Would an ISF be cheaper to maintain than a Landcruiser?

[luandacruiser]

I owned an LX450 for many years in Africa. It was a brilliant motor and I made several trips across multiple African countries in it. Unfortunately, employment took me away from Africa and I now work in central Asia on a rotation basis. 

I am in the process of moving to UK and initially I planned to buy a Landcruiser 100 series. Unfortunately Lexus never sold the LX in UK and the 80 series Landcruisers in UK generally aren't as nice as the LX. Also, as the roads in UK are generally excellent (at least if you compare to Africa!), a 100 series makes more sense as it has better road manners than a 80/LX450.

But looking through autotrader.co.uk, I stumbled across the ISF by chance.  On giving it some thought, I have realised that in UK I generally do not need a Landcruiser's capability. 

I had not really considered a car over a Cruiser as I do not really like Jaguars, Mercedes, Audis or BMWs. But the ISF looks great fun to drive, is practical and from initially reading these forums it seems ISF owners find the cars extremely reliable and not too bad to maintain costwise (brakes a bit pricey, tyres can add up if you drive a bit erratically). The reliability claims match with my LX experience. 

My Cruiser used to cost a fortune but that was mainly as I had to buy parts in the US and have them shipped to Africa, pay customs charges etc which used to double or triple the cost of each part. The other problem with Cruisers is you can just keep on modding them. Upgrade brakes, stainless exhaust, aftermarket shocks, storage, tools for the road, roof racks, bull bars, driving lights. It just goes on and on!

It looks like both 100 series Cruisers and ISFs hold their value well. It also looks like both have poor fuel economy but the ISF is probably better cruising at 70-80 mph on a motorway. 

The only disadvantage of the ISF is it is a bit small but I guess you can just hire a van if you need to move something. It also would not be as good as a Cruiser in snow. But buying an extra set of wheels and winter tyres would improve the ISF and if you need to drive somewhere in very poor conditions, one could just hire a car. 

The other great thing with the ISF is as stock it is a pretty impressive car and so the desire to fritter money away on mods should be diminished compared to a Cruiser.  However, it does not look like the sort of car you can easily work on so aside from perhaps changing the oil and filters, all work would need to be done at a Lexus dealership. 

If I bought a Cruiser, I would envisage spending a few grand immediately to baseline it and get it reliable. A nice Cruiser is around 12-16k. So it would cost just shy of 20k before getting carried away with mods.

A nice ISF can be picked up for that!  But once purchased, do you think an ISF would be cheaper to maintain than a well baselined 100 series? 

 

 

 

 

 

[ColinBarber]

Talk about chalk and cheese.

The Toyota Land Cruiser amazon (UK name for the LC 100 and 200 series) are rare in the UK and possibly a little too big for our roads and parking spaces. Have you considered the 120 / 150 series, although engine choice isn't great and the V6 petrol is extremely rare in the UK.

In terms of running costs I think the amazon and IS-F would be quite similar, possibly a bit cheaper on the IS as you don't have a transfer box to check/change oil.

I imagine insurance would be cheaper for the LC, but you can never tell what vehicles insurances companies are going to load up so you would have to get quotes for both to determine that.

[NothernDan]

Intermediate ISF service happening for me tomorrow at the princely sum of £320ish.

Major services range between £500ish and £700ish depending on if you are doing all fluids and spark plugs etc

I do 10k miles a year and have alternated the two above, one service per year every year. 

If you buy wisely nothing will go wrong with your ISF. 

Having owned all of the brands you don't like (nor do I having owned them) I will never own another car than the ISF. I hope this one lasts me for another 500k and have every faith it will. 

[luandacruiser]

Thanks. I am becoming more intrigued with the ISF. 

I would not consider a Prado (the 120 series). They are just Hilux estate cars really and are no where near as nice to drive as a proper Cruiser. I imagine the Lexus GX470 is a bit better to drive than the Prado but I have never driven one. And that is another Lexus they unfortunately never sold in UK. 

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi.

If you needed any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

[Irish ISF]

Well, I have a ISF and my dad has been running the same Landcruiser 100 for the last 18 years so I am in a pretty good position to judge.

His is a manual 4.2 diesel and it averages about 22mpg. The petrol versions will be vastly thirstier I would imagine. I don't really see the point of buying one of these in the UK with a petrol engine if you can get the diesel. The diesel sounds pretty damn good in them with the turbo whistle and 6 cylinders. It's a very charming engine and diesel suits vehicles like this.

Running costs are quite high with 5,000 mile service intervals. Tyres are very expensive for the Landcruiser.

It's an extremely reliable vehicle considering how hard it gets worked. I'd imagine you will not be doing anything like the work that we do in it so it should go forever. Ours is now on 497,000 miles. The few notable things that I can remember failing include the heater matrix and the rusting wings and back door. The rust is a very common issue so watch out for that. Rust underneath is not an issue.

We had an 80 series in which the auto box packed up. It was a weak point and I'm not sure if they fixed it in the 100 series. That's why we went manual as we do so much heavy towing.

Overall I would say the ISF is a cheaper vehicle to run. And considerably cheaper than a petrol Landcruiser.

They really couldn't be more different though.