi Guys,
As i'm near a computer for once i thought i'd post you an update.
After much toing and froing i picked up my new land cruiser on the 8th! A dark green 52 plate 90 series VX with the D4D engine in it. 133,000 miles, Genral Grabber AT2 tyres and everything works bar one of the foglights at the front, leather interior, heated seats, very plush! All for the princely some of £7300.
I finally had a drive of a 120 and despite how lovely it was, they were all a bit out of my budget. Besides, the difference between the 90 D4D and the 120 was negligible. The 90 feels a little more 'truck like' but i like that, reminds me of what a brute i am driving!
I flew in to Gatwick Friday night, test drove it saturday and gave the guy the cash then and there. Monday it went in for a full service and health check at a Toyota dealers near Portsmouth and then Tuesday we got on the ferry back over to France. After a 3 day roadtrip via my friend's house near Val D'isere to my current location in Cervinia in Italy my impressions are:
I'm pleased with my purchase
On the autoroutes it is smooth, quiet and powerful. It will sit at 85mph literally all day no sweat and still return around 30mpg. The first half of the trip i was only lightly loaded with what i flew in with but after Val d'isere i had all my climbing and mountaineering kit, diving gear, 3 sets of ski's and snowboard and the rest of my worldly goods!
It swallows all of this in the back, ski's on the roof bars and i don't even have to use the back seat for storage.
As i climbed into the Alps at the end of the first day i started to meet some horrendous weather and it was already dark. Within an hour i was driving in quite literally a blizzard, talk about a baptism of fire. However, it was all a bit of a non event, the Cruiser just plodded on like there was nothing going on at all, could have been a sunny day in London as far as it cared! Came to two road closures where the Gendarmes were turning people back, but i was pleased that when they stopped me they had a quick walk around at the vehicle and shone a torch on my tyres and the badge on the bonnet (!) and then waved me through. An hour later i rolled up on Henri's drive smug as you like!
The next morning when i left, the little pod in the middle of the dash was telling me it was -14 when i got in the motor, despite this motor started in about 3 turns and i was off with my heated seat on high.
Rest of the journey was pretty un-eventful.
So, this far, i'm quite pleased with my purchase so thanks for all the advice and guidance, most gratefully received. I'll try and post some pictures soon but as i own neither a camera nor a computer, it may be a while!
Nick