We all dream of some car when we are kids. We glue a poster of it on our bedroom wall, use a photo of it as a screensaver, and turn the internet upside down, searching for information about it. But there is one man from Michigan who took his obsession to a whole new level. He bought a Toyota Land Cruiser or two every month for the past 15.
Chad Nasir, currently residing in Michigan, has a collection of 24 Toyota Land Cruisers and counting. Almost all of them are left-hand drive, almost all are in light colors, and almost all are imported from the Middle East. Because, hey, that's where they are way more affordable than they are in the United States.
And there is one more thing all of these vehicles have in common: they are all equipped with a manual transmission. It does sound like an obsession, doesn't it? The largest part of the collection arrived in Michigan in the past year.
Chad's love affair with the Japanese model dates years back. Nasir grew up in Libya, a country where Land Cruisers were not for everyone. They were actually reserved for the very wealthy members of society and labeled as luxury cars. Only politicians, businessmen, and drug dealers could afford them. As a young man, Nasir made a pledge: he would start buying Land Cruisers, one by one, when he would afford them.
And he does afford them now. Chad owns a shop where he and his team of experts modify cars or apply protective coating on vehicles, which is useful for his own collection as well, because the Land Cruisers he buys are not always in mint condition.
Photo: Chad Nasir | Instagram
Chad Nasir bought the first two SUVs around a year ago in the United States. One is a 2013 Land Cruiser, and the other one rolled off the production line in 2015. But afterward, he found them cheaper in some other countries. He bought a 70-Series pickup from Saudi Arabia.
We all have our monthly responsibilities: pay the mortgage, pay for the utilities, pay for the gym membership, and so on. But Chad Nasir has one more: he buys Land Cruisers every month.
For the past 15 months, he purchased one or two SUVs every single month. And he is not going to stop any time soon. His collection includes cars with mileages between 60,000 miles (96,560 kilometers) and 180,000 miles (289,682 kilometers). But, regardless of their age and mileage, all of them are perfectly functional.
The oldest vehicle in Nasir's collection is a 1984 Line Cruiser FJ40 LX. His daily driver is a 1997 Land Cruiser 80 VXR Limited. He remembers every single detail about every single car that he bought: year of manufacturing, month of purchase, mileage, issues to be fixed, everything. He keeps them all in a warehouse belonging to his car business.
Chad Nasir is not going to stop here. He believes that 24 Toyota Land Cruisers are really not that many. And since money and space are not a problem, he will keep on buying cars. He is currently on the verge of purchasing three more: one from Qatar, one from Yemen, and another one from Oman, taking his collection to 27 units. He pays cash for each and every unit.
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