[Gooseberry]

Hi all ?. I’ve read the guide, and checked tons of websites for values, but I’m still having trouble determining a list price for my FJ, as I am not finding any real comps out there. If anyone can find FJs just like mine that recently sold, I’d love to know what they sold for. 2012 TTSE 9,800 miles, original owner, radiant red, stock-no mods, garaged and only taken out for Sunday drives. Thanks for the help.

 

[jimmy-buffett]

Hi all ?. I’ve read the guide, and checked tons of websites for values, but I’m still having trouble determining a list price for my FJ, as I am not finding any real comps out there. If anyone can find FJs just like mine that recently sold, I’d love to know what they sold for. 2012 TTSE 9,800 miles, original owner, radiant red, stock-no mods, garaged and only taken out for Sunday drives. Thanks for the help.

You need to talk to @A- Negative, he just missed a '12 TT with roughly these same miles and would probably be interested in yours.

The issue with accurately valuing yours is that you are way too low on the miles compared to anything else. For most "collectable cars", low miles is highly desirable. The problem is that the FJ isn't really collectable in this way. People buy these trucks to use / offroad them, so anyone who does this with an overpriced low-miles truck is taking a huge hit on depreciation once that truck hits 50-75K miles (like all the other ones currently for sale).

Think of a comparable Tacoma / Tundra with low miles. What's it worth, more than a new one? No way. In most ways the new trucks are better in several ways. And who buys a low-miles Tacoma just to not drive it or use it as a truck? Nobody. That's the difference between these trucks and sports cars.

The main plus on yours being, then, that there are no new FJ's to buy. Having owned both the FJ and the 4Runner, and offroaded both extensively, I can tell you that they are largely the same in terms of offroad capability. The 4Runner has factory nav, heated seats, real back seats. I paid $37K new for mine. So at the very high end of your price range, to a person who's buying to offroad, your price competition ultimately becomes a 4Runner that is 6-7 years newer.

Either way, good luck! And definitely reach out to @A- Negative, I think he may be your buyer!

 

[Gooseberry]

Thank you; I appreciate the reply and you make all good points. I will reach out to @A-Negative.

 

[Ricebow]

Awesome read.

I'm looking to buy my first FJ however I'm just a bit torn and lost about the pricing and feeling a bit sketchy on why price is so long. How do I know if the transmission will last a long while and let's so if engine parts goes bad.. are these easily replaceable?

I live in WI where Snow can literally sh#+ on ya. I dont plan to do any modding, I honestly just like the car and its exterior characteristics. Are these mad for daily driving and for snow? I'm complete newb and learning as I go and also asking for help on whether to purchase or not... dont want a good opportunity to pass by.

Here's a quick info
Price: 16500
Condition: Used
Model: FJ Cruiser
Trim: 4.0l 4x4
Body style: SUV
Exterior: Silver Fresco Metallic
Interior: Dark charcoal
Doors: 4
Stock: 13822U
Model number: 4704
VIN #: JTEBU4BF0AK089446
Mileage: 159823
Engine: Gas V6 4.0L/241
Transmission: 5-Speed Automatic w/OD
Drivetrain: 4WD

 

[jimmy-buffett]

I'm looking to buy my first FJ however I'm just a bit torn and lost about the pricing and feeling a bit sketchy on why price is so long. How do I know if the transmission will last a long while and let's so if engine parts goes bad.. are these easily replaceable?

I live in WI where Snow can literally sh#+ on ya. I dont plan to do any modding, I honestly just like the car and its exterior characteristics. Are these mad for daily driving and for snow? I'm complete newb and learning as I go and also asking for help on whether to purchase or not... dont want a good opportunity to pass by.

I replied to your PM with a couple of comparable trucks in Minneapolis that you should consider as well.

As for the engine / transmission concerns, for vehicles in your price range (older, higher miles) the reliability of the Toyota brand starts to become less of a factor than how well the previous owner took care of it. A Toyota engine that doesn't get regular oil changes will still fail. With that said, most Toyota owners bought them because they are reliable, and understand that they stay reliable by being well maintained. But it is something to consider when talking to a seller.

For engine / transmission concerns, the 4.0L engine and 5-speed automatic transmission in the FJ are shared with the 4Runner and Tacoma and are absolutely, positively bulletproof. Between the three models there are well over a million of these drivetrains on the road. I would prepare for a maintenance bill for whichever truck you buy -- front/rear differential fluid, transfer case fluid, transmission fluid, engine oil -- but otherwise you're fine.

These are great vehicles for the snow, they are not full-time AWD but rather 4WD and will need to be put into 4-High when you hit traction problems. So just be mindful of that. The manual-transmission trucks are full-time AWD if that's a concern to you.

