2003ish Landcruiser Colorado or Lexus RX - advice please

[nav2014]

Collective wisdom please -

I've just sold my Vito truck (camper conversion, never been camping...) for a bit more than I might have paid a year ago. Still need something as a roomy load lugger but a bit less agricultural than the Merc, and reliable enough to jump in and go somewhere far away with wife and two dog babies...

Economy doesn't really matter, I work from home or get to offices with trains, anything land rover based would be lovely but probably a coin flip for reliability, X5s or Toerags look a bit crap at this age and trying too hard. So which would you pick?

We're talking bangernomics here but something a fairly nice to drive would be good. Logic says the Lexus wins, but how much bigger is the load lugger capacity of a Colorado (internal with seats down, not towing)?

Seems that apart from the slopey bootlid on the Lexus, there might not be much in it..?

I have another dilemma too - separate thread..

[gman88667733]

My money would go on the land cruiser. Friend of mine has an S reg Amazon on 300k miles and other than a bit of rust on one of the wings, it has been faultless. As have the other 2 in their family, one of which is over 500k I believe!
Not 100% sure on the difference between the Amazon and the Colorado, but I expect the reliability stays true!

[nav2014]

I do really like Landcruisers and know they're quite hard to kill, but I've not experienced one on the road before. At least not for any distance; I was in an Amazon on a small trek through the atlas mountains yonks ago, was awesome but bumpy.

Would I want to be in one of those or a snail looking Lexus tooling down to the south of France or into Spain in the summer?

[gman88667733]

For that, I expect a Lexus would be better. However, I've been in a land cruiser during regular driving and it was very comfy, big leather seats in it

[nav2014]

As luck would have it, there's a Colorado for sale up the road. I'll check it out tomorrow.

Fyi the Colorado is a slightly more pants and not quite as big version of the regular landcruiser. I think the Amazon dwarfed everything but not much different between regular or cororado

[SVX]

Land Cruiser all the way, my F-i-L and B-i-L both have Cruisers in South Africa - I've been on some long trips on and off road in them. My only suggestion, would be to try and get one with cruise control, and aircon is a must. I found it difficult to get my right foot comfortable in my B-i-L's manual Land Cruiser Prado (similar to a Colorado), when keeping the throttle open for long distances at motorway speeds. My F-i-L's V8 VX is an auto and will sit at 140-160 km/h all day long fully loaded.

Here in the UK I suspect that rust and lack of mechanical sympathy are what kill these.

[Roger Irrelevant]

I might be being daft here but when I search for 2003 LC Colorados on Auto trader nothing comes up, they only seem to go to 2002? Anyway, while I love a Land Cruiser and reckon I will have one one day, I'd rather have an RX400 if it's solely for road use. Really nice inside and a lot quicker.

[andy43]

I reckon the two are totally different, you can't really compare them. I've only test driven a couple of RX300s but had a Colorado diesel until the gearbox went and now have an 80 - an older 'cruiser.
Lexus's (Lexii?) are really luxurious inside, quiet, smooth, dead reliable. Even at the 3-4k end of the market I don't think there's much goes wrong with them.
Landcruisers will be agricultural, noisy, slow in comparison, and can rust eventually but they're designed to be bulletproof and generally don't break much either. Snow is not a problem on M&S tyres. 3rd row of seats encroaches on loadspace quite a bit, but it'll still carry way more than a Lexus and it'll tow anything. Early 3.0 diesel I preferred to the later D4D engine which sounds like it's broken most of the time. Most are diesel - a petrol Colorado is rare, with a 3.4 V6 and a lovely thing to drive, but almost as ruinous as my petrol 80 for fuel costs. They get under your skin - quite a bit of character - I loved mine.
If you're talking long distance trips only the top-of-range Colorado VX had cruise control - and if long journeys are a regular thing I'd definitely go Lexus.

[nav2014]

Thanks all - I had a go in a petrol landcruiser, drove great and I really like them but you can tell it was designed many moons ago. The interior felt tiny and cramped to me, despite its size (I'm not a giant, it just felt like I was rubbing shoulders with the owner on the test drive).

I bought a Lexus RX 300 on Sunday. Just doggy enough around the edges for me to not care about using it as a wheelbarrow, but light years ahead of the landcruiser in terms of interior space and ergonomics.

Thing is I still fancy a V6 landcruiser.... Might need to find a wreck with an MOT just for kicks!