Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ73

While the rest of the world was busy making SUVs look more and more like one another, Toyota simply carried on doing its own thing. Better still: while most 4x4s from the 1990s now only turn up in a scrapyard somewhere behind a warehouse, the Land Cruisers of that era just kept going. To Africa, to Australia, to the most remote corners of the earth where there is no AA, no charging point and certainly no roadside patrol.

When the UN needs to bring aid supplies to a place where the road runs out, there is no Range Rover waiting. There is a Toyota. And nine times out of ten it is one from precisely this family.

The 70 Series is the genuine, unvarnished workhorse of the Land Cruiser range. No chrome for the sake of chrome, no leather seats with a massage function, no dashboard that wishes you good morning. This is the generation built to survive, not to impress in the golf club car park. And that is exactly why it has become so terribly sought after. The prices these things command nowadays, especially in the good specifications, would make many an AMG owner blush.

Now, there is a subtle difference between what you usually come across and what stands here. Most 70 Series you see in the UK are diesels: rattling, clattering, indestructible 1HZ units. But not this one. This one has the FZJ code, and that stands for something rather lovely: the 4.5 litre 1FZ-FE straight-six. On petrol. Two hundred and fifteen horsepower of smooth, greedy inline-six muscle that sounds like a car which knows exactly what it is doing.

No diesel clatter, but a deep, purring baritone that has you shifting from nowhere into 'bring on that riverbed'.

Right, back to the car in question. It is an FZJ73 from 1994 in Sandy Taupe, and that is precisely the shade you want. Not white, not black, but a sand colour that looks as though it has just rolled off an expedition across the Serengeti.

What I love about this car is its honesty. You climb in, you hear that engine growl, you grab that gear lever, and there is not a single electronic layer trying to be cleverer than you. No assistant beeping when you get too close to the kerb. Just you, a steering wheel, a gearbox and a straight-six that goes anywhere. It is the automotive equivalent of a good leather jacket: not beautiful in the classic sense, but something that only gets better the harder you use it.

Who buys something like this? Someone who has had enough of cars that have an opinion about everything. Someone who wants to drive to Morocco without breakdown cover. Someone who parks it outside a beach bar and is guaranteed to draw ten blokes who once had an uncle with exactly one of these. Or simply someone who understands that a car built never to break down is, in the end, the smartest thing you can buy.

The 70 Series does not stop at a flat tyre, a mud hole or a country without tarmac. The only question is how far you want to go.

Special features

• 4.5 litre 1FZ-FE straight-six petrol engine (215 hp)
• Rare FZJ petrol variant instead of the usual diesel
• Manual gearbox, proper off-road as intended
• Sandy Taupe colour, expedition-worthy sand tint
• French registration as véhicule de collection
• Complete import papers: customs Le Havre, FFVE certificate
• Technical inspection passed, valid until May 2028
• Indestructible 70 Series chassis
• Margin car

With muddy boots under the desk and sand between the keys

Nick Slinger

Copywriter · HooG Selections