With its quirky retro styling, impressive, rugged off-road manners, and comfortable interior, the Toyota FJ Cruiser gained a cult following in the US by customers who enjoyed taking it on off-road adventurers. Sadly, it hasn't been sold in America since 2014.
Toyota is considering building a successor to the FJ Cruiser to take on the Jeep Wrangler with styling inspired by the FT-4X and FT-AC, but these concepts haven't spawned production versions yet. Toyota stopped selling the FJ Cruiser in Japan back in 2017, but you can still buy a brand new one in 2020 if you live in the Middle East.
Visually, the Toyota CJ Cruiser retains the same retro-inspired rugged styling as the model that was discontinued in the US, but there have been some notable upgrades inside. The infotainment system has been modernized with 12.3-inch display and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support as standard. As before, the instrument cluster includes a built-in compass and inclinometer, while a standard air-compressor lets you inflate the tires after an intensive off-road driving session.
Power is still provided by a 4.0-liter V6, which produces 270 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque in the 2020 Toyota FJ Cruiser.
That power is sent to all four wheels through a five-speed automatic or a six-speed manual transmission. For long journeys, the FJ Cruiser's standard 72-liter fuel tank can be replaced with a larger 87-liter tank. In the United Arab Emirates the 2020 Toyota FJ Cruiser starts at 147,000 AED - that's just over $40,000.
That's a lot more expensive than America's Toyota FJ Cruiser, which started at $27,680 back in 2014 before it finished production. With crossovers and SUVs dominating the market, a small niche off-roader like the FJ Cruiser isn't likely to have mass appeal in America's current market, so we aren't getting our hopes up about a possible revival. Still, never say never.
"Do I see it in our future? Yes. Do I see it in our near future? No," Jack Hollis, Group Vice President, and General Manager of the Toyota Division at Toyota Motor North America told us in an interview back in 2018.