fj40 price guide? (1 Viewer)

I know a lot of people ask what the value of a particular FJ40 is that they're looking at, or looking to sell, so would it be possible to come up with a very rough price guide just to give an idea what a particular cruiser is worth? I know there are just way too many variables to really give a price on any particular vehicle, what I was thinking was more of a general scale where people would at least have a ballpark figure on the value. For example

<$1k - Parts car, not salvagable, missing engine, drivetrain, etc.
$1k-$2k - Possibly running or not, rusted or rotted out body tub, frame damage, good candidate for a trail rig only or a complete frame off restoration
$2k-$4k - Running, rough condition, needs a some work, parts missing.
$4k-$7k - Minor rust, driveable condition, not missing any major parts
$7k-10K - Good condition, all original, daily driver condition, zero to no rust
$10k - $15K - Frame off restoration, absolutely no rust, original paint, kept in a garage and sung to sleep every night, etc...
>$15K - Showroom quality restoration, better than new

I'm still new at all this, so all these are just random guesses, so my numbers could be completely off. Excluding killer deals or total ripoffs, does it seem somewhat reasonable? Keep in mind there are prices people want to pay for a cruiser, and there are prices that people would like to sell theirs for, I'm hoping to give a realistic range somewhere in between.

Also, since there are so many different options and certain models and years may be more desirable, maybe some allowance could be made. For example

1976?-1981? = + $???
V8 Conversion = +/- ???
Power steering = +????
Missing Hardtop = -1k??
Flipped bezel = -1k?
Diesel engine = +????

What does everyone else think? Are the numbers fairly reasonable? Is that what you would expect to pay for a cruiser, or expect to sell one for that much?

What the buyer wants has to be a factor. If you have a nice clean original cruiser and the buyer wants and SOA V8 conversion, your rig is worth less to him than someone else.

Similarly the guy who wants original is going to subtract some $$ for your family cage you spent so much time on, and your fender flares and diamond plate that you thought were cool.

Lastly your audience will factor in. If you have a really nice rig sitting out by the road in Idaho with a FS sign, it will not sell for as much $$ as on ebay.

And, IMHO, a V8 is definitely a '-', unless it's a good-running TPI with an NV4500.

Location, Location, Location...In New England rust is a major factor, so that will control the value of a clean rig. Like in Arizone there may be more available since the climate is better to the metal and more survived the junk yards. It is a great idea it it can be put together, but like my dad always tells me when I think I have something worth a lot of money "it's only worth what some one will give you for it".

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not really trying to put a price on anything, but more of a general guideline so people aren't out there looking at rust buckets with a $10K price tag, and wondering if it's reasonable. The buyers needs are a factor only if he's the only one looking at it, in the open market it really doesn't affect the value of a car since there are always people looking for something (ebay). So if a buyer is looking for a trail rig, if there's a perfectly stock rust free cruiser with original condition and all, most likely that's still gonna sell for a decent price, regardless of what the buyer is looking for. Again, I'm not counting certain "family deals" and other lucky finds. And location does make a difference to some degree, but a rusted out FJ is a rusted out FJ, whether it's located in Arizona or New York, it's probably not gonna sell for $30K. With all the vehicles selling on ebay and shipping across country, I'm sure a rust free cruiser in New England will still sell for more than a few thousand, even if the only buyers are on the west coast.

Again, this is only intended for a very general guideline, not a bluebook price list. Just thought it might help people who are just starting to look at cruisers (as I was at one point), and have no idea what to expect for their money.

Man, I don't know.. these things are like Lego's for adults. There are so many things that you can do to them w/ them etc.. that it can literally affect the value to one person and not another. Frame off resto. w/ bright orange paint appeal to some and not others.

I've seen rigs much nicer than mine go for less than I paid but I'm satisfied w/ my purchase. I wanted a later year but still have a wasted floor pan and rear deck. It had some new parts as well and ran well. I sent pics to as many of my friends that I could and feel like I did ok. ...If I get screwed and don't know it... I'm ok... It's when you KNOW you got screwed or even feel like it (even if you didn't) that sucks.

My guess is that if I had to buy another rig, I post pics here or beg Poser to look at them!

