🚗 Max found a way to make the most practical car ever way less practical; 2 car solution vol 2

Alright readers, I got some pushback on last weeks volume of TWO CAR SOLUTION🎺🎉😤.

For some reason a lot of you think a 17 year old German super suv is a ticking time bomb, and not at all a sane choice as the ‘do-everything’ car in a two car garage.

And while I vehemently disagree, I also acknowledge the fact that I have… perhaps… been known to buy old German cars that end up needing major engine repairs within the first year of my ownership. You can read about those misadventures here btw.

A snippet from that link that encapsulates my brain quite well:

Anyways, I figured I’d zag on you people for volume 2, so I flipped through the automotive rolodex that is my weird ass brain and found an absolute banger of an all-rounder. You’re going to look at it and think my whole ‘being a dad now’ thing has changed me so fundamentally that its made me smart when it comes to car purchases.

Don’t worry, dear reader, for this ride hides a secret… (if you look closely, you can already see it)

HERE IT IS: A 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser VX Limited (currently for sale by our friends at JapaneseClassics.com)

We’re going to cover…

• The MAX METER - i.e. why do I like… mayhaps love this vehicle. What really sticks out to me; the highlights, the vibes.

• Practicality & Comfort (grouping together the snoozefest categories, I do these things for you, my lovely lovely reader) - i.e. will this car have enough luxury features to allow me drive 3 hours without needing an ass transplant?

• The ANTI-EMASCULATION FACTOR - i.e. can I count on this rig to be able to weather (pun intended) NY winters, ice, mud, sand, and mall parking lots without issue?

• BUDGET - i.e. what can you actually buy one of these bad boyz for?

But First, the Highlights…

• 🌏️ Driven around the world: 2.8x (71k miles for those of you who don’t have the circumference of the globe in miles memorized)

• 🎵 Song to Get the Vibes Right: https://open.spotify.com/track/4ZtqsOdBbS6GoedzzRGSo9?si=1f9af5e822f54822

  • This song while rolling around in your ‘00 LC a fit like this?? How could anything be bad in the world when this is possible.

    

• 🏇 Can beat 230 horses in a fight

• 💰️ Price: $27,495

MAX METER; a blast from the golden era of toyota’s past

You might be thinking that an old Toyota is the least interesting car you can be reading a newsletter/blogpost about.

You might even be thinking that the Venn diagram of dudes who want to buy a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, and dudes who want to buy an old Toyota suv don’t overlap.

I disagree.

But I am, unfortunately for you all (& due to some doom spiraling I was doing earlier in the day lamenting the fact that my two jobs (writing words and writing code) are being commoditized to nothingness by AI tech oligarchs), going to get a little bit thoughtful on this one.

In the before times, the long long ago, before the industrial revolution…

The town tradesfolk and craftsmen built your tools, watches, furniture, everything by hand. Then came the assembly line, and suddenly the craftsmen who were part artist & part expert-at-whatever-they-crafted were made largely obsolete.

It didn’t happen instantly, and it didn’t happen for everyone, but craftsmen were now competing in many ways with large corporations/manufacturers/department stores with marketing departments and business development guys at their disposal.

The economy of every country that succeeded in their industrial revolution was forever changed, but the products everyone were now buying had a lot less soul. Products built with passion, character, thoughtfulness, and the brash bravery to go against the grain of today’s industrialized consumerism are now quite few, and often reserved only for those with the capital to spend more for the privilege of owning something with heart.

In the automotive world it happened in a similar way. There are still some companies out there that hand-assemble their cars, but these operate in the stratosphere (see: Ferrari, Bugatti, Pagani, etc).

The closest thing the layman can get is a highly depreciated AMG Mercedes with an assembly-line body but an engine hand-built by a man named Sasha.

But contrastingly, rarely (see: never) does a coach-built Italian sports car have the reliability, practicality, ease of maintenance, and availability of parts that a mass-produced, cheaper car would.

Thus, much of the time you have to pick between something built with passion & something build for practicality, and if you have that choice, it often means you could afford to simply buy both.

You don’t need to choose with this Land Cruiser.

Let me explain why quick (I promise I won’t ramble too much longer (more recent Max here: I lied & broke this promise)).

