Potential new LC 100 owner concerns

[Krooks]

I’ve never owned a land cruiser but I’ve always had the desire to and recently i’ve started a serious search. I found one local to me that I went to look at and test drive. It’s a 99 with 202,000 miles. Everything works great, the body is in great shape with an interesting color, and drives nice and smooth. There’s no rust on the truck other than on the underside and it seems a little much even for the Northeast where I’m from. The guy only wants $5k for it so I’m wondering if I take the chance on it and see if I cant clean it up. I poked around at everything and it appeared solid. Now I have a daily driver so this LC would be for recreation only and I have a shop where I can do all my own work. Could I get some of your opinions if its even worth it based on the pictures?

Thanks in advance.

 

[geanes]

Can you post higher res photos? From what I can make out, there appears to be a ton of rust/rot under that truck.

 

[jhanley]

Looks like it was buried in salt. Pass.

 

[biggus]

For 5 grand I'd buy it if everything works.

 

[bucfl]

Here's to rust in your eye.

 

[a_traut_man]

Based on the pictures it looks like a rust bucket, I can only imagine how bad the rust would be in the areas you can't easily see.
If you can get the guy down from 5k, everything works, and you won't be putting much more money into it then it might not be too bad but otherwise I would say hard pass

 

[VinylSeats]

Definitely pass based on those images.

For price reference, I got my 1999 with 250k on the clock for $6800 in the expensive Denver market. It had great service history at Toyota/Lexus dealers. You could almost eat off the undercarriage it was so clean.

That rust looks like a nightmare in the making, even for $5,000. I'd try to track a southern one down.

 

[REKCUT]

I am going to guess that unless your willing to go outside your part of the country then your going to be looking that this problem for all the 9 year old trucks you look at.

 

[RND1]

See if you can get a ppi over at Volsar auto in Medford. They know LC's and can tell you if it's typical surface rust (a way of life where we live) or if it's worse (frame rot, etc.) and you should pass. They can also give you a list of upcoming maintenance and associated costs.

 

[mongoose2231]

i am in the market too. found only one nice rust free truck here in ny, it sold quick, i haggled! shouldn't have.. anyway, flying south to get my truck now, i hate rust.

 

[DDabs]

Run away, run far far away!

 

[drobertson]

I would pass.

 

[Krooks]

Thanks for all the feed back guys. I’m going to pass on this one.