It's morning. I walk out of my house to our 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser. The truck's meaty tires, substantial ground clearance and healthy wheel travel all call attention to themselves. Getting inside, I see the stubby four-wheel-drive engagement lever and the locking rear diff button...
This, I suspect, is experienced by many new FJ Cruiser owners. Yet the truck's limitations – outward visibility equal to a WWII pillbox, slow handling responses and challenged access to the rear seat – make the truck a less-than-ideal commuting companion. This raises the question: If you're going to buy a new 4WD Toyota FJ Cruiser and rarely – if ever – go wheeling on the type of hard-core trails that it's meant for, why buy it? Why not just get a Highlander or Matrix instead? Besides the rather obvious point that the Highlander is about as enthralling as a manila folder, could the answer be the "just in case" factor, which relates to the idea that people just like to know that they have a vehicle with the capability to take on the Rubicon trail, even if they never use that capability?
rsholland says:
04:32 PM, 08/ 4/06
Well, I support of this vehicle as a purchase, or any other type vehicle purchase that many may consider silly—the vehicle is "interesting."
Maybe it's not practical, but it sure is interesting, much in the same way an exotic sports car is (another type of vehicle in which its potential will rarely if ever used); and for me, that would be justification enough.
jerrywimer says:
11:01 AM, 08/ 7/06
And that's the key. People buy the vehicles they do in some part due to image. And it's not necessarily the image others will have of them (despite arguments to the contrary). Sometimes it's just their own self image and what *they* like to see when they get in or out of their car, truck, SUV, or minivan at the beginning or end of a trip.
raul04 says:
02:42 PM, 05/31/07
rsholland,
you make such a convincing point do you work and or make the FJ Crapper?
As you have put it...I am "interested"....