One Year Cost of Ownership - 2007 Landcruiser

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MattH

MattH

10 Year
Joined
Jun 13, 2014
Threads
6
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68
Location
SC
2007 Toyota Landcruiser - One-year cost of ownership

Purchase date – April 10, 2015
Today’s date – April 7, 2016

Starting mileage – 125,000
Today’s mileage – 144,021


Year 1 Modifications

TOYO Open Country A/T 2 – Size 275/70/18 – 5 tires installed with road hazard and lifetime rotate and balancing = $1628, Tires Plus

SLEE AHC over-ride switch – $149.57, ACC Garage – although I love the way the LC looks on the high setting, I cannot recommend this mod for LC’s with high miles on the CV’s and U-joints. This mod caused more problems than it is worth.

Alignment – $53.55, ACC Garage

Running board and fender flare delete – freebie

Window tint – 5% rear, 15% sides, 50% windshield – freebie

***Year 1 Modifications TOTAL – $1,831.12


Year 1 Maintenance

Oil changes – $92.50, $87.04, $109.00 ACC Garage

Heater Hose T’s – $163.09, ACC Garage

Front/Rear diff oil – $144.66, ACC Garage

Wheel bearing maintenance – included with brake pads, ACC Garage


***Year 1 Maintenance TOTAL – $596.29


Year 1 Repairs

Secondary air intake system failure – $1958.00, dealer
Yes, there is a cheaper (illegal) fix for this problem, but I did not choose to go that route. My decision.

Alternator – $770.03, dealer

Front CV joints – $611.00, $908.00, ACC Garage
This problem was caused by my personal need to have the AHC over-ride active for what I thought would be a cheap lift until my AHC fails. The old CV’s were not happy with the new angles and very soon after the AHC switch was installed they failed. Remanufactured CV’s failed in 6000 miles. Replaced by ACC under warranty for the difference in price of parts (ouch - $908).

U-joints – $389.95, private mechanic
Very soon after the new CV’s were put in, the U-joints also started failing. This was not a surprise based on my conversation with the guys at ACC since all the bearings had been riding along in one place for 140K miles and then suddenly had to ride at a different angle.

Brakes – $195.96, ACC Garage

Pads only. Rotors fine for now.

Rattle under steering wheel – freebie, ACC Garage THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU – a screw was missing causing some sort of metal shield to rattle. This was driving me crazy.

***Year 1 Repairs TOTAL – $4,832.94


GRAND TOTAL YEAR 1 - $7,260.35
 
Wow!

I've had my 2002 for 6 years and 104,000 miles (bought with 109,000, now has 213,000) and haven't spent that much! Only parts that actually required replacement are steering rack and front axles due to driveline slop. Both of those were probably $3200, Had timing belt and brakes each done twice which is probably another $3000. Bought it for $16k and it's probably worth $10,500 now.
 
My cost of ownership is sooo much less. I'm not a grease-monkey by any stretch, but, with an FSM, can perform most maintenance myself.

Steering rack for example, paid 350 for a new one, installed with a buddy. This would have cost over a grand at the dealer, maybe more.
 
Scary. Brings to mind the words of a great parts guy: “The vehicle may be affordable but the upkeep may not be.”
 
Yep, doesn't matter if you paid $60k or $10k, the upkeep is about the same, absent a warranty. I budget about $1k per year for maintenace and repairs driving about 10k miles a year.
 
Just seeing that listed out makes me happy I do my own maintenance :D
 
Unfortunately for you, that cost is soooo outta whack. My 2000 has 290k miles and I haven't spent near that much on maintenance or repairs. Also, those individual prices could've been had for less. $100 for an oil change ??? Negative
 
Ouch. Age is many times trumped by usage. Would not surprise me if that '07 had seen some atypical use prior to you picking it up IMO. Thing is you'll never know and that is part of buying used.

