The Official Publication of the Toyota Land Cruiser Association. Since 1976 and Still Going Strong.

May/June 2007

Where Have All the Land Cruisers Gone?

by Harold Stephens

The following feature is an excerpt from Toyota Trails, the official publication of TLCA. To read the entire article, join TLCA now!

In the 1960s, when Al Podell (the picture editor of Argosy magazine) told me he might be able to arrange a Toyota Land Cruiser for me to continue my motor trip around the world, I thought he was crazy. I had just driven my Willy’s Jeep across Russia, and after spending a couple months in a Russian jail, I was back in New York to raise money to continue my journey. My trusty Willy’s was in Spain, waiting for me, and I needed nothing else—except money, and Argosy was buying my Russian story. Now Podell was telling me about a Toyota four-wheel drive vehicle. Like most Americans—or most people around the world for that matter—I had never heard of a Toyota motor vehicle. Besides, even if I had, who would want one? Japan in the mid 1960s still had the reputation of manufacturing cheap kids toys and junk throwaway products. When I thought of Japan, I thought of Doughboy firecrackers.

There is little need to tell what happened after that. Podell got me that Land Cruiser and I made my journey around the world—setting the record for the longest motor trip around the world—and I wrote a book about the experience called Who Needs A Road. My around the world trip helped promote Toyota—and in many places that had never seen a Land Cruiser, like Australia and Southeast Asian countries, Toyotas began to appear. In these countries that were once British possessions (with the exception of Thailand), the traditional British Land Rover was soon being replaced. Land Cruisers appeared everywhere and it seemed they would continue to dominate the market.

Then something happened. Today, one hardly sees an FJ40 Land Cruiser on the roads of countries in Southeast Asia. I live in Bangkok and I can go for weeks without seeing a single FJ40. For me, it is very disappointing. I wanted to find an old F40 and rebuild it for an upcoming trans-China trip that I plan to make. What happened to these vehicles in countries where nothing is thrown away? Well, anyone who owns an FJ40 series knows of its reliability. For car dealers, however, who want to sell new cars, that is not so good. In Thailand and many Southeast Asian countries, the agents bought up the old vehicles and scrapped them. Sad but true. How can you sell new cars if the old models are still good?  Simple logic.

Then came the shock of my life—I couldn’t believe what I saw. Ever since I visited the island of Bali on my world trip in 1965-66, I have managed to return every few years. I love the island and the Balinese people. Usually when I visited I rented a Suzuki jeep to get around. However, after the terrible Bali bombings that occurred a couple years ago, I stopped going to Bali, as did most of the world’s travelers. Tourism plummeted. Two months ago I decided to give Bali a try again. And then came the surprise—Bali today is a land of old refurbished FJ40 Land Cruisers. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…