Hi everyone, thanks for letting me join!
I'm Michael, 33 (currently) from Stourbridge and a few weeks ago I bought a 2006 Land Cruiser 120 LC5. Obligatory photos are attached!
There is a story with this car. I've always wanted one since I was young. Some of my first memories are me being about 5 years old trying to climb in to my dad's gaffer's Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon. I always thought they were cool, and the older I got and the more I experienced of Toyota's, I just thought that a Land Cruiser would be the ultimate car for me. A dream car if you will!
Last year I got the opportunity to buy a 1995 Toyota RAV4. It was a cool car, and I had some good fun in it. I then took it for it's MOT where it failed spectacularly on rot. Up until last month, I had got it back to the verge of saving it (loads of welding etc) for the brakes to fail. All the good will I had for the car was long gone by this point, and when my foot went to the floor I just thought f**k it - called the scrap man and he taketh it away. What compounded that decision was that in March the wife tells me I'm going to be Dad - so not only did it focus the mind it also meant that the RAV4 was always going to go. I ran out of time really, and given the magnitude of this life event, I needed a better car to not only ferry the new one around in, but also something that I could depend on to not break like the RAV4 in order to get my Lada on the road. Oh yeah, I own a Lada that I'm meant to be working on!
While I waited for the scrap man, I spoke to a young lad at my work as he wanted parts from an MG I had (which is being broken, but had to wait on the RAV4 to be working or moved) and he tells me he's got rid of it and got himself a new car. Great I thought, what one? An MG ZT V8 - the lad's about 12 and got a car I remember lusting after it when I first saw it as a 15 year old. I got home, and I'm not a jealous guy but christ alive I was jealous about him! A few days later, I'm still feeling a bit jealous about him and I'm discussing a new car with the wife, but nothing was jumping out at me. The wife suggests a Land Cruiser, I dismissed it, but she said I should go for it. I could afford it, and I've always said I've wanted one - she should know, we've been together 13 years.
So I'm looking, I find this one, and every time I get behind the wheel it's a religious experience. My old man isn't around now, he passed away a few years ago, and it's the type of car he'd have had if he could've got a good one. So driving it, the odd time I do feel in such a weird way that I shouldn't be driving it or owning it as it always felt like such a thing that was out of reach for various reasons. It's the best car I've owned, that I've driven, I just think it's a wonderful piece of machinery and a car that (hopefully) I'll keep for a very, very long time.
Ultimately I still want to own an Amazon (I think it's the 80? The 90's Amazon with the V8) and one day it'll happen - soon after I get my Lada done. But honestly I still struggle to describe how happy, awestruck I am to own this and to own a Land Cruiser!
So yeah, thank you for having me, and hopefully I can contribute at some point!
I'm Michael, 33 (currently) from Stourbridge and a few weeks ago I bought a 2006 Land Cruiser 120 LC5. Obligatory photos are attached!
There is a story with this car. I've always wanted one since I was young. Some of my first memories are me being about 5 years old trying to climb in to my dad's gaffer's Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon. I always thought they were cool, and the older I got and the more I experienced of Toyota's, I just thought that a Land Cruiser would be the ultimate car for me. A dream car if you will!
Last year I got the opportunity to buy a 1995 Toyota RAV4. It was a cool car, and I had some good fun in it. I then took it for it's MOT where it failed spectacularly on rot. Up until last month, I had got it back to the verge of saving it (loads of welding etc) for the brakes to fail. All the good will I had for the car was long gone by this point, and when my foot went to the floor I just thought f**k it - called the scrap man and he taketh it away. What compounded that decision was that in March the wife tells me I'm going to be Dad - so not only did it focus the mind it also meant that the RAV4 was always going to go. I ran out of time really, and given the magnitude of this life event, I needed a better car to not only ferry the new one around in, but also something that I could depend on to not break like the RAV4 in order to get my Lada on the road. Oh yeah, I own a Lada that I'm meant to be working on!
While I waited for the scrap man, I spoke to a young lad at my work as he wanted parts from an MG I had (which is being broken, but had to wait on the RAV4 to be working or moved) and he tells me he's got rid of it and got himself a new car. Great I thought, what one? An MG ZT V8 - the lad's about 12 and got a car I remember lusting after it when I first saw it as a 15 year old. I got home, and I'm not a jealous guy but christ alive I was jealous about him! A few days later, I'm still feeling a bit jealous about him and I'm discussing a new car with the wife, but nothing was jumping out at me. The wife suggests a Land Cruiser, I dismissed it, but she said I should go for it. I could afford it, and I've always said I've wanted one - she should know, we've been together 13 years.
So I'm looking, I find this one, and every time I get behind the wheel it's a religious experience. My old man isn't around now, he passed away a few years ago, and it's the type of car he'd have had if he could've got a good one. So driving it, the odd time I do feel in such a weird way that I shouldn't be driving it or owning it as it always felt like such a thing that was out of reach for various reasons. It's the best car I've owned, that I've driven, I just think it's a wonderful piece of machinery and a car that (hopefully) I'll keep for a very, very long time.
Ultimately I still want to own an Amazon (I think it's the 80? The 90's Amazon with the V8) and one day it'll happen - soon after I get my Lada done. But honestly I still struggle to describe how happy, awestruck I am to own this and to own a Land Cruiser!
So yeah, thank you for having me, and hopefully I can contribute at some point!