Alternately, if you aren't buying the FJ to offroad then you might consider a Tacoma instead? For the same year / miles a Tacoma should be a bit cheaper (my wife and I paid $8900 for our '99, 113K miles, V6, 4x4). The FJ is a unique and interesting vehicle but is overpriced for a daily driver. Don't get me wrong, buy one but if money is a concern, there are cheaper, just as capable / reliable options out there.

Happy to help, let me know if I can answer any more questions!

James

 

[Ricebow]

I replied to your PM with a couple of comparable trucks in Minneapolis that you should consider as well.

As for the engine / transmission concerns, for vehicles in your price range (older, higher miles) the reliability of the Toyota brand starts to become less of a factor than how well the previous owner took care of it. A Toyota engine that doesn't get regular oil changes will still fail. With that said, most Toyota owners bought them because they are reliable, and understand that they stay reliable by being well maintained. But it is something to consider when talking to a seller.

For engine / transmission concerns, the 4.0L engine and 5-speed automatic transmission in the FJ are shared with the 4Runner and Tacoma and are absolutely, positively bulletproof. Between the three models there are well over a million of these drivetrains on the road. I would prepare for a maintenance bill for whichever truck you buy -- front/rear differential fluid, transfer case fluid, transmission fluid, engine oil -- but otherwise you're fine.

These are great vehicles for the snow, they are not full-time AWD but rather 4WD and will need to be put into 4-High when you hit traction problems. So just be mindful of that. The manual-transmission trucks are full-time AWD if that's a concern to you.

Alternately, if you aren't buying the FJ to offroad then you might consider a Tacoma instead? For the same year / miles a Tacoma should be a bit cheaper (my wife and I paid $8900 for our '99, 113K miles, V6, 4x4). The FJ is a unique and interesting vehicle but is overpriced for a daily driver. Don't get me wrong, buy one but if money is a concern, there are cheaper, just as capable / reliable options out there.

Happy to help, let me know if I can answer any more questions!

James

I love this forum!, the quick responsiveness is awesome! Your feedback def gave me a bit of positive and confidence with my decision. I mentioned this earlier, as i was driving, everything felt solid minus the power steering being so stiff. i brought this to the dealership attention so i hope they resolve this. For some reason, i just feel in love with the body of the FJ.. my wife HATES IS, but it reminds me of the old school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cars :ninja:, lol.

i'll have to learn and understand all the functionality of the car. not exactly sure how to put this in 4wd. Is there a noticeable feel when you push this to AWD / 4WD? I'm going back to dealership today and if Finance pass... i might just have to get it.

 

[jimmy-buffett]

i'll have to learn and understand all the functionality of the car. not exactly sure how to put this in 4wd. Is there a noticeable feel when you push this to AWD / 4WD? I'm going back to dealership today and if Finance pass... i might just have to get it.

Here's a good instructional video on when/how to use H2/H4/L4:

You need a decent amount of force to pull from H2 to H4, so watch for the green 4x4 icon on the dash.

If possible, you should look at that red Trail Teams in Minneapolis as well. That's a pretty rare truck for the price.

 

[Texagon]

If possible, you should look at that red Trail Teams in Minneapolis as well. That's a pretty rare truck for the price.

If it's the one I saw, low miles too. That could be a really good buy, Ricebow. Plus, red is obviously the best. Nice work JB.

 

[philFJ]

wow, this is a great thread. im looking for a 2011 TT with ~<100k miles and < $25k. have found a couple but they are so far away. im willing to fly and drive home, but anything west of the miss is going to have to be shipped. trying to be patient but its hard lol. the best ones available right now are in washington, arkansas and new mexico. if i do find one im ready to buy i will have the seller take it to a toyota dealer, pay the 1 hour labor fee to get a report then fly out 1 way. it will be REALLY hard though once im out there doing a test drive to walk away if i feel anything i dont like.

on a side note, theres a guy out there trying to scam people on vin JTEBU4BFXBK109249. It popped up on one of my many auto site alerts as being listed yesterday. says he is in ireland, car is in storage in WA, has about 15k miles and hes asking 18k. yea right. asked for pictures and he sent me the same ones from an ebay listing in october2018. said i was really interested, asked for a copy of the title and registration and he got weird, said he would only sell with wire transfer or cert check, no loans. i said ok, dont know why he cares where the $$ is coming from, but i could do that. send me a copy of the title anyway. then he disappeared.

 

[jimmy-buffett]

im looking for a 2011 TT with ~<100k miles and < $25k. have found a couple but they are so far away. im willing to fly and drive home, but anything west of the miss is going to have to be shipped. trying to be patient but its hard lol. the best ones available right now are in washington, arkansas and new mexico. if i do find one im ready to buy i will have the seller take it to a toyota dealer, pay the 1 hour labor fee to get a report then fly out 1 way. it will be REALLY hard though once im out there doing a test drive to walk away if i feel anything i dont like.