The 80s & 90’s were the golden era of Japanese sports cars in particular. The Japanese economy was booming, and its young population had the disposable income to spend on cool cars.

Japan’s automakers were cool enough to accommodate that demand, building icons like the Supra, GTR, NSX, & Lancer Evo.

But… what happens when a bunch of young kids end up with fast cars? Hell, what happens when young kids end up with ANY car? They raced them. Thus was born the Japanese street racing culture that spawned legendary groups like the Midnight Club, birthed tuners like RWB, and inspired media like Fast & Furious, and Initial D.

Then, fearing some kind of Party Pooping Coalition in the Japanese government, Japanese automakers got together and said something to the tune of…

party pooper 1: “hey, these kids are having too much fun”

party pooper 2: “yeah”

party pooper 1: “it’s probably because these cars are too fast”

party pooper 2: “yeah”

party pooper 1: “we should stop making fast cars”

party pooper 2: “yeah”

THAT, my dear readers, is the canon founding conversation of a literal ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between all Japanese automotive manufacturers where they decided to limit the horsepower in their cars to 276 or less.

This agreement was in place for roughly 16 years, from 1988-2004. Anyone who has taken Economics 101 (I got an A in mine, nbd) and learned the basics of game theory could tell you what came next…

Say you’re Toyota, and you’re bound by this 276hp handshake agreement. You don’t want to betray the agreement, but you need to sell cars.

You have a few levers you can pull here with your sports cars in particular…

You can honor the agreement, and make the most engaging, best handling, and best looking car. A fine idea in principal, but it ignores that many of the young people buying your Supra want a fast car for the highway (the Wangan in particular, for those in the know).

So then you think… “well how can I build the fastest highway car when all of us are bound to the same power limit?”

ANSWER: you over-engineer your car’s engine SO MUCH that, with stock internals, the engine can make 800+. Fully built, literally 2000 horsepower. TWO THOUSAND.

Even Khal Drogo would have a tough time with a herd that big.

Toyota knew its Supra buyers - knew they’d understand the wink-wink, nudge-nudge message they were sending them buy building a huge inline 6 cylinder, robust and over-engineered to a degree the automotive world had never seen.

And importantly, all that over-engineering meant that the 2JZ engine in the Supra can famously go for hundreds of thousands of miles without issue. It has the power-capacity of Thanos with all his weird gemstones, and the reliability of… well, a Toyota.

“BUT WHY IS MAX TELLING ME THIS?” you scream, fist waving at the sky, wondering why the hell this newsletter about a Land Cruiser has barely mentioned it at all in its first 1500 words…

I’ll tell you why, you sweet sweet reader you.

This confluence (word of the day, BANG) of factors in Japan drove competition between Japanese automakers that required unprecedented creativity & innovation, but for cars priced for the (albeit splurging) everyman and built on an assembly line.

These types of moments in automotive history are few and far between, and in my not-so-humble opinion none are as seminal (my god I am absolutely word-smithing today) as the one we are talking about now.

This era of Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi & Mazda is the best era. For Toyota in particular, the company-culture it built during this time (specifically over-engineering vehicles to be far and away the most reliable and bullet proof cars on the road) is what its shining contemporary brand and global success owes themselves to.

And more importantly than that, it could not have been done without the collaboration of MANY passionate people in lock-step with each other pouring their soul into designing these cars to be exactly what their customers wanted, in an era where GM trying to force 6 different versions of this shitbox down the throat of the American middle class:

Jeez, honestly my dear reader, I told myself I was going to make this a short one & go to sleep at a reasonable hour for once. Now its midnight on a Tuesday and I still haven’t even talked about…

THE LANDCRUISER, as you might of guessed, is a child of this era. It’s legendary for its reliability, capability, and a certain reserved luxury.

It can go anywhere, do anything, look good doing it, AND you can literally drop a building on it (technically this is a Hilux, but the point stands) and drive it to pick your kids up from school the same day (in that order, importantly).

If you don’t care about going fast, it is almost certainly the best do-everything car you can buy, no matter your budget.

IMO, this is why many of the Ivy grad, uber-wealthy, business magnate types of the northeast coastal elite don’t drive the Lamborghini Urus or whatever other modern, flashy, hyper-exotic SUV’s are out there.

