So here I am, a new owner of a 80, and I thought I should post it up as is custom around here. 
So I've been looking around for a Land Cruiser ever since I landed in the Middle East, and I hesitated between an 80 and a 100. Some (John) have strongly advocated the 100 as it's a "more drivable car" (and veer towards the 105, so that it retains the off-roadiness of the 80 while still being a "comfortable daily car"). I considered it, but I already have a daily driver, so when I showed my son the 100, he was like "eh? that's just a regular car!", so I knew I had to find an 80.
Where I am, Land Cruisers are by far and away the most popular vehicle on the road. There is such a ridiculous plethora of them that you can find literally anything you want, though as they get older, the condition gets progressively worse, and the 80s being what they are, they tend to be handed down to the owners' drivers or employees, change hands a few times, and end up in absolutely destitute conditions; something that I couldn't really do, as I knew my wife wouldn't even approach that, let alone get into it. Plus I had a very specific set of requirements: I wanted it triple-locked, I wanted a winch, I wanted a rear spare and preferably barn doors, which is a VERY unusual combo for where I am, so I didn't have much luck. I saw many of them, and most were just awful; 300-400K kms, interior would need basically a re-upholster, and they all had pretty difficult lives, as I could tell. (I have some pictures. Can post them if anyone's curious. Anything from weird wiring in the engine bay to odd aftermarket intakes to all sorts of other random junk).
So at one point, this 80 shows up in the classifieds. It's in Oman, which isn't where I am, but it has EXACTLY the right set of options. It's manual, too, which is a toss-up in my case, because on the one hand I would prefer one, on the other, I know the wife wants to pretend to be a local and drive a Land Cruiser, but she demands automatic... but for the right set of options, I decided I'll take the inevitable eviction to the couch and get a manual. This one was.
The second problem was that ... well, it wasn't in the country that I am in. Couple that with the fact that foreigners are generally not allowed to import cars beyond 5 years ... and I had an interesting conundrum. Asking on Reddit, someone flippantly suggested that it's no issue, because it's a GCC car you can just drive it to the border... but of course, some digging uncovered that that is completely not the case, couldn't be further from the truth. So I set out to explore.
Turns out that the only way an older car can be imported is with the Minister of Commerce's direct permission. Again, it's usually easily given to locals, but foreigners aren't expected to import cars. Nevertheless, I went to the Ministry. Some local guys were sitting at reception, so I asked them, where do I get permission to import a car? They didn't get what I was asking at first, but I showed them paperwork, and they got wildly excited - "classic car?! classic car?!?? 7th floor!!!" - so off I went. The 7th floor was dead; no ministers present, only a local guy "working". He came to see what I wanted, and when I said I want to import a classic car, he politely waved me off to the 14th floor. With non-working elevators (turned out two out of three were out for maintenance, and it was lunch hour), I just went up the stairs ... it was exercise I didn't need in the heat, but what can you do, we'll do anything for a car. Got to another odd reception... finally found a guy who spoke English, explained to him what I needed. He said "wait... let me see if the Minister is here" and disappeared. Ten minutes later he came back and handed me the papers. I wasn't sure what happened, so I asked him - what do I do now? - do I come back later? - and he's like nope, Minister was here, look, stamp is there, off you go, enjoy the car. Hum, that was easier than I expected. Maybe they REALLY like Land Cruisers here, I thought.
Next stop was the Ministry of Weights and Measures. I have no idea why I have to legalise the car through that Ministry, but they told me to go there, so I did. By the way - I still haven't actually BOUGHT the car. I wanted to make sure I won't have any trouble importing the car, because at the price it was sitting at, I wasn't going to risk ending up with a parts car that I have no way of actually parting out. Went there, and a bored looking guy explained to me that I can bring the car on Omani export plates to the border, but I won't be able to drive it through - I have to THEN get a stamped letter from Customs, bring the paper to him, he will stamp it, then I will return to the border, show the letter, and THEN the car will get released, and only THEN I can drive it. Since the border is about an hour and a half away each way... that was not ideal, but I guess it was still better than shipping it by boat. Just as I was leaving, he waved at me and said "hey ... wait ... UNLESS you import the car THIS week. Because it's Eid week, I have an engineer there. When you get to the border, ask for Mr. <xxx>, he will clear your car on the spot and you can keep driving". I love how things have the official way and then the wasta way around here.
