Snorkel-ized, RHD Diesel Land Cruiser Laughs At Denver Winter

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

In my first Denver winter after a driving lifetime in coastal California, I’m now experiencing my first real taste of driving in snow. My ’92 Civic is doing pretty well (i.e., I haven’t crashed or become stuck yet), but I’m starting to eyeball Craigslist listings for IHC Scouts and FJ40 Land Cruisers. After spotting this Toyota in my neighborhood, I may have to forget about the Scouts.

I know better than to attempt to specify an exact model year on one of these things, especially when it’s an visitor from some far-off land where drivers sit on the right and engines drink oil. Let’s say early 1980s and leave it at that.

Australia? Japan? The UK? Land Cruiser experts, what do you say?





Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • 55rps 55rps on Jan 23, 2011

    Um... That's a 1981 BJ44v from the Japanese Domestic Market (no Europe, no Australia, no US, no Canada) with a lift. The v designates hardtop. 3.2l "2B" diesel engine with 4sp manual transmission. No handmade sheetmetal -- all factory. Snorkel is aftermarket and the side mirrors are earlier Toyota; not original to this model. Toyota made them for Japan from 1979 to 1982; there were no rounded-bezel BJ44's. In 1983 and '84 the truck looked the same externally but the engine changed to a 3B and they came with five-speed manuals and were designated BJ46 models. Rust or not, its really, really rare in the US.

    • See 2 previous
    • Cruiser man Cruiser man on Aug 31, 2013

      @BJ44 ho did u by it off in new Zealand ? hard to get now

  • PJ McCombs PJ McCombs on Oct 27, 2011

    I would have guessed Aussie, between that 'roo bar and snorkel. You see the same mods everywhere here, even in metro Melbourne--only the model year is usually much newer and the driver is an accountant!

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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