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The 80 Series Land Cruiser is IMPRESSIVE! Reviewing a MODIFIED 1994 Land Cruiser
Oct 19, 2023
The 80 Series Land Cruiser (including this 1994 version) are going down as one of the best off-road SUVs to ever be created. They do a fantastic job of mixing reliability with more modern comforts, as well as styling and custom off-road capabilities. In this video I am giving a complete review, and overview of one of the best Land Cruisers you can buy.
I borrowed this from The Dirt Tourist! You can check out his Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thedirttourist/
LEARN MORE at READY SET REV!
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In a world where SUVs are becoming less reliable, more complicated, and more expensive
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there just aren't many great choices out there. However, if you look back to a little bit older generation, like this 80 series land cruiser
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right here, you'll notice something. This is a great way to have a more modern vehicle that has a more manual feel
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while being something that you can daily drive, but also take off road
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So in this video, I'm going to be telling you everything that you need to know about this 80 series land cruiser
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to see if it works right for you. I do want to thank the dirt tourist who lent me this for the day to be able to review and tell you all about it
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If you want to check out a shop that buys things like this and fixes them up with some aftermarket components
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well, I highly recommend that you check out his Instagram, which I link down in the description
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Just in case you were wondering, this is a 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser
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which puts it squarely right in the middle of the 80s series. These were known for being slow, steady, yet extremely reliable SUVs
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Originally in the beginning of the production run of these, they had a smaller 4.0 engine
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which resulted in it being really quite slow. However, in 1993, they upgraded the engine size of this to be a little bit larger and have a little bit more horsepower, which we'll talk about later
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The 80 series is technically the fifth generation of Toyota Land Cruiser
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However, that is a little bit mucky, as these have been sold in different generations, different styles, all over the world
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However, here in the USA, this would technically be the fifth generation
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And over the years, it changed from being more of kind of like a Jeep-like SUV with the FJ40
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to something a little bit more of a luxury vehicle like what we're seeing here
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And of course, as the more modern land cruisers came out, it became even more luxurious
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of which now the most recent that was just announced is going a bit more back to the roots
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However, this was kind of the beginning of what would be a modern land cruiser with a little
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bit more modern of a driving experience, but it still retained a lot of the reliability that we are used to seeing in a Toyota land cruiser
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like this. While values on land cruisers like this have been climbing, other generations have
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been climbing even faster, so I don't personally think values of this one right here have
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quite peaked quite yet, so this might be a great time to get yourself into something like this
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because it might actually go up in value as you own it. But don't take my word for it, because
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vehicle values are pretty insane. However, regardless of value, these are extremely fun vehicles
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They are very capable off-road. They drive really well on the highway as long as you don't want to pass
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And they compete with vehicles like the Ford Explorer, the Jeep Rangler
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Izuzu Trooper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and even a range rover. So before we get too far into this review, I want to talk about the drive train
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This is a 24-valve 1-ZE-F-E, which is a 4.5-Liter in Line 6 engine
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Now, you might be wondering, what about the 2JZ? It was around the same time that these two engines were out
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There was the 1-ZE and the 2JZE. They are both in line 6es, both from Toyota
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And honestly, we're both just as reliable as each other. However, the real difference between these two is the 1-Z was built more for SUVs and pickup trucks
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So it had a little bit more low-end torque. Whereas the 2JZ, which you found in things like the Toyota Supra and like the Lexus SC-300
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they had more horsepower capabilities. So these really weren't interchangeable, however, I have heard of people swapping them out
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in putting like a 2JZ in a land cruiser and a 1Z in Toyota sports cars
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However, it just doesn't quite work that way. This is a great one for an SUV, and the 2JZ is great for sports cars
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Yet, both have just as greater reliability. That said, this engine has 212 horsepower and 275 pound foot of torque
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which is a huge leap over the earlier engine that was used in an early
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earlier land cruisers from the 80 series, which only had 150 horsepower instead of
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220 So this was a big jump over the earlier years in the 80 series and this is the one to get That said it not exactly still known for being fast
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While I was able to get up the mountain road that we are on here quite easily, it really wasn't an issue whatsoever
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I wouldn't exactly consider it fast, but it is something that just gets along quite well
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And because of the torque is fantastic for off-roading. It should be mentioned, however, even though it's not a huge engine with a ton of horsepower, anything like that
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don't expect great gas mileage, as this thing only gets about 12 miles to the gallon in the city
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and 15 miles per gallon on the highway. And most people are saying it's just around 14 miles
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per gallon combined, which isn't exactly fantastic. As for the transmission, saw a four-speed
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automatic transmission. And while this one is not equipped with it, there are versions of this
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land cruiser that do have different differential locks, making it even more capable off-road
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So before we get to the exterior of this 80-ser, I do want to talk about the modification
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that have been done so that you are aware of the difference between this and a completely stocked land cruiser
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So the first thing is that this does have a two inch iron man lift kit. It has an ARB off-road front bumper, a come-up winch, and two 8575-16 Falcon Wild Peak tires that are wrapped around nomad Sahara wheels in a copperhead color
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This also does have a 270 degree awning and a roof rack as well
