Hi All,
I've always wanted a Land Cruiser in my native home of Puerto Rico for when I visit. After finding a cruiser and making a list of to-do's, I thought I'd share the story for all those interested.
Before I start, I'll say that buying a car in Puerto Rico (comparable to Latin America in this regard, perhaps slightly better) has some advantages and serious drawbacks:
Knowing the card is stacked against me and, I find the process kind of fun. knowing i'll get into some kind of trouble, I ended up picking up an '03 LX470 with 122K miles (toyota gods have mercy on me).
I've always wanted a Land Cruiser in my native home of Puerto Rico for when I visit. After finding a cruiser and making a list of to-do's, I thought I'd share the story for all those interested.
Before I start, I'll say that buying a car in Puerto Rico (comparable to Latin America in this regard, perhaps slightly better) has some advantages and serious drawbacks:
- Advantages
- Next to no rust on cars
- Land Cruisers (and cars in general) are expensive to buy and run -- typically people get fed up with fuel consumption since there aren't many long stretches of highway to get any sort of decent MPGs in these cruisers
- Result? You can usually find older examples at a better price point than the continental us (please see disadvantages)
- Disadvantages
- Very few people think of the advantages of preventative maintenance
- Carfax is only becoming a thing now, so tracing back 10, 15, or 20 years back is hard. People will always give you "stories," but few are backed up by fact (e.g. I changed the oil all the time!, It's never been in an accident!, I was the first owner, etc.)
- Toyotas in particular come with a premium (oh, that tacoma from 2003 with 230K miles? That'll be 18K please!)
Knowing the card is stacked against me and, I find the process kind of fun. knowing i'll get into some kind of trouble, I ended up picking up an '03 LX470 with 122K miles (toyota gods have mercy on me).
