Corrie McConnell

You don’t realize how lame new cars have become until you drive an old Land Cruiser left over from Yemen. I’m driving a diesel land cruiser for work that was left here when dudes drove out of Yemen. The thing is old, like 2005 with a CD player old. It’s done overland missions, hasn’t been treated well, has inhaled God knows how much desert sand and dust in 20 years, paint fading from 120 degree heat, upholstery torn and stained from gear. There’s no safety sensors, no backup camera, just a fold down tailgate and cigarette burns on the passenger seat from some local fixed smoking on a mission years ago. It’s beautiful. You get in it and it just whispers to you, no matter what; I will get you home. We can ram cars, drive over dudes, ford rivers, overheat and I’ll still go another 200 km if needed. I’m simple enough to fix that any mechanic on five continents can fix me and I have plenty of on demand power from a bulletproof engine. This Land Cruiser was built by Japanese dudes who still believe there is honor in building something well. The modern equivalent of folding steel 100 times for a samurai sword before stamping their initials in the blade. Where YouTube reviewers see an outdated vehicle, I see near perfection, built by men who still believe in kaizen, the lost art of slow incremental improvements over time. There is simply no comparison to getting in my wife’s new car which is two decades newer. Driving is replaced in struggle session and frustration. Instead of using my own skill and judgement I have an automated safety Sally beeping at me like a seatbelt safety nazi if I don’t wear it. If I don’t have my blinker on or change lanes too fast, it pulls me back like Im 15 in drivers ED. If it doesn’t like my distance or speed it automatically brakes, or sounds red alert. There is no way I could push through an ambush in this car. When I get too close to an item, it brakes and screams like I don’t know how to drive without a back up camera. Instead of getting to ride in silence Apple car play automatically connects. The car turns off automatically like it’s somehow saving the polar bears by not idlying for 30 seconds at a stop light. Power? What power. It’s a turbo 4 cylinder with a lag that can’t decide what gear it’s in going up hill. Then there is the massive touch screen and everything is digital. I didn’t realize how much I missed buttons and analog gauges until I got in the LC. It just feels more solid. The contrast between the two is so stark that every time I drive my wife’s car I tell her we’re selling this when we go back to the States and we’re buying a used pre 2022 Lexus GX570 since it’s the last of its kind, basically a nice LC with the naturally aspirated V8. Do we need that big of a vehicle? No, but I’m tired of this struggle session that a new vehicle feels like. It feels like I’m driving a toy that was designed to keep idiots safe while they text and drive. I’ll just going to take super good care of the 570 and it will be the last vehicle I buy because if new vehicles keep going the way they’re going, no thanks, count me out.