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Hi everyone!! Just wanted to introduce myself to the forum. I have lurked around ih8mud for about a month now and I find it mighty impressive for the wealth of knowledge around here. Reminds me of the M3post forum and landroverworld forums that I'm a part of also.

Suffice to say, I have seriously been considering the LC200 as our next family road trip / camping / light adventure rig. Nowhere close to pulling the trigger yet, so the plan is to learn as much about the platform as possible prior to taking the plunge, so maybe looking at a year or more in the timeline. This path has immensely helped me in my other vehicle purchases so much so that I have not bought a vehicle that does not have a strong online and real world community and aftermarket support. We tend to keep our cars way longer than the average consumer (my 2012 car has been with us since new and my wife's 2013 LR4 has been with us since new) and your average cookie cutter dealer maintenance (across all brands) does not really cut it these days. So I tend to gravitate more towards platforms that have been around and have been tried and tested, preferably the last few years of a model generation with all initial bugs essentially ironed out.

So in comes the consideration for the land cruiser - some what of a dream car for me ever since my teenage years (i'm 40 now) and still a day dreaming car for me envisioning trips out west in my free time. Wife currently continues to be in love with her LR4 , so the LC may land up being an addition instead of a substitution in a year or two. I know LR4s get a lot of hate but so far so good with routine+ maintenance and sitting at 118K miles. We have done light off roading trips into new-mexico and around sedona and its been a blast.

From reviews of the LC200 platform, it appears to be a pretty solid rig. The most issues that I saw on this forum on a stock car seem to pertain to its 8 speed transmission on 2016+ models and the radiator crack issue. I have drooled over slee products and ARB bumpers day dreaming my build, but I've found it a lot easier on my wallet to ease into ownership for the first 2-3 years bone stock , let the car prove itself and then initiate modding.

Apologies for the long post, but I'll continue learning and be a part of this community. A hi to everyone and hope to eventually get a LC200 prior to forced induction / hybridization (nothing against it personally, but I'm not an early adopter of the latest and greatest).
 
There is a classified forum with recent purchase prices when you get closer to buying.
 
There is a classified forum with recent purchase prices when you get closer to buying.

i've been browsing.... so far the guys over at Ed Martin toyota in indiana seem to be offering great deals. On all our other previous cars, they had been ordered as a "customer sold" build order into a production slot, so kinda biased towards that route, however, with not many options on the LC , I have always wondered if a "build to order" car somehow gets more QC coming out of factory as opposed to a regular assembly vehicle. Maybe i'm wrong, but it has worked out on our previous two vehicles that we ordered that way. Anyhow, I'm really hoping that the current LC makes it to the MY2021 year which will land it in a sweet time slot for us!!! I can only dream!!!
 
Transmission issue resolved after 2016 model year...it just needed software update. There were rare 2016 tranny failures. No further issue that i can see past 2017.

Radiator issue mainly affects older LC...i think that newer LCs (2013+??) have updated design.
 
Transmission issue resolved after 2016 model year...it just needed software update. There were rare 2016 tranny failures. No further issue that i can see past 2017.

Radiator issue mainly affects older LC...i think that newer LCs (2013+??) have updated design.

good to know!!!
 
i've been browsing.... so far the guys over at Ed Martin toyota in indiana seem to be offering great deals. On all our other previous cars, they had been ordered as a "customer sold" build order into a production slot, so kinda biased towards that route, however, with not many options on the LC , I have always wondered if a "build to order" car somehow gets more QC coming out of factory as opposed to a regular assembly vehicle. Maybe i'm wrong, but it has worked out on our previous two vehicles that we ordered that way. Anyhow, I'm really hoping that the current LC makes it to the MY2021 year which will land it in a sweet time slot for us!!! I can only dream!!!

The build out is done there at Ed Martin. As you mention, there are essentially no options on an LC 200 (unless you consider the HE as such, I guess) so I wouldn’t worry about the QC. These vehicles are produced in incredibly low numbers for the US market, so I would think they all get the same amount of attention on the line.
 
The build out is done there at Ed Martin. As you mention, there are essentially no options on an LC 200 (unless you consider the HE as such, I guess) so I wouldn’t worry about the QC. These vehicles are produced in incredibly low numbers for the US market, so I would think they all get the same amount of attention on the line.

I would probably not build it out right off the bat .. I’ve driven it before and even stock I find it to be a nice ride in a truckish kind of way... maybe a couple years into ownership I may start with a slee rear bumper and a LRA 24 gallon aux tank. We road trip a lot so the extended range with fill on the go is very tempting . Wife’s LR4 is a brilliant car but having to fill up every 280-310 miles gets old on a 1000mile a way trip. We had thought about fitting an extended range tank to the LR4 but not many modify their LR4s as much as guys on here, so not a lot of community input. Other than that it’s brilliant on mild-moderate off-roading ....
 
kcruiser200, right now I am exactly where you were back in April, and I am one the same page as you with everything else you mentioned, haha. I have been a car guy my entire life and very much value a special vehicle with a strong enthusiast community, lots of aftermarket modification options and support, and an online community like this one. My current DD is a 2007 Audi RS4, and it definitely checks all of those boxes. I'm around the same age as you and have always dreamed of owning an LC. I still remember when a friend's father got a J80 LC in the mid '90s and how awesome it was. Anyway, thanks for your post and I cannot wait for the day when we join the LC community with a couple 200s of our own.
 

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