* 2021 Updates *
As we've all seen, the FJ market since I wrote this post 4 years ago has gone bonkers. I am consulting on sales/purchases via PM's, in threads etc multiple times a week. The TFL Truck guys on Youtube also asked me to evaluate their purchase, which provides much of the info below:
I'm going to update / shorten the below in some places to expand on a few areas that have come up since I wrote the guide.
* Original Post *
If the subject / title of this post caused you to click on it, then most / all of the information contained below should be of some value to you. Yes, it’s long. I type for a living and I type fast. But here’s the best part: I guarantee you that it took me much longer to type this post than it will take for you to read it.
1. Who am I to be writing this post?
2. What type of FJ owner is here on our forum?
3. Buyer's Guide
4. Seller's Guide
5. Contacts / Questions
I intentionally put the Buyer's Guide before the Seller's Guide so that the sellers will read that section and know who they're selling to. If you're just here to overprice your FJ to a market of enthusiasts, and then wonder why it didn't sell, you might want to read the Buyer's Guide again. Because I'm the guy showing people that your truck is overpriced.
1. Who am I to be writing this post?
2. What type of FJ owner is here on our forum?
![Image]()
4. Seller's Guide
5. Contacts / Questions
The End
And that's the "Complete Guide to Buying and Selling". I'm sure I left some things out, so it will be updated over time. Thanks for reading!
As we've all seen, the FJ market since I wrote this post 4 years ago has gone bonkers. I am consulting on sales/purchases via PM's, in threads etc multiple times a week. The TFL Truck guys on Youtube also asked me to evaluate their purchase, which provides much of the info below:
I'm going to update / shorten the below in some places to expand on a few areas that have come up since I wrote the guide.
* Original Post *
If the subject / title of this post caused you to click on it, then most / all of the information contained below should be of some value to you. Yes, it’s long. I type for a living and I type fast. But here’s the best part: I guarantee you that it took me much longer to type this post than it will take for you to read it.
1. Who am I to be writing this post?
2. What type of FJ owner is here on our forum?
3. Buyer's Guide
4. Seller's Guide
5. Contacts / Questions
I intentionally put the Buyer's Guide before the Seller's Guide so that the sellers will read that section and know who they're selling to. If you're just here to overprice your FJ to a market of enthusiasts, and then wonder why it didn't sell, you might want to read the Buyer's Guide again. Because I'm the guy showing people that your truck is overpriced.
1. Who am I to be writing this post?
I am a 46 year old software engineer from Denver, Colorado. I have owned my FJ since March of 2011, I moved to Colorado for offroading in April 2011. I was the September 2013 FJ Cruiser Forums Member of the Month, and I am one of the founding members of Colorado FJ Cruisers. I'm also a car guy. Between my wife and I, we have 4 vehicles (as of May 2021, this number fluctuates). My favorite car currently is our 2000 Acura NSX.
I have been advising on FJ purchases for several years, and I am often tagged in purchase threads to evaluate vehicles that people are trying to buy or sell. I am happy to provide my knowledge and experience for free, I just like helping FJ's find good homes.
2. What type of FJ owner is here on our forum?
If you're reading this, you're probably either looking for advice on buying a new FJ from people who know FJ's, or you're here to sell your FJ to a group of people who love FJ's. If you're new here and plan on sticking around, welcome to the club! If you're just swinging by to post your truck for sale with no pictures and an e-mail / phone # as contact info, don't be that guy. Read this post, write a good ad, post pictures, check the thread every couple of days.
If you're a seller, remember this for later: FJ Cruiser Forums is largely a group of FJ owners who offroad our trucks. The value of the mods on your truck to this audience depend greatly upon their suitability for actual offroading. If you've got an Expedition One bumper and a Fox suspension, those mods are useful to us and can be priced into your truck. If you've got a 6-inch ProComp spacer lift, Bushwhacker fender flares, 20-inch wheels and have said "bro" more than once today then those mods can't be priced into your truck, because anyone here buying your truck to offroad it will have to rip those mods off. It might look good rolling down the street, put it on FB Marketplace and sell it to somebody who won't offroad it. You'll get more money from them than us, because we have to undo your mods.
3. Buyer's GuideSo you're here to buy an FJ, congratulations! They're great vehicles that can take you to amazing places. But I have bad news for you...
