The FJ62 Land Cruiser is undoubtedly a popular choice for a 1980s square body SUV, with its bulletproof reliability and classic shape. Most enthusiasts would simply be happy to find one for reasonable money in good shape, but if you need to go one step further and own a Land Cruiser your neighbor isn’t likely to turn up in, a Japanese market-only turbodiesel is the way to go. This 1989 Land Cruiser is enroute to Chicago at the moment, straight from Japan, and it is loaded up with the factory high roof option, factory diff locks, and the turbodiesel 4.0L inline six. Find it here on eBay with bids to $9,300 and no reserve.

This Land Cruiser also sports all of the other elements that makes rigs like these so cool, like the graphics kit on the sides of the body, a burly-looking roof rack, rear ladder, and oversized tires. The desert sand color work well on a truck that looks like it could burst into the Sahara at any moment for a cross-continent journey, or be recruited into military campaigns in order to transport VIPs safely across hostile terrain. Its history is likely far less exciting, but the lack of visibility into its past is always a risk when buying gray market or JDM vehicles, as most importers don’t go to any great lengths to preserve the vehicle history once it shows up stateside.

The Toyota features right-hand drive steering, as you’d expect for a Japanese market vehicle. The interior is in excellent condition, and one of my favorite features of this gray market vehicles is the nicely bolstered bucket seats with the “Turbo” insignia stitched into the seat back. The dash plastics look to be in excellent shape, and even the rubber boots around the manual shifter and four wheel drive controls are still surprisingly lustrous. The carpets are clean, as are the door panels, and it would seem likely that this Land Cruiser was used quite gingerly despite its highly capable chassis that can passengers to some downright harsh places.

The engine bay is not exceedingly well detailed, but this isn’t surprising for a vehicle slated for export. They tend to look fairly rough while sitting on the loading docks. Maintaining a vehicle that was never intended for sale in the U.S. can be a chore, especially if parts are obsolete, a lesson I learned while I was cutting my teeth on the Toyota HiAce project I sold over the summer. There are plenty of workarounds to finding the obscure bits; you just have to be willing to do some homework. This is a wicked weekend trail rig, a truck you can use for some moderate offroad excursions and still look forward to driving home in when the fun’s all done. Bidding is light right now, but don’t expect it to stay that way!