Cool, I never knew it wasn't a stock FJ:rofl:. I always liked the way that one looked.
You see, the FJ Cruiser (aka the turtle) we built for Ultimate Adventure a few years back was actually a prototype truck and after a few years Toyota wanted it back to send to the crusher. (it all revolves around the legal dept not wanting this pre-production truck to end up being sold) Now we're not too upset about this as we knew it would happen some day and we'll definitely pull all the good parts and stuff them into something else down the road, but first how about one last hurrah! for the FJ?
I parked next to it at the Toyota 50th Anniversary party. It was bad ass all dented up. The frame was reinforced, had a roll cage and atlas transfer case. It has a supercharged V6. This FJ caught my imagination. This FJ competing in the Top Truck and being driven like a rental will be great video and inspire us even more. Cheers to the FJC :cheers:
Read the link in the first post. The Ultimate FJ was actually a pre-production FJ and so they, Toyota, doesn't want someone to profit off of that fact as having a non-production FJ would probably draw quite a tiddy sum from the right person.
There is a remote chance that they could be held liable for damages by the owner or anyone else involved in an accident so they would rather lose out on $25K up front than $500K+ on the back end.
I already sent in the Top Truck Challenge Ballot couple days ago and ofcourse, the sole FJ Cruiser among the challengers had to be my top pick, followed by all the other FJs. :bigthumb:
Liability is one reason for the dismantling/crushing.
The other is that the company does not pay to bring it into the continental United States. No duites, no tax. Vin #s are kept and they only have a certain life cycle. Destroying must be certified or they must be sent back to the manufacturing country.
When I ran Kawasaki Team Green we recieved pre production test bikes as much as two years before planned production. We were constantly monitored as to where they were, and how much time they had left for operation. Some were returned to Japan with modifications but most were destroyed prior to end of life cycle. Max for the motorcycles was two years if I remember correctly.
When I was a kid, a friend of mine had a deal like tihis with a bike co. I would just beg him for some of the parts, but he could not give them up. If he would have, he would have lost the deal... Sucked for me... Kick A$$ for him! New bike just about each year...
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