A little over 2 years ago I got to realize a childhood dream of mine and acquire one of my childhood dream cars, a Mercedes GWagen. I ordered it in April 2017 and finally took delivery in September 2017. It was an awesome vehicle and I was on cloud nine every time that I got behind the wheel. I could literally entertain myself for hours just opening and closing the doors, locking and unlocking the doors (sounds like a rifle bolt closing), and listening to that sweet V8 rumbled out the side pipes.

I should probably add that part of what led me to purchase my 2017 G550 was my frustration in having my 2015 BMW M3 sit in the garage, I driven, for about half the year, along with my wife’s frustration with owning 3 vehicles for 2 people. The fact that we had no kids and I also have a take home car from work just seemed to rub my wife the wrong way, as we literally had twice as many cars as people sitting in our garages. So I convinced my wife to let me trade in my M3 and one of our other vehicles, and buy my G550. She wasn’t in love with the GWagen but part of our rationale was that I could drive and enjoy the vehicle year round, while still being a really cool and unique vehicle, and it would have room for more passengers, making it even more practical.

Fast forward 2 years and we have a wonderful daughter, so much more awesome than I ever could have hoped for. We are done having children but wow even one child takes up a lot of space. I couldn’t put my daughter’s car seat behind me when driving due to lack of space, so her car seat went behind the passenger seat. Unfortunately this required the front passenger seat to get pushed far forward too, making front seat passenger comfort poor too. It turns out that I rally overestimated the practicality of a GWagen as a family vehicle. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the road trip back and forth to DC this last weekend. We took the GWagen and it really wasn’t a good vehicle for the trip based upon our circumstances. The fact that we are planning on doing some more road trips as a family further reinforced the problems at hand with our vehicle selection.

So when we got home I decided to take a look at some other options. I wanted something cool, and uncommon, and it had to be good as a family vehicle. So here’s the part that will make Black jealous, because I know he’s a fan of the vehicle that I ended up settling on. I had no intention of buying anything yesterday but wanted to test drive a few vehicles to see if I liked them and decided later what to do. I went to the Toyota dealer with the intention of test driving a 4Runner TRD Pro, a Highlander (the thought about getting my wife a Highlander and me taking her Raptor was a definite possibility)....... and a Landcruiser. To make a long story short, I fell in love with the Landcruiser and the dealership made me a great deal on their Landcruiser and a price I was ok with on my GWagen so we agreed to do the deal. There is still some paperwork to be done and the plan is to pick up the vehicle on Monday evening.

I’m really going to miss the GWagen. I love the vehicle but at the end of the day I want to be a good dad more than I want to drive the GWagen. I’ve always loved the Landcruiser too, and I have no reservations about owning one for the long haul. I hope to do some light mods to it when it’s paid off and also buy a Porsche 911 when the Landcruiser is paid off as my wife is more receptive to having a third, strictly fun car in a few years. So since everyone has been posting about new vehicles the last few days I thought that my SIGforum friends would be interested in what I’m picking up too.

nice... I would love one. Only thing stopping me is the payments lol make suer you upost pictures!!!

Definitely more jealous of the G-Wagen, than the LC.

Grossly impractical for me in either case, but the G is my grail SUV.

Brand New 200 Series or used?
Let’s see pictures!!!
I am sad to see that the LC is coming to an end in the states. While I would not mind a 200 they have strayed a bit from their roots and original intentions but still one of the most quality built vehicles available!

I’ll just leave this right here!

www.sleeoffroad.com

Congrats!

By the way very smart to have 1 kid.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Brand New 200 Series or used?
Let’s see pictures!!!
I am sad to see that the LC is coming to an end in the states. While I would not mind a 200 they have strayed a bit from their roots and original intentions but still one of the most quality built vehicles available!

I’ll just leave this right here!

www.sleeoffroad.com

Congrats!

By the way very smart to have 1 kid.

Brand new 2019 200 series. I will take some pictures when I pick it up and hopefully someone can post them for me. I like it enough that I could see myself becoming a collector of these lol.

