Toyota's FJ Cruiser SUV ticked off most of the boxes the original FJ40 Land Cruiser did. It had two-door styling (thanks to hidden half-doors) and plenty of off-road capability from a traditional four-wheel-drive system and good ground clearance. But unlike the FJ40, the Cruiser never had a convertible option. At least one person decided that was necessary and had one converted to a convertible sometime in its life, and now it could be yours.
The FJ Cruiser shown above is for sale on Craigslist by its current owner in Oakland, Michigan. According to the description, it was converted by Newport Convertible Engineering. If the name sounds familiar, it's because the company has done loads of convertible conversions. Its most recent project was turning an F-150 into a convertible. While we don't see an FJ Cruiser listed on the company's official site as one of its projects, we don't have any reason to doubt the seller, since the truck looks very professionally done, keeping all the doors functional, adding reinforcements, and having a top that fits cleanly and snugly.
Note that, while the conversion looks professional, we're not quite ready to say it looks "good" per se. With the top up, it's not bad, looking almost like a fastback FJ, though the little extension at the base of the top in the rear looks awkward. With the top down, it looks stranger, with such a large section covered by the vinyl top cover. But if you owned it and drove it, you wouldn't really see it. All you'd see is open sky and a lot of surprised faces as you cruise by in one of the world's very few FJ Cruiser convertibles.
This particular Cruiser has a few other fun features, too. Chief among them is a manual transmission, which we rarely would turn down. It also comes with a variety of options and upgrades such as a factory subwoofer, driving lights and off-road package. The top even has a glass rear window with defroster.
If you like the sound of this FJ, you could put it in your driveway. At the time of writing, it's still for sale, and the owner is asking just under $25,000 for it. That may seem a little high considering that our price estimator puts a similar normal FJ Cruiser at about $15,000. But normal ones don't have an open air option, nor do they have the exclusivity of the convertible. And recent low-mileage Murano CrossCabriolets seem to be going for low-$20,000 prices, and those can't go where the FJ can, and they still aren't as exclusive. So this actually seems like a decent buy to us, if you don't mind the looks.
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The FJ Cruiser shown above is for sale on Craigslist by its current owner in Oakland, Michigan. According to the description, it was converted by Newport Convertible Engineering. If the name sounds familiar, it's because the company has done loads of convertible conversions. Its most recent project was turning an F-150 into a convertible. While we don't see an FJ Cruiser listed on the company's official site as one of its projects, we don't have any reason to doubt the seller, since the truck looks very professionally done, keeping all the doors functional, adding reinforcements, and having a top that fits cleanly and snugly.
Note that, while the conversion looks professional, we're not quite ready to say it looks "good" per se. With the top up, it's not bad, looking almost like a fastback FJ, though the little extension at the base of the top in the rear looks awkward. With the top down, it looks stranger, with such a large section covered by the vinyl top cover. But if you owned it and drove it, you wouldn't really see it. All you'd see is open sky and a lot of surprised faces as you cruise by in one of the world's very few FJ Cruiser convertibles.
This particular Cruiser has a few other fun features, too. Chief among them is a manual transmission, which we rarely would turn down. It also comes with a variety of options and upgrades such as a factory subwoofer, driving lights and off-road package. The top even has a glass rear window with defroster.
If you like the sound of this FJ, you could put it in your driveway. At the time of writing, it's still for sale, and the owner is asking just under $25,000 for it. That may seem a little high considering that our price estimator puts a similar normal FJ Cruiser at about $15,000. But normal ones don't have an open air option, nor do they have the exclusivity of the convertible. And recent low-mileage Murano CrossCabriolets seem to be going for low-$20,000 prices, and those can't go where the FJ can, and they still aren't as exclusive. So this actually seems like a decent buy to us, if you don't mind the looks.
Related Video:
Featured Gallery 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser NCE convertible
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