attn' south/central americans, question 'bout PJZ70s..

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romey

romey

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curious, what would the "value" be of say a 1992 PZJ70, bone stock, say 150K kms...? if say there was an auto trader/or classifieds section there and you saw one in an ad or something? i'm just generalizing central/south america, wouldn't be much of a price/value difference say between chile or say panama? i know theres tonnes of yotas south of the border...

just curious, and doin some homework....

'preciate it if anyone can chime in...

romey

or how 'bout in Oz even? then converted to dollars...
 
I don't believe that the PZJ was common or even sold here in Guatemala. I see LJ70's, BJ70's and RJ70's.
 
In Chile Toyota don´t import PZJ7x. What you found here are direct import from some owners.

Try Venezuela. They have tons of diferents of toyota land cruiser models.
 
The PZJ70 was more common in North Africa and Southeast Asia than it was in Central or South America.

Venezuela did not get diesel Cruisers. Colombia did get diesel Cruisers, but no 1PZs. Panama and Nicaragua saw a lot of one-offs and special orders, so they *might* have seen some PZJ70s. Overall, it will not be a common vehicle in either Central or South America, but that doesn't mean that it won't be desirable.

So what's the story? You have one, thinking of driving it down there and then selling it when the trip is done? Easier said than done, many countries in South and Central America have pretty stringent regulation against this.
 
interesting... just saw one here 4 sale that claims to ahve been bought in nicaragua then driven back up to north america.

so i'm curious how someone pulled it off through (as i check the globe....) . . . honduras, belize, mexcio, then cross a more stringent US border, THEN canada, and have it all plated/registered here after customs canada... can paperwork be that easy to make such a treck? assuming truck is plated/registered in nicaragua (?). owner had dual citizenship (canadian also)? or could a canadian citizen, buy one there, plate it under his name? then drive it through 3/4 countries...just tryin to figure out the border crossings/logistics... for whatever reason, the rig made it here on "foot" which is cool!
 
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Nicaragua is one of two "open catalog" Land Cruiser markets in the Americas, so it's quite possible that the PZJ70 originated there. Is it LHD? If it's RHD, it could have come out of JDM gray market, there are a lot of one-off importations that make it down, especially to South America.

So if the truck is 15 years old or older, wouldn't the owner just have to register it in Canada? Whether the vehicle entered through a port or a border crossing, the paperwork should be the same, at least it would be in the US.

The US allows non-US registered vehicles to enter the US under the "temporary importation" clause, which is fairly lenient. Technically, the vehicle must exit the US before a 12-month period and/or be destroyed, but this clause has been widely used for gray market importations leveraging state-specific regulations.
 
true, true i guess. duh, i completely forgot the 15 year rule and i have a jdm! lol! so yeah, the rig would certainly qualify, and the treck up to mexico was prolly nothing too crazy. so temp permit through the US, then customs/ministry of transport Canada to plate it here (and i'll assume the owner is canadian).

oh yeah, it's LHD. so i'd think this was rare there then too. if only the little PZ could speak, the stories it could tell.... thanks for the input Exiled!

so hmm, if one was lucky enough to find a clean, low mileage LC in central america, bought it locally there, and drove it back to n. america...that might end up being cheaper than going through the JDM process of crossing the pacific on a container (auction, etc..$$), even if you counted the diesel/travel it'd cost...hmm, or not...it'd be quite the adventure no doubt.
 
It's no big deal for a Canadian to buy the vehicle in Central America (at least in Guatemala) and get title on it. After that just head north with the title in hand with YOUR NAME on it and all should be fine.

The problem for buying a Central American vehicle is that most Central American mechanics and the Central American mindset is, "if I can fix it to last today that's good enough" so many things are booty fabbed or bandaged together without a long term vision and with whatever that had on hand at the time. That can mean significant changes are made to cram in the wrong part!! If you do decide to buy something down here I'd look for something one owner from a rich doctor or whatever where it has been "dealer only" serviced. That would be your best bet for a reasonably unmolested vehicle.

On the drive up be prepared for some of the booty fab to fail! The one and only trip I took with a Guatemalan family we stopped probably 2-3 times in one day just to fix problems and he was allegedly a mechanic!!
 
yeah, all good points there. and i can certainly understand the quick crappy fixes b/c of lack of parts/resources/or sometimes proper knowledge/understanding of the truck...or even lack of tools...and cheap labor. and i'm sure a beat up one can be easily/cheaply fixed/painted (and rolled back!) to look decent in an ad too! ;)

guess it boils down to good timing and lots of research. meh, i'll stick with Jdm's lol.
 
A fellow 'mudder from Nicaragua was by a week ago and his BJ42 looked pretty good. Granted it was an '83 and still had front drums but all in all it looked decent to me. A disc brake swap and it would be quite decent indeed.
 
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