Hi everyone! I’m very excited to get back into the Landcruiser community. My first vehicle at 16 years of age was a 1978 Sky Blue FJ40, but I spent a substantial part of the first five years of my life next to my dad on the bench of a ’67 FJ40. My best friend had an old Ford F-100 that was nearly identical in color, and we used to drive around like goofballs talking on our CB radios, acting like we were cool! I called his truck ‘Big Blue,’ and when I got my FJ40, he dubbed it ‘Little Blue.’ Sadly, when I was away at college, my ‘Little Blue’ was stolen while in a body shop getting a restoration.
When the FJ Cruisers came out while I was in med school, I was initially excited, but when I started to read the reviews, I decided it just wasn’t what I wanted. A few years back, I started considering buying a newer LC before I found out they’d been discontinued in the US. When I discovered that the LC250s had been released, I got excited. I saw a photo of the Heritage Blue and felt like it was my old friend’s grandchild! I’ve been driving a Yukon Denali for the last 12 to 13 years and I’m tired of it. I miss Toyota! I am never going to be doing any major rock crawling, but I’m excited to take my family camping in areas only accessible by backcountry roads that may have ruts, rocks, and be generally impassable for the asphalt crawler I’ve been driving for over a decade.
A few weeks ago, I went to the Toyota dealer and test drove a 1958 and really liked it. I wasn’t a big fan of the smaller display, but as a preamble to the nicer version, I was getting more excited. I went back and forth with the salesperson over why not having the SDM was a dealbreaker. They had one allocated that was exactly what I wanted, but no two-tone paint. I told them I was really hoping for that, and they were able to take another allocation and configure it to exactly the specs I wanted. As soon as they had it configured and ordered, it was sold out from under me by another dealership. Who knew that this could happen?! So, back to the drawing board… They were able to find one that was almost exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, it was allocated for a dealer in Los Angeles, and I’d have to pay for transport fees. But it was hard to say no, so on Saturday, I signed for this 2025 LC trim with Heritage Blue two-tone paint, stabilizer disconnect, Java leather interior, deluxe package, and some other stuff I didn’t really need but were already on the one that they were able to find for me. The biggest issue was that I didn’t want the 20-inch wheels. I want a more rugged look rather than another parking lot warrior! I want something I can actually use in the dirt, mud, and snow without worrying about screwing up my rims. So then I got lost in the rabbit hole of browsing the aftermarket wheel and tire posts on this forum.
Today, I was contacted to find out that the sale of the first one without the two-tone paint fell through and it would be available tomorrow or Thursday. The manager on the phone gave me the idea of doing a white wrap on the roof, so I started thinking that might be an option. I perused some posts on here about people who’ve done roof wraps, and I decided that I’d take it. So after this two-week saga of phone calls and texts, I finally will have my new LC! As for the roof, rather than the Grayscape roof, I think I’m going to go with a more pearly white to better resemble the two-tone look of the FJ40.
Anyway, I was happy to find that this forum existed. I hope to learn a lot from your experiences and the mistakes
that you all have made!
This isn’t a photo of Little Blue, but it’s about what it would have looked like when I got it back from the shop
. The hole in my heart can never be replaced, but at least I’ll have a good band-aid!
When the FJ Cruisers came out while I was in med school, I was initially excited, but when I started to read the reviews, I decided it just wasn’t what I wanted. A few years back, I started considering buying a newer LC before I found out they’d been discontinued in the US. When I discovered that the LC250s had been released, I got excited. I saw a photo of the Heritage Blue and felt like it was my old friend’s grandchild! I’ve been driving a Yukon Denali for the last 12 to 13 years and I’m tired of it. I miss Toyota! I am never going to be doing any major rock crawling, but I’m excited to take my family camping in areas only accessible by backcountry roads that may have ruts, rocks, and be generally impassable for the asphalt crawler I’ve been driving for over a decade.
A few weeks ago, I went to the Toyota dealer and test drove a 1958 and really liked it. I wasn’t a big fan of the smaller display, but as a preamble to the nicer version, I was getting more excited. I went back and forth with the salesperson over why not having the SDM was a dealbreaker. They had one allocated that was exactly what I wanted, but no two-tone paint. I told them I was really hoping for that, and they were able to take another allocation and configure it to exactly the specs I wanted. As soon as they had it configured and ordered, it was sold out from under me by another dealership. Who knew that this could happen?! So, back to the drawing board… They were able to find one that was almost exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, it was allocated for a dealer in Los Angeles, and I’d have to pay for transport fees. But it was hard to say no, so on Saturday, I signed for this 2025 LC trim with Heritage Blue two-tone paint, stabilizer disconnect, Java leather interior, deluxe package, and some other stuff I didn’t really need but were already on the one that they were able to find for me. The biggest issue was that I didn’t want the 20-inch wheels. I want a more rugged look rather than another parking lot warrior! I want something I can actually use in the dirt, mud, and snow without worrying about screwing up my rims. So then I got lost in the rabbit hole of browsing the aftermarket wheel and tire posts on this forum.
Today, I was contacted to find out that the sale of the first one without the two-tone paint fell through and it would be available tomorrow or Thursday. The manager on the phone gave me the idea of doing a white wrap on the roof, so I started thinking that might be an option. I perused some posts on here about people who’ve done roof wraps, and I decided that I’d take it. So after this two-week saga of phone calls and texts, I finally will have my new LC! As for the roof, rather than the Grayscape roof, I think I’m going to go with a more pearly white to better resemble the two-tone look of the FJ40.
Anyway, I was happy to find that this forum existed. I hope to learn a lot from your experiences and the mistakes
that you all have made!This isn’t a photo of Little Blue, but it’s about what it would have looked like when I got it back from the shop
. The hole in my heart can never be replaced, but at least I’ll have a good band-aid!