3a. You should probably be looking at a Lexus GX instead.
Do you have kids, or people that will want to use the back seat? Do you ever have to tow anything? Do you like heated leather seats, a sunroof, factory navigation? Do you want to get all of this on a truck with less miles for less money than you'll pay for an equivalent FJ? Are you wanting to do more overlanding than offroading? Then you should be looking at a Lexus GX. I've spent literally HOURS looking at FJ's for people, only to have them ask me at the end "what do you think about the Lexus GX?". At that point I know my time spent on the FJ was pointless, as they almost always buy the GX.
What is the Lexus GX? In the mid 2000's when Toyota discontinued the V8 4Runner, they actually kept selling it as the Lexus GX. It is a V8 4Runner, with full-time 4WD, a center locking differential, about $20K of upgrades over a comparable 4Runner of the same year and it has depreciated down to about the same or less than whatever FJ you're looking at. The wheelbase is 4 inches longer than the FJ, so it is nearly as capable as an FJ in hardcore offroading. Most 4Runner suspension/armor mods bolt right on. The cosmetic mods -- bumpers, sliders, roof racks -- can be a little more expensive. Toyota is aware of this, which is why they brought the Lexus GX-OR concept to FJ Summit in 2019:
This isn't me trying to talk you out of buying an FJ, they're great trucks. But the Lexus is nearly as capable offroad with equivalent mods, much nicer to ride in for up to 7 people, and will cost you less for a truck for less miles. Unless you're absolutely positively decided on the FJ, I strongly suggest you look at the Lexus GX as well.
3b. If you really really want to buy an FJ, your first decision can cost you $12-15000.
What I used to call the "$10,000 decision" (this has gone up) is deciding between your average 2007 with 150K+ miles on it for around $14K, versus your average 2010 with ~100K miles on it for $25-30K. Remember this saying: it's always cheaper to do it right than it is to do it twice. This applies to all things FJ, including buying your FJ. The most expensive way to get into the FJ world is to start with a 2007, realize you love the trucks but your current one has too many miles, then sell it to buy a 2010. All those mods you put on? Yep, you're installing all of them over again. Some of your suspension parts won't fit, so you'll have to buy those again too.
Buyer 1: All you have is $15K and you have to get an FJ now, and any late '07 or any '08+ will be fine. Buy the cheapest one you can get with the lowest miles and the best maintenance history, and enjoy the fact that it's a Toyota. You don't really need my help, there are plenty of old trucks for you to buy on Facebook within 100-200 miles of you. A few things to look out for: early '07 FJ's had weak rear differentials, and all FJ's until 2010 had a risk of fender bulging. Toyota produced more FJ's in 2007 and 2008 than any other years, so if you can find an '08 then you only need to look for fender bulging.
Buyer 2: This is the last FJ you ever want to own and then hand down to your kids, or you're on the fence and can afford such an FJ. You want the lowest miles 2010+ you can afford. Why a 2010+? Toyota updated the engine in 2010 and added crawl control in 2013, but most people don't consider crawl control to be worth the price premium of a 2013. If you want the crawl control, change "2010+" to "2013+" everywhere below.
If you're Buyer 2, then this guide is mainly written for you.
3b. The market for desirable FJ Cruisers is a national market. Buy a plane ticket and drive yours home.
Yep, you heard that right. Some FJ's can be super rare: that 2014 Trail Teams Ultimate Edition in Heritage Blue (2500 trucks) with a Manual Transmission (250 trucks) might have 0-2 for sale in the entire country at any one time, and neither of them are within 1000 miles of you.
If you just want a 2010+ with 4x4 then FJ's aren't super rare, but they're rare enough that you can't just roll down to the local dealer and pick a color. And if you live in a snow state with an aggressive market for FJ's, you can save thousands buying one from California or the gulf states (Texas to Florida). 4x4 vehicles are cheaper down south because they're not essential to get around in the snow, here in Denver we pay roughly $5000 more for a same year / same miles FJ than the cheaper markets. Plane tickets and gas for a weekend spent driving home are cheap compared to getting a great deal on the perfect FJ.
