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Toyota’s FJ60 generation Land Cruiser (made from 1980-90) offers an excellent vintage off-roader experience. It represents a midway point between the iconic FJ40 and the expensive full-on Land Crushers of subsequent generations. It’s a capable off-roader at heart, but with a more family-friendly four-door wagon body style.
Why are we bringing this up? Because there’s a particularly handsomeFJ60 currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer, but there are some risks involved with this old-school four-wheel-drive machine.
The good? It looks like the clean Land Cruiser of your dreams. It has a swapped-in five-speed manual. It’s also set up for at least some mild overlanding, with Old Man Emu shocks, a full-length roof rack, a swing-out rear carrier, an on-board air compressor and a massive 38-gallon fuel tank. (The latter is game-changing for an SUV that was barely scraping 10 mpg when new.)
There may be some reasons for concern, however. Typically, a Michigan title (not to mention three Michigan-related decals) could be a conspicuous red flag for a vintage car; winter road salt tends to cause rust issues on much younger cars, let alone one of this vintage. Per the owner and background photos, though, this Land Cruiser appears to reside in far more favorable California.
Toyota off-road vehicles are known for their longevity and near-indestructibility. But, even for a Toyota, the 290,000 miles this Land Cruiser has on the odometer is pushing it. Still being on the road at this point is impressive. The experience moving forward may not be cheap or painless.
So far, however, this silver fox of a Land Cruiser’s charm appears to be winning out over any reservations. The bidding for a 35-year-old SUV with nearly 300,000 miles is already approaching $20,000 as of this writing.
