<strong> </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by James Chow:
[qb]Bad news about importing a LC 75/78...According to the NHTSA, vehicles made on Sept 1, 1993 or later must have both driver's side and passenger's side front air bags. Between 1989-93, just the driver's airbag is required. The LC 70 series doens't have airbags, even the 2002 model (at least in Japan), whereas the LC 100 comes w/ front airbags and optional side ones. So somehow, one would have to add airbag capabilities to have any hope of getting it approved for importation.

Kind of funny looking at the Japanese landcruiser website. They offer 3 models (100, 70, prado). You can tell by the website that the LC 70 series wasn't designed by marketing people. It's a purely engineered machine. The website even shows photos of the diff-lock switch, diagrams of the coil/leaf spring suspension w/ discussion, 1HZ engine, gear ratios, torque curves, etc. Nowhere is there mention of fluff like leather seats. :-)</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Yep, the 70 series was a pure work and off road vehicle from the beginning. Designed to be a direct replacement of the 40 series, while retaining and improving upon all of the off road strengths of the 40 series. But, the 70 series is not without fluff. There were versions made to satify wimpier buyers. After all, it was the 70 series light duty that introduced coil springs all around.

I got a ton of info on my LC70 page as well, if anyone is interested:

Foreign Landcruiser 70 series page

<small>[ December 11, 2002, 02:15 AM: Message edited by: Brian894X4 ]</small>