How do you find your FJ? National searches on car search engines like AutoTrader and CarGurus. An example AutoTrader search:
You can tweak these searches ^^^ as you like, or add your favorite color. Keep the 2010+ / 4x4 part but otherwise you can tweak price / miles to increase or decrease your search results.
So you've found a list of FJ's that you're interested in, congrats! Which one is the best deal? Make your choice based on miles, price, condition, and existing mods. If you're considering an already modified truck...
3c. What are the mods on this FJ worth?
It's always nice to buy an FJ from someone who has already modified it. It saves you some trouble, right? Most times, that's actually wrong. The US is full of poorly, cheaply modified FJ's that look good but perform poorly offroad. Spacer lifts, brush guards, metal tail-light protectors, 20-inch wheels with mud tires. CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP. Toyota dealers did this to FJ's in their showrooms for years to sell to unsuspecting customers who see the lift and the big wheels and think that's cool, then they show up with us on the trails and find out that the dealer charged you the same price for a $200 spacer lift + install that you would have paid for a real lift that can offroad well. And those 20-inch wheels don't have enough sidewall to air down.
A cheaply modified FJ will cost you more because the looks of these trucks drive up the price, and then you just have to take all that junk off. So unless you know the brand of lift on the truck and that's a brand you know is good, whatever lift is on there isn't worth anything. Wheels / tires, same thing. Don't buy somebody else's project for full price just to redo most of their work. But if you find a well modified vehicle by somebody who knew what they were doing for a good price, jump on it.
3d. OK I bought the FJ, now what?
First off, welcome to the FJ community! These forums are a great resource for information about how to modify your truck, for fixing problems on it etc. And second, make sure to get out to Colorado some year and come to FJ Summit! It is one of the largest Toyota events in the world, in one of the most scenic places you will ever visit. You will never see so many FJ's in one place, and you will see every mod you could ever possibly want at least three times. If you ever want to just come to Colorado and run some trails, look us up at Colorado FJ Cruisers for some trail advice or coordinating on a run.
Congrats on your truck, and I hope to see you around...
4. Seller's Guide
Welcome to the FJ Cruiser Forums! If you're reading this, you're probably new here. Remember up top where I recommended that all Sellers should read the Buyer's Guide? If you haven't done that yet, scroll up and do it real quick.
OK, welcome back. So, you're here to sell an FJ to an enthusiast forum full of people who love FJ's because...
4a. You heard somewhere that your FJ is valuable.
Let's get this out of the way right up front: your FJ is valuable. In fact, for 2013 and 2014 it was the #1 resale value vehicle in the country. And that resale holds strong today.
But if you read the Buyer's Guide section of this post (if not, scroll up), you know that anybody here on a national FJ Cruiser forum is also looking for their FJ nationally. So your competition here is pretty much every FJ Cruiser in the country. If you are that guy who rolls in here, asks a stupid price for your truck then posts a phone # / e-mail address so you never have to come back, your truck won't sell. I'm the guy who will be telling people to not buy your truck, because my loyalty is to the person looking to buy an FJ and participate in our forums, not to a person who is just here to dump a truck on a group of people who love them.
So, your FJ was a great vehicle, and you have to sell it for whatever reason. You want it to go to a group of people who will love it and care for it and take it driving over mountains :rocker:. Then your next question is...
4b. What's my FJ worth?
Your vehicle is worth what other FJ's comparable to yours -- year, miles, mods -- are selling for. What are other vehicles selling for? Whenever I sell a vehicle I do a full work-up: KBB, Edmunds, NADA used vehicle prices on a spreadsheet. I recommend averaging the three at each pricing level -- Private Party, Trade-In, Retail -- to satisfy the "but KBB says your car is worth less" crowd. But the price estimators are just a baseline, the real value of your vehicle is determined by other listings from AutoTrader and CarGurus with your year / miles.
Your goal here is to be able to justify your price to a buyer, who may or may not know very much about FJ's. If you can't justify your price to a buyer against all the other trucks I told them to look at in the Buyer's Guide, your truck won't sell.
Also, be mindful of the price of your FJ compared to 4Runner / Lexus GX prices. Your competition isn't just FJ's, and to most people in the market for an offroad vehicle they will also be considering a 4Runner and a Lexus GX. If I can buy a GX with 1/3rd your miles for the same price, I have to really want an FJ to buy your truck.
