The Toyota Mega Cruiser is cooler than a Hummer, but good luck finding one
Published on Apr 18, 2022 at 4:44 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Welham
Last updated on May 05, 2022 at 11:28 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
The Hummer H2 and H3 are often seen as the coolest SUVs around, but I don’t think this is the case.
Sure, the H1 is cool, but there’s one unknown version that’s even better and it’s made by Toyota. Problem is, there are not many around and it will set you back about US$150,000 if you can find one.
The Toyota Mega Cruiser is a huge vehicle as you can see, and it looks remarkably like a Hummer H1.
This is because it too was originally built for military use – but for Japan.
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It is by far the largest stock car Toyota has ever built, and it will come to you as no surprise when you hear it weighs 2,901 kg.
To put this into a weird perspective, that is about half as heavy as an elephant or T-Rex, so probably best if you don’t roll it and allow plenty of time and distance to brake.
It is, of course, a 4×4 and comes with a 4.1-litre in-line four turbo-diesel engine that produces very high torque at low revs, which is what you need to get this thing moving in the first place, let alone properly driving.
The engine is mated to a four-speed automatic gearbox, but what more do you need when you have an ambitious top speed of 130km/h.
Quiz: Can you tell which movies these cars are from?
Its interior is very similar to that of the H1 because they are very similar cars – but this is built for the Japanese market only.
The Mega Cruiser was used by the police and Japanese rescue teams.
Toyota Mega Cruisers for sale
There was also a small amount sold to the public but you would be very lucky to see one in the flesh.
It is estimated that Toyota made about 3,000 in total.
There are not many Toyota Mega Cruisers for sale, but we found a couple available on some dodgy-looking online classified sites that were around $150,000.
The point of Toyota making such a ridiculous car back in 1995 was to see if they could pass on this design to cars such as the Land Cruiser, but it just wasn’t financially viable.
It’s a huge shame we never saw more being made, but perhaps Toyota would consider making an all-electric one in the future?
Ben Welham
Ben is a freelance motoring journalist who studied Journalism and previously produced daily content at DriveTribe. He has a worrying obsession with Tudor watches, and his dream car is the Porsche GT3 Touring.
