Toyota has closed the first factory it ever built outside of Japan. The automaker’s Sao Bernardo factory in Brazil has closed after 60 years of production and more than 100,000 Toyota Bandeirantes – an FJ40 Land Cruiser with a Mercedes engine.
While the factory has specialized in parts building since 2001, it will always be associated with the Bandeirante, a J40 Land Cruiser equipped with a Mercedes-Benz OM-364 engine. It was a naturally aspirated four-cylinder diesel, so the Bandeirante was dreadfully slow. Still, at the time, Brazil had a massive demand for durable agricultural vehicles, and that’s what this off-roader was good at.
In 1994, the Sao Bernardo factory was still churning out Banderantes, long after the rest of the world had moved over to more luxurious Land Cruisers, including the Land Cruiser 70. That year, it finally received a Toyota 3.7-liter inline-four diesel, and production soldiered on until 2001.