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And these really cool window inserts which allow air to come in through the windows while not allowing bugs to get in
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So with that said, let's get into the exterior, starting with the rear of the vehicle
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So in the beginning of this generation from 1990 to 1993, this had a swing out hatch where it had a handle here, and you basically would swing it out
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However, starting in this 1994 version, it actually comes out with the tailgate that I personally prefer, which is actually two different pieces
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So what you do is you just basically pull on this latch here and it opens up the top part
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However, as you can see right here, it has a bottom tailgate as well, which is actually
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you just open by pulling this latch here, and it comes down like a tailgate from a pickup truck
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However, this is carpeted right here, which makes it a fantastic seat, which is pretty cool
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And is really nice for people that do things like overlanding, or, you know, just sitting at a football game
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Now, moving around to the side of this SUV, you're starting to kind of see a little bit of a difference
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between this 80 series and previous generations, as this has a much more round body style
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rather than a little bit more boxy from previous generations. This actually was a move that Toyota was making in the 90s
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You also saw it in things like the 5th-gen Toyota Salica, of which I have owned quite a few of
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And so this is actually starting to become what I personally like out of Toyota
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I really like this design. It's very simple. It's very understated, even though this is technically a luxury SUV
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I really do like the body lines in the way this SUV looks
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Another thing you will notice is this spoiler right here, which is a bit of an odd spoiler
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You see them on pretty much every Toyota Land Cruze. are out there. And honestly, I don't fully understand what it does. I'm assuming it just spoils the air to
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be able to give it a little bit better gas mileage, but let's be honest, it didn't do a great job of that
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As for the front of the land cruiser, it really is understated, much like the rest of the SUV is
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There isn't much going on. It has a very simple grill. It has simple TED lights. And honestly
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outside of aftermarket components like the ARB bumper, there's really not much to talk about
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Which is in very stark contrast to what we see nowadays with DRLs and extremely mean and aggressive front ends
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So if you are looking for something simple, that doesn't exist anymore. And you might find that you're going all the way back to the 90s to be able to get something like this
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One of my favorite things about the exterior of this, though, is these sliding rear windows
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They are actually really cool and I think a lot more modern vehicles should have it
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So basically, there is an interior latch on the inside that you push
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and now you can slide both of these windows back and forth so that you can let a little bit more air inside and it's just a really cool feature to this SUV
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Alright so let move into the interior of the 80 series which I be honest is my favorite thing about this SUV When you get in it immediately smells like a 90s Toyota vehicle If you have ever owned a Toyota from the 90s it smells like this and you know exactly
8:12
what I'm talking about. The other thing that surprised me when I got in is immediately how comfortable the seats are
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You don't really think of 90s seats as being comfortable. However, when I sat in them, I'll be honest, they're more comfortable than my 2007 Chevy Tahoe Seats
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And honestly, I feel like give me a little bit more support than what I have in other months
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much more modern vehicles. They seem to have considerably more padding, even though they're cloth
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and don't have things like heated seats or being able to move electronically, it honestly is still
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really nice. Now moving to the dash and you aren't greeted with things like massive screens or
8:44
really any screens of all, instead you have your typical 90s Toyota Dash. And it's pretty cool
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And as you can see, I hadn't mentioned yet, this has 242,000 miles on it. And I'll be honest
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it probably has a couple more 100,000 to go. Outside of that, you can see your oil temperature
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your engine temperature, battery, gas, your tachometer, which doesn't make sense since this is an automatic vehicle
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And then, of course, your speedometer. You have mirror controls. And then right here you have a knob that turns up and down your gauge cluster lighting
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of which I have done many times where I accidentally turned it down and thought my gauge cluster was broken and just turns out I had just turned down the knob
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Moving to the steering column, you have your typical Toyota switch gear
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which on the left hand side is going to be your turn signal, as well as the ability to turn on and off your headlights
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You have manual tilt for your steering wheel. And then on the right side, you have the stock that does everything that you need for the windshield washers and the wipers
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And then below that, of course, is your cruise control, which, yes, even though this is a 1994, it does have cruise control, but don't expect adaptive cruise
9:47
Now, moving to the right of the steering wheel is everything that you need for your HVAC, which of course has not moved into a screen, which didn't happen until years later
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You have an aftermarket Sony stereo. Now, while I'm not gonna mess with it
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these buttons right here are actually quite interesting. These buttons right here actually raise and lower your antenna over there
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This was back before they moved antennas into things like on top of the roof or in your A pillar
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and instead it was tacked onto the right fender. And pushing this button right here makes it so that it goes down
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and pushing this right here makes it so that it goes up. Now, why is that
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It's really for car washes. You don't want to go through a car wash with your antenna up
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as it can damage it, bend it, break it, and that is an expensive fix
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So all you do is you push this button and it lowers it down so that you can go through a car wash
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This also has a great byproduct of when you're off-roading so that you're not hitting things
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Now moving farther down from the dash, you have your shifter. So this shifter right here is actually the same shifter you saw in tons of different Toyota products
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They really built one for everything. And considering this is a land cruiser, which is a little bit lower of a trim