So now armed with the right approvals, I was sure I could get the car into the country. Of course, the car hasn't sold yet, because it was ridiculously overpriced for the local market, and basically the only target client that would want it would be someone from either the US, or just someone who wanted that SPECIFIC car, so I wasn't too worried about it getting away. After haggling a bit with the seller... we agreed on a price, and he even offered to transport it to me for a price that was cheaper than the shipping agents quoted (basically, he had a brother local to where I was, and I guess this was the cheap way for the brother to get back after visiting him). All good.
Skip some Middle Eastern "planning" where things took way longer than they should've - besides prepping the car taking way too long, the actual transport took twice as long because they took it across two countries only to be refused entry to the second country - because there was a typo on the paperwork, so they had to return to Oman to re-do the paperwork and then ONCE AGAIN re-transport it back across Oman, the Emirates and so on, but eventually, it got to me.
So eventually, I went to pick it up from the seller's brother's house. I frankly didn't know what to expect: my original plan to visit Oman and see the car in person fell apart due to other commitments, so the best I could do was ask a local friend and Land Cruiser expert to go look at the car. His opinion was that it's in very good condition, but overpriced for what it is - but then, as he put it, "the value is in the eye of the beholder - what I would want to pay for this is not necessarily what you would". Fair point.
As I was picking up the car, the seller texted me. "By the way," he goes. "Do you know who was the original owner of this car?" Obviously I didn't - how could I; "Our late sultan Qaboos", he goes. Sure, sure, I thought. I mean, he told this to me after I paid and took delivery of the car, so in theory he didn't NEED to lie; but this sounded like total marketing talk to me, so I filed it away in my brain and drove the car home.
My first impressions of the car were extremely positive. I mean, the car was 28 years old (it's a 1994). There was no interior smell, and the condition of the interior was very good for what the age was. This was unexpected.
(continuing in the next post)
So I've been looking around for a Land Cruiser ever since I landed in the Middle East, and I hesitated between an 80 and a 100. Some (John) have strongly advocated the 100 as it's a "more drivable car" (and veer towards the 105, so that it retains the off-roadiness of the 80 while still being a "comfortable daily car"). I considered it, but I already have a daily driver, so when I showed my son the 100, he was like "eh? that's just a regular car!", so I knew I had to find an 80.
Where I am, Land Cruisers are by far and away the most popular vehicle on the road. There is such a ridiculous plethora of them that you can find literally anything you want, though as they get older, the condition gets progressively worse, and the 80s being what they are, they tend to be handed down to the owners' drivers or employees, change hands a few times, and end up in absolutely destitute conditions; something that I couldn't really do, as I knew my wife wouldn't even approach that, let alone get into it. Plus I had a very specific set of requirements: I wanted it triple-locked, I wanted a winch, I wanted a rear spare and preferably barn doors, which is a VERY unusual combo for where I am, so I didn't have much luck. I saw many of them, and most were just awful; 300-400K kms, interior would need basically a re-upholster, and they all had pretty difficult lives, as I could tell. (I have some pictures. Can post them if anyone's curious. Anything from weird wiring in the engine bay to odd aftermarket intakes to all sorts of other random junk).
So at one point, this 80 shows up in the classifieds. It's in Oman, which isn't where I am, but it has EXACTLY the right set of options. It's manual, too, which is a toss-up in my case, because on the one hand I would prefer one, on the other, I know the wife wants to pretend to be a local and drive a Land Cruiser, but she demands automatic... but for the right set of options, I decided I'll take the inevitable eviction to the couch and get a manual. This one was.
The second problem was that ... well, it wasn't in the country that I am in. Couple that with the fact that foreigners are generally not allowed to import cars beyond 5 years ... and I had an interesting conundrum. Asking on Reddit, someone flippantly suggested that it's no issue, because it's a GCC car you can just drive it to the border... but of course, some digging uncovered that that is completely not the case, couldn't be further from the truth. So I set out to explore.
