The Jeep brand is a true red-blooded American hallmark and has its heritage deep in the history books. Over the years, Jeep has had its fair share of successes and pitfalls. One success that has never swayed is the outstanding ability to overcome various terrains and exceptional durability. Many other auto manufacturers have taken note and competed head-to-head against Jeep for market share here in the United States, while others have taken a different route.
Instead of battling the monster-of-a-brand known as Jeep, Mitsubishi opted to strike a deal with Willys in 1953 to market its slightly tweaked version of the classic CJ-3B to the Japanese public. Thus the Mitsubishi Jeep was born. The Mitsubishi Jeep ran in several configurations, but largely the same until 1998 when emissions testing finally made it obsolete. While so many of these vehicles are on the road in Japan, they are an extremely rare to find in North America.
Everyone knows just about anything can be found on Craigslist and right now, that couldn’t be more true. For Sale in the Vancouver, BC, Canada section of Craigslist is a Mitsubishi Jeep J54. Boasting a minuscule 32,091 km (just shy of 20k miles) on the original odometer, this rig looks as if someone hit the pause button for 30 years. Rust-free sheet metal covered in “great paint”, this go-anywhere vehicle uses a lot of the cues from our own CJ-3B with some unique touches we aren’t used to.
With so many similarities, the Mitsubishi J54 could easily be mistaken for a Jeep CJ-3B.
An optional Mitsubishi 2.7L 4DR5 diesel I-4 is housed under the hood, giving this little jeep some extra grunt. Loaded with a 24-volt electrical system, full-time 4×4 hubs and a 2.3:1 low range, this already capable vehicle is then packed with a Dana 30 front axle and Dana 44 rear axle that are both set up with 4.77 gear ratios; creating a crawl speed that just barely moves along.
Sitting on 31-inch tall tires with no lift or hacked sheet metal, covered in an original style soft top with soft doors and right-hand drive to boot, this classic is just funky enough to make even a die-hard CJ flat fender fan drool.
Check out this ad listing to see if it’s still for sale.
The right hand drive diesel J54 may not only has all the comforts of a JK, but its tough-as-nails components are going to get you where you need to go.