Sweet!!! Look forward to pictures

I’ve been looking at a bunch of projects that people have recently done with these vehicles and it’s easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole. I think the first mod that I’m going to want to make is to switch out the stock grill for one of the heritage edition grills. I think the “TOYOTA” in text vs the Toyota symbol looks really good. I may also want to switch out the factory running boards for a set of Slee sliders. I like the way that they are functional without looking wildly different than the stock setup, at least from 10 feet away. I’ll probably wait a bit before doing anything crazy but if I do keep this for the long haul like I’m thinking I want to do I will also add an ARB compressor as well as front and rear lockers and I would probably be pretty cool with that setup. The more I look at Landcruiser sites though the more I want to pick up an 80 series from the end of their production run and do an LS swap too lol.

That LC is a sweet ride- it might not be as sexy as the G-wagon but very nice for its intended purpose. And it still has aftermarket options to make it more formidable than stock. There are certainly worse choices...like the Highlander you mention

A man after my own heart.
I don’t know why Toyota uses the circly T logo on their trucks. The Toyota text grilled look much better. I would even like one for the wife’s Highlander.
The Slee sliders are nice.

Question about the GWagen as my neighbor is thinking of gettign one, and his wife is pregnant. They are also only going to have 1. You said there's not enough room for a car seat in the back? The front seat has to be pushed all the way forward? WTF?

I always thought the GWagen was a totally cool SUV, but that is crazy. It looks like they have a ton of room based on pictures I see.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
...

I’ll just leave this right here!

www.sleeoffroad.com

Congrats!

By the way very smart to have 1 kid.

That's just cruel! (I have a couple of links from their site bookmarked for my new Taco!)

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

I am sad to see that the LC is coming to an end in the states. While I would not mind a 200 they have strayed a bit from their roots and original intentions but still one of the most quality built vehicles available!

I’ll just leave this right here!

www.sleeoffroad.com

if Toyota would simply take the LC back to it's roots they would sell them by the boatload,

Pics pics pics!! Lol

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Question about the GWagen as my neighbor is thinking of gettign one, and his wife is pregnant. They are also only going to have 1. You said there's not enough room for a car seat in the back? The front seat has to be pushed all the way forward? WTF?

I always thought the GWagen was a totally cool SUV, but that is crazy. It looks like they have a ton of room based on pictures I see.

They got 4” wider and I think 4 inches longer when they redesigned them in 2019 so my issues might not apply to the newest iteration. However in my 2017 I could not fit my daughter’s car seat behind the driver seat in my normal driving position. The car seat went behind the passenger seat but it required that the seat either be pushed further forward than I would prefer or more upright (almost no recline) than I or my wife prefer. They have a ton of head room and a really good amount of cargo room, but they really aren’t huge as far as passenger space. A good way to think of it is that the GWagen is about the same width as a Jeep Wrangler and the overall size is pretty close to a Wrangler Unlimited but with a bigger cargo area so passenger space is not in abundance.

Honestly it’s an awesome vehicle and I don’t regret purchasing it and owning it. I just can’t justify that much for a vehicle if it’s not going to be more practical at this stage in my life. Without kids it’s great, with a car seat meh. I am strongly considering buying a new Porsche 911 in a few years and I think that makes a bit more sense for me with a Landcruiser over a GWagen. I’m sure I’ll own another GWagen someday, maybe closer to retirement. I hope to be able to more comfortably afford an AMG G63 model by then. But I don’t plan on having another new one as long as it needs to fit a car seat.

Still waiting!!!

Very good choice OP, frankly I’d rather have a Land Cruiser anyway...but I’m a Cruiser nut.

Rims aren't showing up in your pics.

Interesting to read about the lack of passenger space in the G.
I'm barely justifying a C300, so any flavor of G is out of the question for now.
A Wrangler Unlimited is more likely before a G.

Hope the LC treats you well.

awesome - congrats. I remember when the Land Cruiser first came out - it was an impressive looking vehicle and I called it a Land Crusher

I wish the new ones had the same lines and style as the original - it was a vehicle of distinction

I do have some pictures if anyone can host them? Thanks, she is a really great ride. It really rides wonderfully and I have the added benefit of knowing that it’ll go anywhere too. I took my daughter for her first ride in it and it just works so much better for hauling her around.