Can anyone explain?

[mettisse]

hello, as an 80 series fan and owner, my pipe dream would be to have a "proper" conversion to make it a sleep inside camper, that's my mindset. Well, you may ask, as I have done, is why not have a 70 series trooper? Well, I don't doubt the off road agility and capabilities of the 70, what I don't get is why Mr Toyota never ever put the troopy body or similar on the 80 chassis/ power/ driveline . The lovely coil sprung axles, turbo motor, silky smooth auto box. You may may ask, why not build one yourself? Well, I could, but I really don't have the time, either in a week to week basis or in years ( 68 next time round) and I want it now, the time I do get I want to to do something, off roading, Overlanding, camping, in fact everything.
So, if you see me with a really nice 80 with a posh rear end conversion, you know I've come into a nice few quid ( unlikely) but my original question is , why not a troopy 80? Or even a 70 with the user friendly engineering setup? Any one know why?
Best regards to all, Bill Westley

 

[Shayne]

Its a competitive market and such a car would score low against competitors in the luxury and the utility categories .

Toyota likely wanted and probably achieved a top slot in each market .

The 60 i would say is a merger of luxury and utility and back in the day when it was new i imagine it didn't even come a close second to the then Range Rover .

I always felt it inexplicable that the didn't merge the 70 and 90 series but eventually realized they pretty much did and called it an 80 .

 

[uHu]

... merge the 70 and 90 series but eventually realized they pretty much did and called it an 80 .

Except that the 80 came 3 years before the 90...

 

[Naftali Thaithi]

The VX was destined to compete with the RR in the luxury market segment and most of the people buying the new VX's are using them as status symbols not to camp in or take off road (at least that's the trend in Kenya).
The 80's and 70's have become the utilitarian cruisers for the offroading, overlanding & camping types. The 80 for the well monied and the 70's for the not so well monied. The KZJ78 is perfect for beginners as it offers the bare minimum luxuries at a not so costly buying, maintenance and conversions price.
What are your options? Prolly sell your 80 and buy and convert a KZJ78?