Building on the Land Cruiser’s reputation for rugged durability, Toyota easily slid into the hot SUV market with its 1980 FJ60 series. This 1988 FJ62 in Goodlettsville, Tennessee features leather, power windows, and air conditioning! Boasting fresh paint and original-style stripes, the four-door 4×4 comes to market here on eBay, where one bidder has pledged $10,000 without meeting the seller’s Reserve. About three days remain as we go to press, and the $30,000 Buy It Now price suggests doubling that bid or more to give this ’80s “Land Crusher” a new home. Thanks to Wikipedia for some details.
Did any vehicles from this era feature upholstery colors other than black or light gray? Even the driver’s seat looks great on this 236,000 miles SUV, a testament to Toyota’s sturdy materials and previous owners’ care. Check out that panel of power switches on the driver’s door. Fancy! The newer blue paint looks shiny and well-applied from this distance.
You couldn’t be cool in the ’80s without some rad’ stripes, and the yellow and orange horizontal colored tape visually elongates the FJ while adding playful style. Why not telegraph your fun-loving nature? That roof rack is ready for your canoe, kayak, or dead deer.
Model year 1988 marked the debut of this fuel-injected 4.0L inline six cylinder, making more power and torque than the carbureted 4.2. Now that’s progress! Vehicle electronics achieved peak reliability in this single-computer era, and EFI rides from this time frame will be driving around long after today’s multi-computer cars become impractical to diagnose and maintain. One of my BMWs denied seat adjustments when a steering column sensor failed, protecting me from crushing myself between the steering wheel and the seat. I’d prefer seats that operate without genuflecting for approval by a computerized nanny via CAN bus. This Toyota should deliver all the benefits of fuel injection with superior reliability to the average carburetor. Would you choose this well-kept ’88 FJ or a different ’80s SUV?
A neighbor of mine has one of these, white with the disco-era color graphics, with even better–only 100K miles, garage kept all its life, and a NEW Toyota engine dropped in to replace one where a garage “changed the oil” and forgot to add new oil at 80,000 or whatever.
He says random strangers keep coming up to him and offering him $10-20K for it. His stock answer is, “No, get me THIRTY K AND a NEW truck, and I MIGHT think about it!!!!”
No, I’m not telling you where he/it lives.
Who cares where it is if it’s not for sale?
Lovely looking Land Cruiser. Although I was too young at the time to drive a car, I remember this generation Toyota Land Cruiser.
“Did any vehicles from this era feature upholstery colors other than black or light gray?”
Why yes, yes they did. If you’d gotten this color on a Camry, Corolla or even a pickup it likely would’ve come with a matching blue interior. Tan and maroon were on offer too, and for years the LC wagon interior was shown in tan/brown in the brochure (in cloth though). That being said, for an expensive halo car in the Toyota line it was very much a low-volume product in the US and a fleet-heavy one worldwide so a lack of interior color variety makes sense here.