A friend of a friend is selling this FJ80 that's piratically brand new. Imported it himself and only has 90K miles on it. He's asking $20K. Is this a screaming deal or am I wasting my money?
Japanese Import FJ80 -- Deal or Waste? (1 Viewer)
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Suspension Mods: Rancho Struts Rancho Coil Springs Explorer Secondary Struts Aftermarket 2'' Front Sway Bar Blocks Aftermarket Rear Sway Bar Mounts Aftermarket Front Panhard Bar Aftermarket Rear Panhard Bar 3'' Front Control Arm Drop Brackets Aftermarket Steering Tie Rod Tough Dog Steering Damper Other Mods: 16'' Mickey Thompson Classic Wheels BFGoodrich All Terrain Tires SUXON Dual Exhaust Aftermarket Headlights LED Tail Lights Clazzio S Fitted Leather Seat Covers MOMO Steering wheel
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Some more photos:
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Oh just search BAT and looks like he already posted it there and offers only reached $15k. I guess I have my answer.
Outside of the RHD coolness, $20K will get you a nice US Spec 80 and lots of spare cash to do a really nice build.
If it was an HDJ-81 with the manual transmission, then maybe. But, all he has is an FZJ-80 in RHD, nothing special to command a premium
I’d also want to know what the maintenance history is on it. I lived in Japan for some time and often the resellers over there shine them up, paint them, throw a lift on them, but often don’t do very much maintenance baselining leaving some boogers for you to sort out.
If it was an HDJ-81 with the manual transmission, then maybe. But, all he has is an FZJ-80 in RHD, nothing special to command a premium
I’d also want to know what the maintenance history is on it. I lived in Japan for some time and often the resellers over there shine them up, paint them, throw a lift on them, but often don’t do very much maintenance baselining leaving some boogers for you to sort out.
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Also without the rice it was probably a better deal.
I’d steal that shift knob if it could be flipped.
I've got a JDM that I imported myself with 80k miles. I love it and it gets a lot of looks / offers from people who think the RHD is cool. That being said, I paid 6k for it in Japan... I would never honestly expect someone to shell out 20k here in the states for a 25+ year old vehicle that's already available here. Also, very unlikely any 80 you get is going to be totally "clean." You WILL find problems with it eventually, and you'll be mad you paid so much IMO.
Don't knock it until you've tried it for a month or two. I wouldn't call it unsafe at all. Finding interior and steering parts can be a pain though. They usually need to come from overseas. But recently I found a new dash and power steering box so its not impossible.
As for that vehicle, it looks like a respray and I see aftermarket interior bits in there. Also would want to be certain the odometer has not been rolled back. Its also an early model... If I were going for a gasser I'd want as late a model as possible for that kind of money. And to mirror other comments, if you're going RHD it should be diesel. Otherwise you'll be answering a lot of 'but why?' questions from cruiserheads.
Yeah RHD is weird for the first week or so, but after that it feels like driving any normal vehicle.
Unfortunately the re-spray and a good turd-polishing is pretty common for the re-sold JDM trucks. I looked at a few HDJ-81s, some 70 series and a few old 40s before I came back from Japan and they looked nice on their face, but mechanically they typically need some loving. In Japan, after a vehicle is a certain age, it gets hard to register them and many sit for a while. Now that the 25-year window is opening for many of these vehicles to be imported, many old trucks are being resurrected, shined up and put up on the auction block on these Japanese resellers. And unfortunately, you have to buy these trucks sight-unseen.
People don’t drive much in Japan, so low mileage is actually pretty common.
And as a comparison, I paid almost half as much for an FZJ-105, which is a fairly unique truck as imported cruisers go
FJBen
SILVER Star
But it has a mini-disc player!!!
Its a nice looking truck but I'd make a different use of $20k to purchase a cruiser. You could find a clean one for $10k, still have budget for a turbo kit and some maintenance and be way ahead of the game.
I would definitely pass on a RHD gasser. I don't even see the point of importing one unless the seats were filled with cocaine or it was your grandpa Yoshi's rig.
With the 25-year rule for US import, that would make the 1994 models the most recent year available.
Coming right up will be the 1995 models and then things will get more interesting, because of the mid-year changes, the application of OBD-II (do JDM trucks have it, I'd think, but does anyone know?), and generall all around greater desirability of the late model 80-series. All in all, I've had a gas truck and if I went JDM, it would be for a turbo-diesel, but maybe in a 70-series.
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After I pointed out to him that I saw it on BaT he went radio silent. Guess there's some bad blood there.
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Out and out. Ha
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I would prob jump on that one for just the flip, should sell for 15k pretty easily^