I had the 2011 all-green (not quite a TT) for years and always kept an eye on possible replacements if mine ever went off a cliff. Fortunately it didn't

100K miles / <$25K shouldn't be hard at all, you'll just have to wait for the right one to pop up. I would definitely expand your search: major metro Craigslist, CarGurus, AutoTrader, EBay. You'll want to look at every 2011 in Green, you will get some false positives with white roofs but that's fine.

Alternately, the new 2020 TRD Pro color is the same Army Green from the 2011 FJ TT, and will be on the 4Runner, Tacoma and Tundra. For an extra ~$18K or so over your price limit you can get a new truck with zero miles vs a 9 year old FJ with ~100K miles.

I would be getting one of these if the wife wasn't so in love with our '18 4Runner in red...

 

[philFJ]

I had the 2011 all-green (not quite a TT) for years and always kept an eye on possible replacements if mine ever went off a cliff. Fortunately it didn't
ipp
100K miles / <$25K shouldn't be hard at all, you'll just have to wait for the right one to pop up. I would definitely expand your search: major metro Craigslist, CarGurus, AutoTrader, EBay. You'll want to look at every 2011 in Green, you will get some false positives with white roofs but that's fine.

Alternately, the new 2020 TRD Pro color is the same Army Green from the 2011 FJ TT, and will be on the 4Runner, Tacoma and Tundra. For an extra ~$18K or so over your price limit you can get a new truck with zero miles vs a 9 year old FJ with ~100K miles.

I would be getting one of these if the wife wasn't so in love with our '18 4Runner in red...

check check and check, im on everyone of those sites daily and already haggling with some dealers on pricing, delivery charges, etc. thats part of the reason i wound up on this forum. i have exhausted every "for sale search site" ive now started on messageboards LOL

<$25k for <100k miles is def do-able, its just a matter of am i going to have to pay to have it shipped, or can i fly out 1way and drive it home. your post is one of the better stickied posts on purchasing ive seen, thanks for that. im hoping to find a TT edition mislabelled as a base and not the other way around.

 

[jimmy-buffett]

<$25k for <100k miles is def do-able, its just a matter of am i going to have to pay to have it shipped, or can i fly out 1way and drive it home.

I've flown to buy 3 of my last 4 vehicles, the longest from Queens NY to Denver over Easter 2017. The other two were in Augusta / Atlanta GA and took two days to drive back. Not to bias you, but it's a fun process. Plus it lets me catch up on my podcasts

your post is one of the better stickied posts on purchasing ive seen, thanks for that.

Happy to help! We're lucky in the FJ world, there are enough trucks around that current market offerings can dictate the price. Not so much for very specific variants (manual 2014 TTUE's etc) but the overall market is pretty well defined. The other collectable car I own doesn't have enough live examples to set good pricing, so you either have to rely on historical knowledge or you get lucky and some crazy statistics guy tracks them all for you.

 

[philFJ]

I had the 2011 all-green (not quite a TT) for years and always kept an eye on possible replacements if mine ever went off a cliff. Fortunately it didn't

100K miles / <$25K shouldn't be hard at all, you'll just have to wait for the right one to pop up. I would definitely expand your search: major metro Craigslist, CarGurus, AutoTrader, EBay. You'll want to look at every 2011 in Green, you will get some false positives with white roofs but that's fine.

Alternately, the new 2020 TRD Pro color is the same Army Green from the 2011 FJ TT, and will be on the 4Runner, Tacoma and Tundra. For an extra ~$18K or so over your price limit you can get a new truck with zero miles vs a 9 year old FJ with ~100K miles.

I would be getting one of these if the wife wasn't so in love with our '18 4Runner in red...

what kind of $$ am i looking at if i was to get a non TT FJ if i wanted to put work into it to get the look of a TT but not all the mechanicals? i was really hoping to find a lower mileage 2011 TT near my price point, but the more i think of my wants vs needs i think i might do better picking up a newer model with lower mileage and upgrading to the TRD wheels, painting the roof, blacked out handles mirrors, grill , valence, bumpers, rock rail, etc crap its starting to sound like more $$ than I thought LOL im planning on keeping this for a long time.

 

[jimmy-buffett]

what kind of $$ am i looking at if i was to get a non TT FJ if i wanted to put work into it to get the look of a TT but not all the mechanicals? i was really hoping to find a lower mileage 2011 TT near my price point, but the more i think of my wants vs needs i think i might do better picking up a newer model with lower mileage and upgrading to the TRD wheels, painting the roof, blacked out handles mirrors, grill , valence, bumpers, rock rail, etc crap its starting to sound like more $$ than I thought LOL im planning on keeping this for a long time.

