I didn't read all the responses and this thread has likely gone to hell already, as these topics tend to do, but here's my $0.02:
My frame of reference is old toyota trucks. I've had mini-trucks, 60, 62, 2 3rd gen 4runners, 2 80s, LX570 ranging in years from 1984 to 2010 ranging in miles from 164k at the lowest to 340k at the highest. Yes, they require maintenance and so does everything else on the road. To me, the biggest difference is that if you do the maintenance on time with quality parts, you will have ZERO trouble. I have wheeled with lots of other vehicles and seen lots of mechanical failures on the trail that were not due to abuse/wheeling (electrical gremlins, broken timing chains, etc) and due to wheeling (grenaded transfer case, broken tie-rods, etc). A well-maintained land cruiser (or any Toyota truck) simply will not leave you out to dry like this.
I've had two old yotas that I drove to the point they were rusting quite literally to pieces, i.e. you could see the road going by through the rockers. Both were still 100% mechanically reliable and I would have hopped in and driven across three states with nothing but a credit card for gas.
My main gripe with the 200 is the starter location makes field maintenance (or home maintenance for that matter) simply stupid. This is a shortsighted (insert european/domestic make) design, and very un-land cruiser-like. I honestly like the 200 the least of all of them, and prefer old and dumb. But we tow a camper now and my wife likes the LX.
If you don't tend to beat up your truck off road, or if you're rarely in a position where some downtime and a trip to the shop would be a big hassle, other brands definitely make more sense. If nothing else, purely from a parts cost and fuel cost perspective. Genuine toyota parts cost 2-3x as much as GM and LC parts cost more than other toyotas.
My frame of reference is old toyota trucks. I've had mini-trucks, 60, 62, 2 3rd gen 4runners, 2 80s, LX570 ranging in years from 1984 to 2010 ranging in miles from 164k at the lowest to 340k at the highest. Yes, they require maintenance and so does everything else on the road. To me, the biggest difference is that if you do the maintenance on time with quality parts, you will have ZERO trouble. I have wheeled with lots of other vehicles and seen lots of mechanical failures on the trail that were not due to abuse/wheeling (electrical gremlins, broken timing chains, etc) and due to wheeling (grenaded transfer case, broken tie-rods, etc). A well-maintained land cruiser (or any Toyota truck) simply will not leave you out to dry like this.
I've had two old yotas that I drove to the point they were rusting quite literally to pieces, i.e. you could see the road going by through the rockers. Both were still 100% mechanically reliable and I would have hopped in and driven across three states with nothing but a credit card for gas.
My main gripe with the 200 is the starter location makes field maintenance (or home maintenance for that matter) simply stupid. This is a shortsighted (insert european/domestic make) design, and very un-land cruiser-like. I honestly like the 200 the least of all of them, and prefer old and dumb. But we tow a camper now and my wife likes the LX.
If you don't tend to beat up your truck off road, or if you're rarely in a position where some downtime and a trip to the shop would be a big hassle, other brands definitely make more sense. If nothing else, purely from a parts cost and fuel cost perspective. Genuine toyota parts cost 2-3x as much as GM and LC parts cost more than other toyotas.
