FJ Cruiser: "The Car that Ate Seattle"

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is a fine road trip vehicle that gives you a feeling of being on some kind of outdoorsy holiday. Everywhere you travel, this ute captures the imagination of passersby and exudes an image of a rugged yet playful spirit. The views from the front seats are incredible, as the greenhouse style side windows and windshield provide nearly-panoramic viewing (although the lack of a sunroof was surprising.) And there's no problem finding it in a crowded rest stop lot. But on the whole, we found more problems - mostly nit-picks - than pluses. The FJ is simply a front, albeit a fun front.

Seattle was a fitting city to test out this vehicle, offering dirt driveways and steep hills aplenty along with the usual urban situations. While its large blindspots to the rear were a challenge, the massive ground clearance allowed a few daring escapes in the back alleys of Pioneer Square to beat Seahawks postgame traffic. Not really a toughness test, but a fun thumbing of the nose at the BMWs stuck in gridlock.

OK, long story short: The FJ Cruiser is the Hummer H3. There's no need to deny it. This is an oversized ute that is large simply for the sake of being large. Getting a handle on the perceived size of the FJ is an exercise in creative design interpretation. While the H3 plays on the H2's design to make the vehicle seem larger than it really is, the FJ uses a light top and "Tonka" toy design to give the appearance it isn't as large.

When you climb inside or get a full profile view, the FJ seems enormous. But for the imposing size of this beast, there is surprisingly little room behind the front seats. Passengers in back are in danger of a sea-sickening voyage thanks to the swaying of the cabin and a claustrophobic back seat that blocks much of the view of the outside. (This swaying may or may not be caused by the sizable luggage rack atop the FJ, which amplifies crosswinds. The car was not designed with the rack figured in to the stability formula, so the car is a bit more top-heavy than Toyota engineers expected when they drew up the suspension requirements.)

If the back isn't in use, folding the seats down is somewhat useless as the seats don’t fold completely flat, keeping a 45 degree angle at best which provides little usable additional cargo space. Our Pontiac Vibe could likely fit a similar volume of stuff.

This huge amount of bulk on the FJ does add up to poor mileage, stunningly poor mileage by my measure. At best, during highway driving using cruise control on flat grades, the FJ averaged 17 or 18 mpg. This forces stops every 250 miles or so. The H3 gets 20 mpg on the highway, but is still seen by many consumers as being the epitome of wasteful driving.

More to come...