The TT's have no mechanical upgrades over the non-TT's, it's the same drivetrain, transmission, differentials etc. Everything else unique to the TT -- black mirrors, black trim etc -- you can replicate. (with exception, the gauge cluster and rear power inverter are a pain)

The full OEM black-out kit on PureFJCruiser is $1200 right now: Complete Kit - Trail Teams Edition Full Black Out with Notch 2007-2014 [FJ-FULLBLACKOUT-NOTCH] - $1,223.01 : Pure FJ Cruiser Accessories, Parts and Accessories for your Toyota FJ Cruiser

The difficulty is what to do with the roof. If you buy a white FJ, the roof already matches if you buy any other color you'll have to do something.

If you're going to have the truck for a while, do this ^^^ right. Buy the OEM black parts. Plasti-dip or spray paint gets beat up on the trail and looks like crap in a few years. TONS of examples in the photo threads on this forum.

 

[philFJ]

The TT's have no mechanical upgrades over the non-TT's, it's the same drivetrain, transmission, differentials etc. Everything else unique to the TT -- black mirrors, black trim etc -- you can replicate. (with exception, the gauge cluster and rear power inverter are a pain)

The full OEM black-out kit on PureFJCruiser is $1200 right now: Complete Kit - Trail Teams Edition Full Black Out with Notch 2007-2014 [FJ-FULLBLACKOUT-NOTCH] - $1,223.01 : Pure FJ Cruiser Accessories, Parts and Accessories for your Toyota FJ Cruiser

The difficulty is what to do with the roof. If you buy a white FJ, the roof already matches if you buy any other color you'll have to do something.

If you're going to have the truck for a while, do this ^^^ right. Buy the OEM black parts. Plasti-dip or spray paint gets beat up on the trail and looks like crap in a few years. TONS of examples in the photo threads on this forum.

awesome, theres a kit for it already why didnt i think of that. my offroading will only consist of driving non paved roads to fishing spots, and some sand for surf fishing NJ and OBX. the NSSEs are looking better and better. seems the TT badge is mostly a premium on re sale, which will hopefully only matter to my heirs when im cold and dead.

 

[sandFJ90210]

Awesome thread

Big thanks to Jimmy for the help.

I picked up a 2012 TT, red, under $24k, under 100k miles. 1 owner all records. Picking up next week
Super excited

TT has diff guage cluster?

I agree Tacoma / Tundra is cheaper. I have 3 Tacomas. But I wanted different, which the FJ is, and was willing to pay for it

 

[jimmy-buffett]

awesome, theres a kit for it already why didnt i think of that. my offroading will only consist of driving non paved roads to fishing spots, and some sand for surf fishing NJ and OBX. the NSSEs are looking better and better. seems the TT badge is mostly a premium on re sale, which will hopefully only matter to my heirs when im cold and dead.

FYI if you want the army green color, the 2020 TRD Pro color is green. Is it worth spending $25K for a 9 year old FJ when you can buy an Army Green 4Runner new? As much as I love the FJ, I'd probably get the 4Runner instead.

Some Army Green Tacoma pics were teased yesterday: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2020-tacoma-teased.590296/page-97

 

[philFJ]

FYI if you want the army green color, the 2020 TRD Pro color is green. Is it worth spending $25K for a 9 year old FJ when you can buy an Army Green 4Runner new? As much as I love the FJ, I'd probably get the 4Runner instead.

Some Army Green Tacoma pics were teased yesterday: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2020-tacoma-teased.590296/page-97

that is so nice, but im a lazy bastard who likes to keep all the seasonal fishing gear inside the transport so i could never do a real truck, id have to put a cap on it and just hate the thought of that. i finally swapped out all my ice fishing gear from my 2002 JEEP GC WJ. its going to be a bittersweet day when i go jeepless for the 1st time in my life, but im really looking forward to going FJ. if i ever did get a real truck it would be a total beater.

 

[jimmy-buffett]

that is so nice, but im a lazy bastard who likes to keep all the seasonal fishing gear inside the transport so i could never do a real truck, id have to put a cap on it and just hate the thought of that.

This ^^^ is just an example of the 2020 TRD Pro Army Green color, they're doing this color on the 4Runner. I've offroaded both the FJ and the 4Runner extensively, there isn't a big difference. You'll pay ~$25K for a 9 year old NSSE or $45K for the Army Green 4Runner. Depending on your budget, the 4Runner might be the better option.

Go with the FJ if you want just making sure you're aware of the option.

if i ever did get a real truck it would be a total beater.

Wife and I have a '99 Tacoma beater, I tell her frequently that when she's ready to retire we can sell all the other cars and move into a trailer in Buena Vista. She won't let me swap our red '18 4Runner for the new green one, so I've thought about dumping the beater Tacoma for this ^^^ one.

 

[philFJ]

is there a dedicated thread or very active thread for posting pictures of frame rust on a possible purchase? i found a midwest FJ with some rust, but i dont think its "too" bad, but i may be looking at it through rose colored glasses.