The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice special edition Toyota FJ Cruiser says they’ll accept Bitcoin in exchange for the title. We’ll have to decide what the heck that might mean in cold, hard cash.
In the 1985 comedy Volunteers, Tom Hanks plays a pompous rich guy (what other kind is there?) who, due to gambling debts is forced into the Peace Corps. Hanks’ character is sent to build a bridge for a village in Thailand, but once meeting the villagers announces to his associates, “It’s not that I can’t help these people. It’s just I don’t want to.”
A similar emotion coursed through the comments on yesterday’s 2012 Chrysler 200 hardtop convertible, with many of you stating that, while its $10,999 price was a decent deal, no one should logically buy the car because of the model’s reputation for being terrible. That ambivalence was reflected in the car’s 56 percent Nice Price win.
The 2012 Toyota FJ Cruiser we are looking at today does not have a terrible rep. In addition to that, it is one of those instances of a show car that managed to leap off the Dias and escape into the wild.
The truck started life as a concept for the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The response to the concept was so strong that Toyota brought back a production edition just two years later. The design that proved so wildly popular was a retro-mod riff on Toyota’s classic two-door FJ40 Land Cruiser. That’s also where the truck got its otherwise inscrutable name. Unlike the classic FJ, however, the modern FJ offers half doors behind the main portals for ease of access to the back in the manner of the Honda Element and others.
This one is a Trail Team Special Edition, which means it is pretty much optioned up the wazoo. The Trail Team package starts with the offroad performance TRD feature set, using the same 16-inch alloys and Bilstein shocks, and then adds a healthy dose of black paint to the grille, body trim, and accessories.
The Trail Team Special Edition was offered in a single color each model year and for 2012, that was Radiant Red over the blackout trim. In total, Toyota built 2,500 Trail Team FJs for 2012.
This one’s exterior looks to be in terrific shape with no evidence of war wounds from going “deep in the bush.” It wears model-appropriate BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A tires that look to have plenty of meat. In fact, the spare looks to still have its manufacturing stencil on the tread.
More niceness can be found in the cabin. The charcoal and red motif might not be to everyone’s liking and the fake industrial design of the dash hasn’t aged well, but few would argue about the condition or cleanliness of this truck’s presentation. And yes, that beer tap is the stock shifter.
We don’t get any deets on the mechanical systems on the truck but come on, it’s a 135,000-mile Toyota that’s just a hair over 10 years old, how bad could it be? The engine is a 260-horsepower 1GR-FE 4.0 V6, here mated to a five-speed automatic. The full-time 4WD system, along with the frame to which it is bolted, was derived for the FJ from the Prado. This one features Toyota’s A-TRAC traction control system for super low-speed grunt work.
The title is clean and the seller says they’ll accept Bitcoin in lieu of cash for the truck’s $27,999 asking price. Now, to be honest, I don’t even really know what Bitcoin is other than that it’s apparently some sort of amorphous concept, like NFTs or Russia’s military strength. How about we just stick to making it rain in good old-fashioned dollars?
With that in mind, what’s your take on this Trail Team FJ and that $27,999 price? Does that seem like a deal considering its kit and condition? Or, at that price is it just cruisin’ for a losin’?
You decide!
Washington, DC Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Dale Streff for the hookup!
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