I too wish there was a guide but I still think that you have to look at the whole picture, condition, how bad your addiction is and the most important... how much your wife will let you spend and not have to sleep on the couch!

You might want to edit away your 'flipped bezel' factor. It makes you look pretty dumb. The bezel is a matter or removing four screws aand turning the bezel over. It has no affect on value whether right side up or right side down.

honk said:

You might want to edit away your 'flipped bezel' factor. It makes you look pretty dumb. The bezel is a matter or removing four screws aand turning the bezel over. It has no affect on value whether right side up or right side down.

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He added the little "" after that line, it just didn't show up as a smiley.

ducktapeguy, I've only been onto cruisers for just over a year, so take this with a grain of salt - your scale makes sense to me, basically. As others have said, there are, of course, many variables to consider, but I think a very general scale like that might help a complete newbie understand that they don't need to spend 10K to get a rust bucket cruiser.

Being on the east coast, I think the most important of those variables is location. I payed just over 7k for mine, but it probably fits squarely into your 4-7k range. But I found it a couple miles from my house, and there just aren't that many of them in this area, I feel satisfied with the purchase.

Felix

Felix said:

I payed just over 7k for mine, but it probably fits squarely into your 4-7k range. But I found it a couple miles from my house, and there just aren't that many of them in this area, I feel satisfied with the purchase.

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I paid a couple grand more for my '78 with lots of parts (2f, trans+case, rear end, doors, etc). Mine has the original paint, minimal rust, everything works and I am the 2nd owner.

I feel like I paid top dollar, but I haven't seen another rig for sale that compares for the $$.

One thing is for sure: they're not building any more of 'em, so the ones out there are never going to get any cheaper.

Felix and Eddy,

Thanks for the response, that's exactly the kinda input I'm looking for. There really are too many variable to really put a price on any of these things, but I'm sure everyone has pretty much the same idea of what a $500 cruiser would look like, and what a $15K cruiser should look like. Just thought it would be helpful for some of the new people who are just starting to look at them.

I know I had been looking at cruisers for a long time, so after a while I started to get a general feeling of what I wanted and how much I wanted to spend, but it took a really long time before I was able to judge the value of a car (and I'm still not good at it). I remember the very first one I went to look at was a 1972, V8 conversion, leaking fluids, missing hardtop, with crappy paint and dents and dings. The buyer was asking $4.5K firm for what was essentially a trail rig. At the time, I thought maybe all of them were just priced like that (this was before i found Mud), but looking back I now know that it was probably worth more like $2K.

I paid around $5K for mine, condition wise it's probably in the lower end of the $4K-$7K range I listed above. I also got a ton of spare parts and aftermarket parts along with the car, which I considered a nice bonus, but the two most important factors for me were:

1) I specifically wanted a later model (stock 2F) cruiser, but I also live in CA and didn't want to have to worry about smog. The only option is a 1975 model year. I definitely was willing to pay +$1k to get this specific year, rather than an earlier model.

2) I had been wanting one really badly for the past decade, and I had extra money at the time, so that kinda influenced me to pay a little extra in order to buy right now. Hard to say exactly how much that is worth, but I've passed up similar condition vehicles at the same price, just didn't have the desire at the time.

I don't know whether the uppper ranges are accurate, honestly because that's out of my price range and I dont' really pay too much attention to those sales. I really don't know how much a mint condition cruiser would go for, I just assumed it would be pretty high.



PsScottBx,
I should add another line to the price guide

Married guys = -$3K
Single = +$5K
<----hope this smiley shows up so I don't look dumb

Duck,

I would add this, search on ebay, check your the auto trader in the classics, and on some of the cruiser sites to look at pricing and description. even there you have people asking out of the realm pricing but if you look over everything as a whole, throw out the obnoxiously high and the too good to be trues. Maybe you post some of those links with your guidelines so would be buyers have places to go look and do a market analysis.

To bad we can't build a "ticker" service that taps into all the sites and reports averages along with conditions of vehicles.

Quote: "...these things are like Lego's for adults."

LOL, one of the gals at my insurance agent's office said my FJ40 looked just like a "Lego car".

