My car is a Toyota Land Cruiser, also known by the name „bush taxi“. For all the people travelling by car through Africa, there are two groups: One group trusts in the Land Rover Defender and the others trust in Toyota Land Cruiser.
I have no experiences with the Land Rover, but Zadock needs a reliable car and he prefers Toyota. Furthermore, spare parts shall be way cheaper and easier to get. OK then, a Land Cruiser. For Safaris, the J7-Series is preferred. They have a large body to carry several people with luggage quite comfortably and the power train is durable. Maybe that’s the reason why terrorists and militia around the world install their machine guns primarily on Land Cruiser pickups.
My Land Cruiser shall remain in Tanzania for the rest of its live time. Therefore, it needs to be a right-hand-drive as traffic drives on the left-hand side in Tanzania. Additionally, it shall have a manual transmission and a diesel engine to be driven at low cost. Unfortunately, there is no big variety of right-hand-drive Toyota Land Cruiser J7 with manual transmission and diesel engine in Europe. I had a budget of 12.000,-€ for the car. There was a Land Cruiser in Belgium with these details for 30.000,-€... too much.
In the end, everything was a little different. After all, I wanted a reliable car which could bring me to Tanzania. In the meantime, UK discussed about the BREXIT. I decided to wait for their decision with the following intention: If GB stays in the EU, there won’t be a huge difference in the exchange rate of GBP-EUR. But if they decide to leave the EU, I could save some money. As we all know, the Britains surprised the rest of the world and decided to leave the EU… and the British pound dropped from 1,40€ to less than 1,20€. Thank you, Mr. Farage!
EDIT: Sorry Paul, you know, I would rather see you stay in the EU :)
At that time, I watched out for some opportunities in England, made a few appointments with sellers of Land Cruisers and flew to London on a weekend. I crossed half of southern England with a rental car and found a Land Cruiser in good shape and with a fair price:
At “Hampshire Trading Ltd.” In Waterlooville, I bought this 15year old Toyota Land Cruiser Colorado J90 with a 3-liter turbo diesel engine and manual transmission. And most important: the steering wheel was on the right side!
Thank you, James and Neil, you kept your word. This Land Cruiser is a flawless and amazing car.
This weekend, a friend of my father gave me accommodation in his house. Paul, thank you for the great time. Greetings to your lovely family and Chris.
Now I got my car, but I needed a proper test ride to assure its reliability. For a journey of round about 20.000km, a trip to Portugal and back home should do. The car arrived in Germany two days before our planned holiday. I was in a hurry. After some discussions with the TÜV and 740€ for new head lights later, I had my license plate. That was 16 hours before we left.
The trip to Portugal was a great success. Despite of a false alarm of a warning light after 400km, the Landy proofed to be a reliable travel companion.
Finally, I only needed to modify the interior. The challenge was to create a bed surface without removing the second and third seat row because the seats will be needed in Tanzania. My buddy Manuel did not hesitate. Within one day, we build a wooden construction in the garage of his friends. The construction separated the boot in two spaces. The bed surface offers 2.05x1.15 (0.95)m. That’s enough for me and even a second person, if needed. Below the bed, I had enough space of my clothes, food and cooking equipment.
I wrapped the whole thing in carpet to create a cosier atmosphere.
Completely collapsed, the second seat row is fully usable.
After dismounting the foot boards, the Landy looks suitable to go off road. I also added a lockable roof box. Plans with a roof rack or even a roof top tent became unnecessary.
Some routine checks alike changing the engine and transmission oil were the last steps to finish the Landy.
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