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Toyota Land Cruiser FJ55

Overview

Every modern Land Cruiser descends from this one, which is not what most people say about the FJ55. Toyota had tried a wagon before, the four-door FJ45V on the long 40 Series chassis, and it lasted seven years and convinced nobody. The FJ55 that replaced it in 1967 was different in intent: five doors, a 2,700mm wheelbase, fully enclosed box frame members, and bodywork designed for North America and Australia rather than adapted for them. Toyota called the FJ55G and FJ55V the first real station wagon in the line, and it meant it. Underneath, almost nothing changed. The same 3.9-litre F six until 1975 and the 4.2-litre 2F after it, the same leaf springs at both ends, the same two-speed transfer case, all carried straight over from the 40 Series. What changed was who it was for. This is the moment the Land Cruiser stopped being a working vehicle you could put people in and started being a vehicle for people that could still work. Production ran to July 1980.

Distinctions

The defining attributes and collector status that make this car garage-worthy.

Octane Files Select

Renowned for its history, engineering, or cultural weight.

Collectibility scorecard

Rated 1 to 10 on the traits that matter for owning, driving, and holding on to a car like this.

Desirability

6/10

Rarity

7/10

Driving thrill

4/10

Investment trajectory

7/10

Usability

5/10

Ease of restoration

5/10

Cultural impact

5/10

Electronic dependence

Fully analogHeavily electronic

Mechanically this is a 40 Series with a longer wheelbase and more bodywork, so nothing on it is electronic. Carburettor, distributor with points, mechanical fuel pump, levers for four-wheel drive and low range. The one powered item on the vehicle is the rear window that drops electrically into the tailgate, which is also the thing most likely to have stopped working. Owners commonly add electronic ignition and an alternator, and neither alters how the vehicle behaves.

Market data

Demand tier, price trend, and typical values by condition, based on recent sales data.

Demand tier

EntrySolidHighBlue-chip

A dependable market. Well-kept cars hold their value and find ready buyers.

Value trajectory

AppreciatingStableCooling

Values are climbing. The market wants more of these than exist.

Price by condition

Driver

$15k

Excellent

$34k

Concours

$60k

The FJ55 sat still while the FJ40 was re-rated, and it is only now beginning to follow. The reason is supply of good cars rather than lack of interest: most were used until they rusted, a great many were broken for FJ40 parts, and a genuinely solid original one is now a rare thing to find. That scarcity has not yet shown up in headline prices, which is the opportunity. The band below describes a running, honest 2F-era United States wagon. Cars needing bodywork trade well below it, because the sheet metal to fix them is scarce and expensive, and that gap is wider on this vehicle than on any other early Land Cruiser.

Values as of August 2026.

Buyer's guide

What anyone seriously considering this car should know first.

Why it's worth it

The vehicle that started the Land Cruiser wagon line that runs to the present day

Callout

The first Land Cruiser Toyota itself called a real station wagon

What to watch for

Look at the body first and be honest about what you are seeing, because this is the rustiest Land Cruiser of the early era and the parts to fix it barely exist. The bottoms of all five doors, the tailgate, the rear wheel arches, the sills, the floors under the rear seat and the join between the roof and the rear pillars are where they go, and the electrically operated rear window that retracts into the tailgate makes that tailgate a water trap. Establish the engine year: the 3.9-litre F ran to 1975 and the 4.2-litre 2F from 1975 to the July 1980 end of production, and the later 2F cars with the four-speed gearbox are worth seeking out over the earlier three-speed. There was no factory diesel FJ55 in the United States, so a diesel here is an import or a conversion. Check the frame at the rear spring hangers and the body mounts, and treat a repainted vehicle with suspicion until you have looked underneath it. Mechanical faults are cheap by comparison and almost always fixable.

The Story

Driving character

It drives like an FJ40 that somebody has calmed down, which is a better outcome than it sounds. The longer wheelbase takes most of the short-wheelbase pitching out of the leaf springs, so it rides genuinely well on rough ground and stops feeling nervous above 45mph. The F and 2F sixes are the same understressed, low-revving engines that do their work below 2,500rpm, and with more weight to move the 2F is the one you want. Three speeds in the earlier cars means a long gap between second and third that you feel on every hill; the later four-speed fixes it. Steering is heavy and slow, the drums on early cars need planning ahead, and the whole vehicle rolls in corners in a way that encourages a gentler approach. What it does that no other early Land Cruiser can is carry five people and their luggage across bad country all day without anybody arriving exhausted. That was the entire point of it, and it still works.

Design

The nickname tells you what people think of the styling. Iron Pig, or just Pig, and sometimes Moose, all coined by owners for a body that is undeniably slab-sided and heavy-jawed, with a broad flat bonnet and a deep grille above a body that is otherwise almost all straight lines. It is not elegant and it was never trying to be. What it is, is coherent: this is the first Land Cruiser drawn as a single object rather than assembled from a cab and a load area, and the proportions have aged better than the reputation. The details worth knowing are functional ones. The rear treatment is unique among Land Cruiser wagons sold in America, a tailgate with no separate hatch and an electrically operated window that retracts down into it. Underneath, the frame uses fully enclosed box members, a small engineering decision that is also where water eventually collects. The five-door layout, radical for the model in 1967, is the template the 60 Series and every Land Cruiser wagon since has followed.