4c. How long will it take to sell?
Remember the people buying nationally? You should be selling nationally. If yours is the best priced truck in the country for its year / miles, it should sell quickly. FJ's usually sell faster on AutoTrader than FJCruiserForums. If you have the aforementioned only-one-for-sale-in-the-US '14 TTUE in a manual transmission and you want top dollar, you are waiting for a very specific buyer. That wait might take 2-3 months, so spam it for sale everywhere: here, AutoTrader, CarGurus etc. Your biggest challenge isn't price, it's connecting with that one specific person who wants to pay top dollar for your exact truck.
Alternately, dealerships / Carvana have been giving great trade-in values on FJ's then marking them up the way I advise against in this entire thread. But they have a better marketing department and can stand to wait a month or two for that extra $2000 that you can't.
Also, strong auction performance on BringATrailer (largely for 2014 TTUEs, but there are others) has led many people to consider selling via auction as well. If your truck has under 10K miles, or even more so under 1K miles, it is easily investment grade and will get the most money at auction.
So your truck has a few mods, how do those add to the value? Odds are that...
4d. Your mods probably aren't worth much to anyone else.
If you didn't come here for advice about what mods to buy when you owned your FJ, you probably didn't buy good mods. Especially if you didn't spend a lot on those mods. And if you bought your truck already modified from the dealer, they probably overcharged you for cheap upgrades.
Is your lift from Old Man Emu, Icon, King, Fox, Toytec? A company we've heard of that charges more than $800 for a suspension kit? If not, it will probably have to be replaced by a serious offroader, which means that it isn't worth anything to them. Your truck may look great rolling down the road lifted and on 20's, and some kid on Craigslist may pay full price for bad mods, but we won't because we have to replace them to go offroading.
If you've got good mods on your truck and you're absolutely sure of that, price them into the truck and good luck.
4d ADDENDUM. What's my highly modified high-miles FJ worth?
I'm adding a section here to address highly modified high-miles trucks, as we're starting to see a lot of these coming on the market lately and they can be difficult to price.
My own '11 TT FJ with ~$13K in mods sold for the base market value of the truck (~$26K) plus 45% of the value (not counting install) of the mods (~$6000). The value of your mods to any specific buyer is highly dependent on the buyer. If that person doesn't like your specific bumper, they will pay less for it. If they have a suspension in mind that your truck doesn't have, they may talk you down on the price to help pay for their upgrade.
For the FJCruiserForums audience, my advice is to list your mods and their new value, total them up and pick a % of their value that you add to the base value of your truck (calculated by looking at similar trucks for sale). The more heavily modified your truck is, the lower the % needs to be. The price pressures on your truck will be lower-miles / newer trucks that a new owner can buy and lightly modify into what they wanted originally. Your truck for $22K versus a $20K 2010 with an extra $5K mod budget means they've bought down your miles on a newer truck with cash. Some buyers will buy your truck, some will buy the 2010 and build it themselves.
So I'll say it again, if this description matches your truck then it is difficult to price. I wouldn't put any of this ^^^ in a Craigslist ad for your truck, as the buyers there aren't typically enthusiasts. If you want to have this discussion with the buyer in-person to impress them with your FJ knowledge, that might help make the sale.
4e. It probably seems like I'm being hard on you and your truck.
I am, and on purpose. Far, far too many sellers show up and do exactly what I'm telling you to not do above. Dozens do this every year then wonder why their trucks don't sell. My goal is to help a new FJ owner get a truck and become a participating member of our forum. That's not you, that's the person buying from you, and they don't have to buy from you.
Make your truck a good deal for them based on all the other trucks they're looking at, and they will buy from you. But you have some homework to do first. The best advice I can give you to help you sell your truck is to pretend that you're buying your truck. Is it a better deal than comparable vehicles? If not, it won't sell. Is there a forum member a few miles from you who would gladly spend a little more to buy a truck they can see / test drive first? If so, then you can probably ask a little more.
5. Contacts / Questions
If you need help evaluating an FJ that you're interested in buying / selling, feel free to reach out to me directly via PM's.
The End
And that's the "Complete Guide to Buying and Selling". I'm sure I left some things out, so it will be updated over time. Thanks for reading!