They all buy themselves a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Regular Car Reviews summarized it well: “They (the aforementioned super rich folks) don’t want to display wealth, they’re too busy working on the next thing to worry about what you think of them. They want a car that’s not going to get in the way of whatever they’re creating.”

And as an aside (I’m trying really hard not to go down this rabbit hole too, so I’ll add some links if you want to go down it yourself) I find it extremely interesting & not at all a coincidence that, given the Japanese obsession with American Ivy Style fashion (established in Post-War Japan, and still thriving today), Japan has created a car both enjoyed by the OG practitioners of the ‘ivy style’, and that mirrors its values: understated style, unmatched quality, and timeless design.

THAT ALL SAID, while I realize the Land Cruiser isn’t conventionally ‘cool’ to the lamestream media and its cohorts, to me it is. Max Meter is high on this one.

Practicality & Comfort;

okay, after that all-time ramble I am going to breeze through the remainder of this, and just touch on the highlights for each category.

If you’ve read this far, I love you.

Practicality wise, the Cruiser is rock solid… sans 1 important point: this one is a Japanese market example and is right-hand drive.

Why do I want a RHD one? I’m not sure. Maybe I have a strange desire for passerby to think I am a mailman from a bygone era. Maybe I want to justify reversing through the McDonalds drive-thru to get my quarterly chicken nuggets and milk shake. Or maybe, just maybe, I am too much of an automotive nutcase to get something as practical as a Land Cruiser without throwing some chaos into the mix and needing to learn how to drive on the right.

For comfort, we have all of the basics in this example. Power windows, A/C, heat, etc. I don’t think we have heated seats in this, but we do have CLOTH seats… and I have a deep desire to have cloth car seats back in my life.

There’s also a foldable third row, and while I’d probably never use the seats, its nice to have.

Altogether, extremely practical and reasonably comfortable.

THE ANTI-EMASCULATION FACTOR

This thing is rocking a V8, will never break down, has meaty tires, sick aftermarket wheels, and given its 2-speed transfer case and center diff locker it won’t get stuck anywhere either.

BUT DOES IT FIT IN THE BUDGET?!

YUP. At $27k & legendary reliability, it ends up right in the same range as the Porsche. With less stress, and likely a more stable long-term value in the car… its almost certainly a better financial decision than the Cayenne.

THE FINAL RATING

• MAX METER: 8/10. I’ve always wanted a Toyota from this golden era. Being RHD adds some intrigue, and the white on aftermarket silver wheels is really doing it for me.

• COMFORT: 6/10. Missing some modern creature comforts, but something you could easily daily and road-trip.

• PRACTICALITY: 8/10. Minus 1 point for being RHD, minus another for some shaky gas mileage. Otherwise… don’t know how you could find a more practical ride.

• ANTI-EMASCULATION FACTOR: 10/10. I said it once and I’ll say it again: it’s a V8 in an understated but well respected package, will never get you stuck or break down. Consider me anti-anti-emasculated.

• BUDGET-FRIENDLY? 5/10. Another one sitting at half budget roughly.

which means our total is… (drum roll please)

37/50, which puts the 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser at FIRST on the TWO CAR SOLUTION🎺🎉😤 LEADERBOARD, usurping the Cayenne from its short reign.

I’ll be honest folks, this thing is a real option. When I was doing research for this car, I stumbled on a Jeremy Clarkson quote that I think puts a bow on this far too rambling post well:

Jeremy said: “a clean car is a sign of a tiny mind”. His reason being: if you have enough time in the day to wash your car… you probably don’t have much going on upstairs.

I do wonder if he was trying to be ironic, as he said this while standing in front of his spotless 16 year old Range Rover.

Regardless, if Jeremy is correct, doesn’t that mean a white Land Cruiser; the most notoriously invincible car ever made painted in the color that shows dirt most clearly… gotta be the biggest brain move I can make right? lmk

And remember…

MaxFindsCars.com is not, technically, free! By subscribing, dear reader, you have agreed to tell your friends about it.

In fact, I believe the contract specifically stated you had to each subscribe 100 of your closest friends, colleagues, enemies, exes, priests, pets, & sugar mommas. I’ll have to check the fine print to be sure, but you all may as well get started spreading the word in the meantime.

That's a wrap for today. And if you want more MaxFindsCars, be sure to follow Max’s Twitter (@maxjzin)

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