Motorsport pedigree

No competition record exists for the FJ55, and the reason is structural rather than accidental. Toyota's motorsport programmes in this period were aimed at rallying and circuit racing with the Corolla and Celica, where results converted directly into showroom sales, and there was no factory appetite for campaigning a two-and-a-half-ton family wagon. Nor was there a series for it: the desert events of the era were open to modified specials, and the Baja and Dakar entries that made reputations for the Bronco and the Range Rover were purpose-built machines wearing production bodywork. What the FJ55 did instead was carry survey teams, mining crews and station families across Australia and the American West for a decade, which is a real proving ground but not one that produces a results table. The generation's engineering did compete, indirectly and later: the F-series six and the leaf-sprung solid-axle chassis under this wagon are the same ones that carried Land Cruisers through the Middle East and Africa, where the reputation was actually earned.

In culture

The FJ55 has almost no screen presence and that is part of its character. It arrived in America as a practical alternative to a Jeep Wagoneer or a Blazer for people who wanted something narrower, tougher and stranger, and it sold quietly to exactly those buyers: farmers, ranchers, forestry services and the first wave of American families who took a four-wheel drive on holiday because they wanted to rather than because they had to. In Australia it filled the same role on a much larger scale, where the Land Cruiser had already been part of the landscape since the Snowy Mountains scheme of 1959. Its cultural weight is retrospective. This is the vehicle that established that a Land Cruiser could be a station wagon, and the 60 Series that followed it, then the 80, then everything since, all sold on that idea. The modern Land Cruiser is a luxury vehicle because an unloved slab-sided wagon nicknamed the Iron Pig proved in 1967 that there was a market for one.

Rivals

Cars from other manufacturers that competed for the same buyers when new.

Owning One

Why collectors want it

The FJ55 has spent most of its life as the cheap way into a vintage Land Cruiser, and that is exactly why it is interesting now. Nobody preserved them. They were family vehicles, then farm vehicles, then donor vehicles for FJ40 restorations, and the ones that were not consumed rusted in a way the market only started caring about recently. Survivors in honest, unmolested condition are genuinely scarce, and the price gap between a good FJ55 and a good FJ40 is far wider than the difference in what you actually get, since the running gear is the same. The argument for buying one is threefold: it is the origin of the wagon line that eventually becomes the modern Land Cruiser, it is the only one of the early cars you can put a family in, and it is the last of them that is still cheap. Late 2F cars with the four-speed are the ones to have. Original interiors and unrepaired tailgates carry a disproportionate premium because so few are left.

Which one to look for

The range is narrow, which makes the choices easy. FJ55G and FJ55V are the designations Toyota used for the original wagon from 1967, running the 3.9-litre F six and a three-speed gearbox. The important change comes in 1975, when the 4.2-litre 2F engine replaced the F across the line and the four-speed became available. Those late cars are the ones to look for: more torque, a usable extra ratio, and they are the last five years of production so fewer miles have generally passed under them. In Japan the FJ56 designation was used from 1975. Diesel wagons were built for other markets and none were sold new to American buyers, so a diesel in the United States arrived later and privately. There are no special editions, no homologation variants and no rare trims worth chasing, which is unusual and rather refreshing. What creates value in this generation is condition and originality, and specifically an intact tailgate, a working rear window and an interior that has not been replaced with 40 Series parts.

FJ55 (2F) · 1975–1980

The later car, and the one to buy. The 4.2-litre 2F six replaced the F in 1975 at 135hp and 210lb ft, and the four-speed gearbox closed the long gap between the three-speed's second and third. Everything else carried over.

FJ55G / FJ55V · 1967–1975

The original wagon, and the first vehicle Toyota itself called a real station wagon in the Land Cruiser line. Five doors on a 2,700mm wheelbase over fully enclosed box frame members, running the 3.9-litre F six and a three-speed gearbox. Designed for North America and Australia rather than adapted for them.

FJ56 · 1975–1980

The Japanese-market designation used from 1975, covering the same 2F-engined wagon sold elsewhere as an FJ55. Of interest mainly because Japanese-market cars are now the source of many of the better surviving bodies.

What owning one is like

Own one and you are managing rust and enjoying everything else. The drivetrain is the 40 Series drivetrain, which means an F or 2F six that will run to 300,000 miles before it wants a rebuild, a gearbox and transfer case that are essentially unbreakable, and axles that do not care. Against that, the body is the thinnest-skinned of the early Land Cruisers and the least supported. Doors rot from the bottom, the tailgate rots around the window channel, the rear arches and sills go, the floors go under the rear seat, and the roof-to-pillar seams let water in. The electric tailgate window is usually the first thing to fail and its mechanism is buried where the water sits. Beyond that the list is short: front axle joints want repacking on a schedule, early drum brakes need regular adjustment, steering boxes wear, and the wiring is often somebody's earlier repair. None of it is difficult. The real decision is whether you take on a body that needs work, because that is where the money goes.

Upkeep & parts

The mechanical side is well served by everything that supports the FJ40, and the two vehicles share most of what wears out. Specter Off-Road, supplying Land Cruiser parts since 1983, and the wider specialist trade will sell you engine, gearbox, axle, brake and suspension components off the shelf. Body panels are the problem. Reproduction FJ55 sheet metal is limited and patchy in quality, glass and trim are hard, and the tailgate mechanism is a scavenging exercise, so budget for fabrication and for time spent looking rather than for a parts order. The IH8MUD forum runs a dedicated FJ55 Iron Pig Preservation Society section that is the single best resource for the details unique to this body, and the Toyota Land Cruiser Association, going since 1976, covers the rest. Running costs are modest once sorted. Fuel consumption is what a carburetted 4.2-litre six in a heavy box produces and nothing else about the vehicle is expensive, which is why owners tend to use them rather than store them.