As a rule, when talking about Toyota there are three models that it is almost impossible not to mention: the Corolla, the Hilux and finally the “eternal” Land Cruiser, the oldest of this Japanese trio and precisely the model we are talking about today.
Originally released on August 1, 1951, still under the Toyota name “Jeep BJ”, the Land Cruiser has now 68 years of continuous production, with large-scale exports starting with the 20 series (known as the BJ20) that saw the light of the day in 1955.
If initially exports were just above 100 units/year, about 10 years after they started (in 1965), the numbers already exceeded 10 thousand units per year.
Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
Now, more than six decades after the launch of the first generation, the Land Cruiser is sold in approximately 170 countries and regions around the world, accumulating global sales of 400,000 units annually, having now reached the milestone of 10 million units sold worldwide. world.
A story also Portuguese
Used in some of the most demanding jobs a car can ask for (the Land Cruiser is used in humanitarian assistance services in Africa, in Australian mines at 1600 meters depth and even in Costa Rica's harvests at more than 3500 meters altitude ) part of the Land Cruiser's history also passes through Portugal.
Subscribe to our newsletter
The fact is that Toyota Caetano Portugal's factory in Ovar currently produces (exclusively) the Land Cruiser 70 series, a model that, more than 30 years after its launch, continues to be sold, although now only in South Africa, where continues to prove its qualities.