Anyway, good luck making those prices stick with an insurance company. They think these old Cruisers are worth the usual minimum standard undeclared value and pay accordingly without an expert appraisal. That usually means they will pay something like $4000 unless you can prove more prior to your loss.

What we need is something we can refer to as a kind of standard that can act as an appraisal base reference for insurance purposes.

I think you are missing a lot of stuff that may not be as obvious:

powersteering (apparently it's a big deal for some guys)
lift
lockers (now that's a BIG deal for me)
winch
second battery
.
.
.
.
.
.

My bone stock 74 in it's dirty uncared for condition (rust free 99%) got an offer of 8K last year when I was hauling it back from CO on a flatbed. I would NEVER sell it because of the sentimental value, but in my case, the person who offered me the money put HIS value on it. Buyers market

ducktapeguy said:

<$1k - Parts car, not salvagable, missing engine, drivetrain, etc.
$1k-$2k - Possibly running or not, rusted or rotted out body tub, frame damage, good candidate for a trail rig only or a complete frame off restoration
$2k-$4k - Running, rough condition, needs a some work, parts missing.
$4k-$7k - Minor rust, driveable condition, not missing any major parts
$7k-10K - Good condition, all original, daily driver condition, zero to no rust
$10k - $15K - Frame off restoration, absolutely no rust, original paint, kept in a garage and sung to sleep every night, etc...
>$15K - Showroom quality restoration, better than new

Click to expand...

ducktapeguy said:

I know a lot of people ask what the value of a particular FJ40 is that they're looking at, or looking to sell, so would it be possible to come up with a very rough price guide just to give an idea what a particular cruiser is worth? I know there are just way too many variables to really give a price on any particular vehicle, what I was thinking was more of a general scale where people would at least have a ballpark figure on the value. For example

<$1k - Parts car, not salvagable, missing engine, drivetrain, etc.
$1k-$2k - Possibly running or not, rusted or rotted out body tub, frame damage, good candidate for a trail rig only or a complete frame off restoration
$2k-$4k - Running, rough condition, needs a some work, parts missing.
$4k-$7k - Minor rust, driveable condition, not missing any major parts
$7k-10K - Good condition, all original, daily driver condition, zero to no rust
$10k - $15K - Frame off restoration, absolutely no rust, original paint, kept in a garage and sung to sleep every night, etc...
>$15K - Showroom quality restoration, better than new

Click to expand...

Double these numbers and you've got a good starting point.

Could always use this
1977 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40V Values | Hagerty Valuation Tool®

I've always put old vehicles in three catagories
1. Hanger Queen, way to much money invested and don't want to chip the paint. Car shows and photo shoots only.
2. Driver, runs and looks good and the upkeep costs are acceptable. Haul the empties back to the beer store.
3. Project, which may never be completed and significantly more expensive than expected. Makes you cry.

TCEd said:

2. Driver, runs and looks good and the upkeep costs are acceptable. Haul the empties back to the beer store.

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You hit mine right on the head, minus all the beer caps all over the floors.

TCEd said:

I've always put old vehicles in three catagories
1. Hanger Queen, way to much money invested and don't want to chip the paint. Car shows and photo shoots only.
2. Driver, runs and looks good and the upkeep costs are acceptable. Haul the empties back to the beer store.
3. Project, which may never be completed and significantly more expensive than expected. Makes you cry.

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Think that's simplifies it too much. See plenty of driver's I would say run and look good.

Have projects can't wait to do just don't have the time.

Hanger queen may very well be anything but. Keeping them hidden prevents someone pointing out to the owner how poorly their cruiser was restored.

Do find prices are crazy today. Bought my one owner 70 back in 2011. $9-$10K was the most anyone thought it was worth. Doubt I would sell it for $20K today. Not sure what class I would put it in. Not 100% original but not restored either.

justbecause said:

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HAHA! Never would have guessed the prices would skyrocket when I wrote this post 12 years ago. I regret not buying every FJ40 I looked at during that time. Back then, it was possible to pick up a full frame off resto for <$15K. And being the idiot that I am, I chose to get a project vehicle thinking I can do it myself.