Don't like the adverts?  Click here to remove them

Life long fan, first time owner - Hello!

mwhtc

Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2021
Messages
140
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!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20210826_184235942.jpg
    IMG_20210826_184235942.jpg
    220.3 KB · Views: 42
  • IMG_20210826_184217354_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20210826_184217354_HDR.jpg
    287 KB · Views: 42
  • IMG_20210826_174851096_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20210826_174851096_HDR.jpg
    389.9 KB · Views: 40
  • IMG_20210826_174826889_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20210826_174826889_HDR.jpg
    440.7 KB · Views: 41
Congratulations on several life-changing events.

Oh, and is it a Niva?
 
Thanks!

No it isn't, it's a 2101. An early one. A Niva is on the list!
 
It's not unusual to be struck by the feeling of driving a landcruiser.. I have mine since 2008, and have driven it daily since then, and I still get the good feeling sitting behind the wheel. Likewise, I first remember seeing a landcruiser when I was about 4 years old.. and wanted it (a neighbouring farmer's 40 series)

Congrats on the impending arrival, our second is due in the next few weeks. Babies love landcruisers.. its a known fact
 
Thanks Bob! Glad I'm not alone in that. When my old man died we buried him in Ireland, and his same boss turned up at the funeral in another Land Cruiser.

Don't suppose you know of a baby seat that fits the 120? There's no ISOFIX on the car so I need to get the older version.
 
I don't have rear seats I mine, it's a commercial body, but I do use an Osann Lupo seat in the front for our first child, he's nearly 2, but it's a front facing toddler seat, and only the odd time- he's in our Rav4 or Kuga in a rotating joie seat mostly.

Our maxi-cosi cabriofix for newborn can be fitted with a seat belt or on an isofix base, so I would imagine it would work. Also see if there's an engineering company willing to retrofit isofix brackets for you, I believe it can be done, but insurance etc....
 
Don't like the adverts?  Click here to remove them
Back
Top