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it doesn't really look too out of place in here. but however, it did look a little bit more out of place and things like the Lexus version of this
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And then, of course, to the right-hand side of your shifter, you are going to have your low and high range for your four-wheel drive
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which is a great thing to have to be able to just quickly be able to shift into it
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Now moving even farther back through the center console, you have your storage
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So right here is kind of an interesting choice on Toyota's part
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They decided to put both the parking brake and the center console in the exact same place
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So your parking brake actually makes it so that the center console, has less storage space instead of just putting it to the left of the seat, which was a weird choice on their part
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And then moving up to the ceiling, you have all of your controls for the sunroof, which, yes, even though
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this is an off-road SUV, it does have a sunroof that is automatically opened and closed, and that is what those buttons do
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And then, of course, you do have your reading light as well. Now, before we get into the backseat, I want to actually talk about something that's a little bit funny, and that will be this fender flare
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So this door is actually attached to this fender flare. so when you open this rear door, everything kind of comes with it, which is a little bit weird
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But anyways, let's get into the inside again. Alright, so let's talk about the back seat
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And it actually kind of an interesting seating position So the seats themselves are just as comfortable as the front seats I do have a decent amount of headroom and my knees are somewhat touching the front every once in a while but it not an uncomfortable seating However the strange thing
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about sitting back here is you actually are seated up higher than the front seat. So you actually
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are looking up over top of the driver's head. I would say probably two or three inches higher
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than the front seats, which is kind of interesting and not something that I knew about this
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before driving it today. Outside of that, there really isn't too many interesting things
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things back here. It's just your typical 90s seat. However, little things like this net to be
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able to put stuff in is kind of nice. Now, one thing that is interesting is that these seats do
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actually lay flat and they do lean forward. So you can easily be able to get longer things in here
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without really an issue. And it's really simple. I have seen SUVs that are much more difficult
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So if you are looking for something with a second row that can fold forward really easily
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now moving around to the back of the interior, there isn't much back here right now. So
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So normally these do actually have a third row. This one just doesn't have it right now
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However, you can still see the metal brackets on the wheel wells instead of the floor
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And that's because in this generation, Toyota and other manufacturers were trying to figure out how to get third rows into their vehicles
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Because people were starting to take their families around. However, they hadn't quite figured out how to fold them down to the floor like they do nowadays
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So their idea would be to basically fold the seeds up. So you'd fold them forward and then fold them up to the walls
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you for the full length of the rear. This actually was a much better version of things like what my Chevy does
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However, it just isn't nearly as good as it was in more modern vehicles
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However, outside of that, there isn't a ton going on in the rear of this vehicle, so let's move on
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So I want to talk a little bit about what it's like to drive one of these land cruisers
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And to be fair, it actually is pretty nice. Well, yes, it holds up this is a slow SUV
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It isn't really too slow, and it gets up when you need it to. however, don't ask it to accelerate too much
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Outside of that, it drives really smoothly. It might have something to do with these large tires and smaller wheels
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But you really don't feel a ton of bumps like you would expect from an older SUV like this
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especially one that is meant more for off-roading. One weird thing that I did notice, and it's not really a detractor
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but something that just kind of caught me off guard, is how little you have to press down on the gas pedal
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You barely tap on it and it accelerates. You don't have to really push down much, getting it all the way up to speed
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It actually is a little more comfortable, I'd say, than a lot of other ones because you're not moving your foot as much
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but it was just something that stood out to me as a bit strange and kind of nice
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Another thing that stood out to me was how close you are to the windshield. It's really interesting
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These have a very vertical windshield. And so you are sitting actually really close
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You have a short dash, and it gives you some nice visibility, and the vehicle itself has really good visibility all around, which is great considering how large it is
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So even though people online make it sound like these are kind of a pain to drive
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really isn't the case and I do feel like I would be comfortable daily driving this
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So with that said, guys, this is the 80 series land cruiser. It is a true off-road and family
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vehicle that deserves the respect that it is getting. These are amazing vehicles and do a great
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job of giving you more modern comfort instead of being a bumpy, brawny vehicle of the past. So you
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get that more modern and comfortable feel of the more modern vehicles, but you don't have all the
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complicated electronics and reliability issues of the newer vehicles that we have now that are trying to catch up to all the regulations going on
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So I'd love to hear from you. What do you guys think about the 80 series land cruiser? Is this something you would buy
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Or would you prefer things like the Ford Explorer of this generation or the Jeep Grand Cherokee or even the Range Rover
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I personally think I would choose this. So again, if this is something that you like, make sure to go check out the dirt tourist Instagram as he has tons of vehicles like this that he is constantly selling
15:57
make sure to like this video as it does help me out in the algorithm and is a ton of help
16:01
and subscribe if you like content like this, as I have a lot of it coming out, as I really
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enjoy reviewing vehicles like this
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