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You Wouldn’t Guess the Most Popular Japanese Classic Car

If you had to guess the most popular Japanese classic car, what would you say? An old Supra, maybe? A Datsun? The AE86 that Initial D made far more desirable than it ever would have been otherwise?

Nope—according to ClassicCars.com, it’s the Toyota Land Cruiser.

The website, which caters to collectors, put together a list of the most-viewed pages for its Japanese models. It found that just about half of the 30,000 visitors it gets each month check out a Land Cruiser. To me, it just looks like a big box on wheels, but I guess that’s why I’m not a collector.

On the other hand, Roger Falcione, CEO of ClassicCars.com, thinks the Land Cruiser’s popularity makes sense. “When you really think about it, crossovers and SUVs are extremely popular right now due to their practicality,” he explained. “Throw in the coolness factor of an old classic like the Land Cruiser plus its unmatched reliability, and you have a winning formula that enthusiasts really want.”

Among the website’s list of the top 10 most popular Japanese classic cars were the Nissan 280Z, Mazda RX-7, Datsun 280Z, Toyota Celica, Nissan 300ZX, Toyota Supra, Datsun 260Z, Toyota Corolla, and Honda S2000, ranked from second to tenth in that order. I would rather have any of these than a Land Cruiser, but again maybe that’s why I’m not a collector.

These aren’t the most popular classic cars overall, however; apparently, that honors goes to the Ford Mustang—but while American and German classic cars have traditionally been the most desired of them all, Japanese models have been on the rise, partly because they are the cars many young collectors grew up with.

Source: Classic Cars