Toyota Land Cruiser Cygnus

Today, I am going to talk about Toyota Land Cruiser 100 Cygnus that we won at auction the other day.

First of all, the Land Cruiser rooted in Toyota Jeep BJs which were developed as a 4WD wanted by the National Police Reserve (now Japan’s Self-defence force) in 1951. In June, 1954, the name of the vehicle was changed to “Land Cruiser” 20 Series. The name has the longest history in Japan as a model which is still in production. They are older than Toyota Corolla or High Ace.

The durability of the vehicle is highly regarded. The model changed from 20 Series (1955 – 1959) to 40 Series (1960 – 1984), 55 Series (1967 – 1980), 60 Series (1980 – 1989), 70 Series (1990 – 2004), 80 Series (1991 – 1996), 100 Series (1988 – 2007) then to 200 Series (2007 and later) and every time they changed the model, the vehicle got better. Land Cruisers are considered as the standard cars in the world for rough road driving. To be said “if there is a conflict, there is a Land Cruiser”, they are often used by TV crews gathering news worldwide. Yes, they are the “King of 4WD”.

The model we won this time was a specially ordered one, called an “LX470” overseas in the expensive Lexus brand. They are sold in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa and Oceania and are one of the best-selling cars in the USA.

The order was from a customer in the Caribbean. It was like: the one manufactured in 2003 or later, in a good condition, millage under 40,000Km, black and up to \4,200,000. When we thought that there are not many at auction and the budget is quite limited, we told him that it might take between 1-2 months but it only took us a week after he made a deposit, there was one listed with a sunroof, other maker’s muffler and a 6 level vehicle height adjustment. We placed a bid and won the auction within the budget. We felt extremely lucky. When we told this to the customer, he was very happy and asked us to paint it black. The Land Cruiser was originally black & gray but he wanted the gray bit painted in the same black as the rest of the body. This involved 11 different panels: the bottom half of all the 5 doors, both left & right sidesteps, front & rear bumpers and left& right fender arcs. We thought it looked OK as it was and felt it might be a waste of money but when we asked the painter, he said it should not be any problem and should look fine. So we asked them to do it for us.

5 days after that, it came back, looking fantastic. This Land Cruiser has plastic parts on the steps where your feet touch and the rear bumper to stop damage from opening & closing the rear gate. It requires a special skill not to paint these bits. This looked better than we expected. You appreciate their great professional skills. I heard that they had to remove the bumpers and steps and paint the whole panel, so it takes a long time to finish the job. I now understand why this customer was persistent about this procedure. The usual black & gray one look fine but when it is all painted in black, it does look like the “King of 4WD”, a great change.

Yes, I personally thought I would like one like this. Because of the recent rises in oil prices, the price at auction is getting lower. Maybe now is your chance if you were not sure before because of the high price of the vehicle! Please send us inquiries.

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