Land Cruiser FJ40

Toyota launched the 40 Series in 1960 as a ground-up replacement for the 20 Series, and then barely changed it for nearly a quarter of a century. Toyota's own UK history notes the 1979 facelift was the first visual change in 19 years. Underneath sat solid axles on leaf springs at both ends and, for the first time in a Land Cruiser, a two-speed transfer case. The short-wheelbase FJ40 is the one on posters, but the J40 family also included the medium-wheelbase FJ43 and the long-wheelbase FJ45 pickups and wagons.

A JEEP RIVAL THAT OUTSOLD EVERYTHING

In America the FJ40 was pitched against the Jeep and it worked. Toyota's pressroom says the Land Cruiser was the company's best-selling vehicle in the US until 1965, when the Corona passenger car took over; Wikipedia records global output passing 50,000 that year. Toyota's US pressroom says the FJ40 came to America in 1960, two years after the first Land Cruiser was sold here; Hagerty dates FJ40 imports from 1963, so the exact start depends on whom you ask. Either way, a little Japanese 4x4 was carrying the brand in its biggest export market before most Americans had heard of Toyota.

The engine did a lot of the persuading. The 3.9-liter F straight-six made 125 hp in Toyota's US history, and Hagerty calls it 'virtually indestructible' and essentially a reverse-engineered Chevrolet 235 'Stovebolt' six (Wikipedia says the bottom end is closer to GMC's 236 six, so treat the family tree as folklore). It drove a three-speed column-shift manual at launch. Diesels came later for other markets, the H six in the long-wheelbase HJ45 from 1972 or 1973 (sources differ) and the four-cylinder B in 1974, but Wikipedia notes diesel 40s were never sold to the general US public; a few arrived as mine trucks.

QUIET EVOLUTION

Changes came mechanically rather than visually. US trucks got the 4.2-liter 2F and a four-speed in 1975, along with rear barn doors and, a year earlier, a standard roll bar. Front disc brakes arrived in 1976. In 1979 came the square headlight bezels, optional power steering and air conditioning on petrol trucks, and a switch from 4.11 to 3.70 axle gears. IH8MUD members still steer first-time buyers to post-1976 trucks for the discs and the 2F, and warn that 1980-and-later bodies seem to rust more readily.

The truck stayed crude to the end. Retro Rides sums up the driving experience as vague steering, wayward handling, a harsh ride on heavy leaf springs and a cabin that gets very hot in summer. That's part of the appeal: almost everything on it can be reached with a 17 mm wrench and a bit of patience. Free-wheeling front hubs became standard in Australia from 1982, and a five-speed arrived later in the run, but US buyers never saw much luxury.

THE END, AND THE AFTERLIFE

The 1983 model year was the last for US FJ40s; Wikipedia estimates only about 300 were imported that final year. Production ended in most markets in 1984, when the 70 Series took over the utility role, though Canada got a run of BJ42 diesels with a five-speed overdrive. Brazil kept going much longer: the Toyota Bandeirante used the 40's body with Mercedes-Benz and later Toyota diesels until 2001, giving the basic shape more than four decades of production.

Values climbed sharply in the 2010s, then settled. In 2019 Hagerty put the average #2-condition FJ40 at $47,375, down 7.6 percent since 2016, while Retro Rides tracks an Australian example rising from $4,400 in 1995 to $33,000 in 2024. Toyota noticed too: in 2021 it announced GR Heritage Parts reproductions for the 40 Series, starting with engine, driveline and exhaust components. The FJ40's legacy even includes the 2007 FJ Cruiser, which borrowed its white roof and round headlights.