For a point of comparison over a much larger timeframe: In the first 8 years and 138,000mi of owning my LX I spent $4500 not including oil changes. (I chose to post my LX since it has comparable AHC, was similarly bought used at 78k and has seen atypical usage since running everything from 285/Revos to 34" Super Swampers under my ownership). This amount included a brand new set of tires, timing belt, serp belt, and 4x4 service as soon as I bought it. A noticeable item in the total is tires which includes 2 sets of 285/75R16 Revos and a set of Cooper STT's the same size. That $4500 got me from 78k miles to 216k miles with a large chunk of that cost being tires, a consumable and pre-existing service conditions that may have been negotiated into the buying price. :D

From 216k to current is not in my spreadsheet but the above is a pretty decent sized window to look at for everyone to glean some insight. It has been pretty much change oil, add gas (frequently LOL), brake pads and tires since then. Added airbags and Head Unit but that's neither maint or repair. The LX doesn't get driven like it used to and my dad drives it now with the promise of if he ever tires of it he returns it back to me so I can keep it for my 7yo when she gets her drivers license.

So you got hit hard in the first year but hopefully you can balance some of that out now over the long haul.
 
I don't even know what a secondary air intake even is.

And why are your oil change prices variable? A bit on the high side. It doesn't even run that high at the Lexus dealerships around me, let alone the Toyota dealerships.
 
My heater T cost $6 for one at local auto parts store. Would have done yours for $80 and saved you a ton of cash. I did pads and rotors for less than that. But seriously, have you tried to do any of the work yourself? You dont have to be ASE or anything, but I would have at least done some of the easy stuff. Like oil change, no way $90 for that!

I have done twice the items on that list and spent less than half. Most of it doing it myself. You just gotta start with small items and work your knowledge up from there.

I used to take my cars to dealerships and mechanics, but i slowly started to do the work myself. Saved so much i can use that to buy tools to do other repairs.
 
fumetsu said:
I don't even know what a secondary air intake even is.

And why are your oil change prices variable? A bit on the high side. It doesn't even run that high at the Lexus dealerships around me, let alone the Toyota dealerships.
Click to expand...

Probably air injection pump at that price. I knew it affected some GX and tundras, didn't know it was an LX issue.
 
This post is very misleading about the cost-of-ownership. I think you need to separate out cost of ownership and cost of modifications. It doesn't matter what vehicle you buy, if you start modifying the vehicle, it will start causing issues that also need to be upgraded. The amount would have drastically changed had you left it at stock height, and stock tires.
 
Most of things I change/fix/replace are all PM related. I think its mostly about the owners state of mind.
 
This is a great example of how doing your own work can save you pounds of cash. A lot of that cost was presumably labor to the dealer and other shops.

The alternator is actually $250 for Denso reman (high quality) but the cost through the dealer for O Pwas $770. $520 for labor and dealer premiums. Eek.

The CV joints an U-joints are similarly priced, I believe.

Owning and modifying used vehicles can vary wildly in cost, pending how much work you can do yourself.

Thanks for sharing OP! Interesting info.
 
One of the big things here is the CV joints. Let it be a lesson to people that doing the AHC override without a diff drop, adjusting the torsion bars, and using spacers in the rear will lead to costly damamges to the CV's, u-joints (I think this one is questionable), and AHC components.

I hope you've addressed the AHC pressures. If not, your next items will likely be accumulators/globes. which are about 1k per corner at the dealer.
 
I spent $$$ baselining my LC when I bought it 2 years ago, but much of that included things like new Michelins, complete fluid flush, timing belt/wp service, and new windshield. That was probably around $2K. I've had a mix of DIY and dealer for ongoing maintenance and I've spent less than $500 in the last 12 months. But my rig is stock.

Report back after another year - other than a possible AHC failure, I believe your costs will drop significantly.
 
OP is just sharing HIS experience with us about the cost of ownership of HIS 2007 LC. Let's go easy with the "shoulda done this" and "overpaid for that" comments. He's neither complaining nor asking for advice. If he was, it would be a different story.
 
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