Turns out that the only way an older car can be imported is with the Minister of Commerce's direct permission. Again, it's usually easily given to locals, but foreigners aren't expected to import cars. Nevertheless, I went to the Ministry. Some local guys were sitting at reception, so I asked them, where do I get permission to import a car? They didn't get what I was asking at first, but I showed them paperwork, and they got wildly excited - "classic car?! classic car?!?? 7th floor!!!" - so off I went. The 7th floor was dead; no ministers present, only a local guy "working". He came to see what I wanted, and when I said I want to import a classic car, he politely waved me off to the 14th floor. With non-working elevators (turned out two out of three were out for maintenance, and it was lunch hour), I just went up the stairs ... it was exercise I didn't need in the heat, but what can you do, we'll do anything for a car. Got to another odd reception... finally found a guy who spoke English, explained to him what I needed. He said "wait... let me see if the Minister is here" and disappeared. Ten minutes later he came back and handed me the papers. I wasn't sure what happened, so I asked him - what do I do now? - do I come back later? - and he's like nope, Minister was here, look, stamp is there, off you go, enjoy the car. Hum, that was easier than I expected. Maybe they REALLY like Land Cruisers here, I thought.
Next stop was the Ministry of Weights and Measures. I have no idea why I have to legalise the car through that Ministry, but they told me to go there, so I did. By the way - I still haven't actually BOUGHT the car. I wanted to make sure I won't have any trouble importing the car, because at the price it was sitting at, I wasn't going to risk ending up with a parts car that I have no way of actually parting out. Went there, and a bored looking guy explained to me that I can bring the car on Omani export plates to the border, but I won't be able to drive it through - I have to THEN get a stamped letter from Customs, bring the paper to him, he will stamp it, then I will return to the border, show the letter, and THEN the car will get released, and only THEN I can drive it. Since the border is about an hour and a half away each way... that was not ideal, but I guess it was still better than shipping it by boat. Just as I was leaving, he waved at me and said "hey ... wait ... UNLESS you import the car THIS week. Because it's Eid week, I have an engineer there. When you get to the border, ask for Mr. <xxx>, he will clear your car on the spot and you can keep driving". I love how things have the official way and then the wasta way around here.
So now armed with the right approvals, I was sure I could get the car into the country. Of course, the car hasn't sold yet, because it was ridiculously overpriced for the local market, and basically the only target client that would want it would be someone from either the US, or just someone who wanted that SPECIFIC car, so I wasn't too worried about it getting away. After haggling a bit with the seller... we agreed on a price, and he even offered to transport it to me for a price that was cheaper than the shipping agents quoted (basically, he had a brother local to where I was, and I guess this was the cheap way for the brother to get back after visiting him). All good.
Skip some Middle Eastern "planning" where things took way longer than they should've - besides prepping the car taking way too long, the actual transport took twice as long because they took it across two countries only to be refused entry to the second country - because there was a typo on the paperwork, so they had to return to Oman to re-do the paperwork and then ONCE AGAIN re-transport it back across Oman, the Emirates and so on, but eventually, it got to me.
So eventually, I went to pick it up from the seller's brother's house. I frankly didn't know what to expect: my original plan to visit Oman and see the car in person fell apart due to other commitments, so the best I could do was ask a local friend and Land Cruiser expert to go look at the car. His opinion was that it's in very good condition, but overpriced for what it is - but then, as he put it, "the value is in the eye of the beholder - what I would want to pay for this is not necessarily what you would". Fair point.
As I was picking up the car, the seller texted me. "By the way," he goes. "Do you know who was the original owner of this car?" Obviously I didn't - how could I; "Our late sultan Qaboos", he goes. Sure, sure, I thought. I mean, he told this to me after I paid and took delivery of the car, so in theory he didn't NEED to lie; but this sounded like total marketing talk to me, so I filed it away in my brain and drove the car home.
My first impressions of the car were extremely positive. I mean, the car was 28 years old (it's a 1994). There was no interior smell, and the condition of the interior was very good for what the age was. This was unexpected.
(continuing in the next post)
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) and once that's sorted out, I might end up doing something more offroadey.
