I’m one of the most anal guys on the planet when it comes to owning a vehicle. I drive a Chevy Avalanche and let’s just say it has done it’s duty but it’s killing my wallet… 13 miles to the gallon in the city… If I’m towing something forget about gas milage.
I have driven the new Toyota FJ Cruiser and I love it. My wife and I are going in for an appointment to test it one more time, and if I get the same butterfly feeling again… I think I’m going to trade the Avalanche in for this new honey…
Anyone see one on the road yet? I just love it! I basically wrote this to see what everyone else thinks? It’s not as ugly as the Element, and has much better gas miliage than my monster. And it looks cool. I would get the blue or the silver…
According to the article, it has * slightly * better gas mileage than your current vehicle. Unless you consider 17 >> 13. And it seems to be designed for the kind of extreme off-road driving that you pretty much never get in Connecticut.
For that kind of money, you could buy a very decent economal every day car AND a beater pickup for towing things when you need to.
Do you often high-center on tree roots in the Home Depot parking lot? Because if you don’t, I don’t see why you’d need something that huge. I’m guessing you don’t do a lot of safari-ing.
Then why not, as was suggested earlier, get a car with good gas mileage and a used pickup? For what that beast is going to cost you (including gas,) you could get a Camry and an old half-ton pickup for hauling stuff.
I’ve seen several on the road. IMHO, it looks like an unfinished prototype. It also looks like it doesn’t belong on the road but somewhere in the desert outback in a Baja competition. I frankly like a car to handle like a car on a paved road. If I’m going off road, then this is the thing I’d need. But then, most SUV’s clogging the roads will never see a dirt road, let alone off-road trail, so I’m just tilting at windmills with my opinion of “wrong tool for the job”.
In practical terms, that C pillar looks like a potential blind spot problem. But with that kind of ground clearance, you’ll run over any potential obstacles, so who gives a rat’s ass.
I think this toyota is nod to the land cruisers of old that had a great reputation as a reliable off road work horse. The styling is unique. Which is not to say very attractive.
My honest opinon: it looks plasticky and quite ugly.
Also, 16-19 mpg (UK: 19.2-22.8 mpg) is frighteningly uneconomical, especially in the current gas price climate - though bear in mind that’s coming from a European, and we have different definitions of “economical”. The emissions don’t look to hot, either.
Well, given that gas-suckers are not exactly hot items right now, you’re going to take a bath on the Avalanche and end up with a car that’s no more economical or practical, not to mention taking the hit for insurance and property taxes that comes with a brand new car. I’d say it’s a heck of a lot of money to pay to for the sake of looking cool, but hey, it’s not * my * mid-life crisis.
So, basically, you’ve just told us that 1) You never go off road, 2)You want to exchange one gas guzzling behemoth for another gas guzzling behemoth for no good reason other than the fact that it looks cool. So really, you’re asking “Does it really look as cool as I think it does?”
The answer, IMO, is no. The car is fugly and I would laugh at it if I saw one on the road.
What possible contingency could there be that might require you to own such a vehicle “just in case”? If you’re afraid of getting stuck in snow or ice, get a WRX. If you think you might have to go off road, get a real off road vehicle. There are real off road vehicles out there, none of them are going to be very comfortable, efficient, or even SAFE(off road driving in general is a pretty dangerous activity, for the inexperienced) for someone to drive primarily in the city.
As an aside, I’ve never personally understood the “we have a large family, so we need an SUV” argument myself. Unless you have 5 or 8 kids, a mid size family car will do just fine. My family of four got by for 15+ years on a Nissan Sentra and we were happy as pigs in mud. Of course I didn’t have my own personal DVD player and Xbox360 in the back either, how did I ever survive.
Well, here how it’s worked in Massachusetts which is probably pretty typical.
To forestall the inevitable question, I’m guessing the “Year preceding” percentage is prorated because models typically come out in the fall.
Anyway, for a 30K car, it looks like you’d be paying $675.00 in taxes the year after you bought it, while in the fifth year you’d be paying $75.00 as by that time, the car has depreciated substantially in resale value. Note that you also pay sales tax of around 6% when you buy the car, so you take a sizeable hit buying a brand new car.
I’m a person that truly needs an ‘off road ‘ vehicle. I saw a few things about the FJ and dismissed it without even looking at it.
Now, the new FJ could probably do everything I need. Though at a VERY steep Toyota price…
I bought a brand spanking new Nissan Pathfinder. Four REAL doors. Tow capacity of 6,000 lbs with a VERY peppy V-6. 9” of ground clearance. And I, my Wife, two sixty pound dogs and 4 suitcases fit just fine. The bike rack is in the hitch.
Adjustable pedals, rear heat and air conditioning for the dogs. It comes standard with a class 4 hitch and a very useable roof rack.
I drive over an 11,500 foot pass every day, and I am getting 18.5 miles to the gallon.
Well, color me surprised. It looks like you can get in an FJ for quite a bit less than a 4-runner. Looks like it would do well off road, but I bet the rear visability is pretty bad. Otherwise, looks good to me.
Hmmm… 30 less hp than the Pathfinder. But it is about 400 lbs lighter. A tad better ground clearence. The smaller size of the FJ would make it a bit better off road. But not as much cargo capacity as the Pathfinder.
The almost a 4 door is sort of a good idea. But i duno. I think it would end up being a PITA.
You seem to want it for it’s looks. That’s fine. Why do people buy the new Bug? I’d also bet that it is also a much better off road vehicle than the H2 or H3.
Funny, my wife said pretty much the same thing. Sufficed to say I didn’t buy it. I liked driving it, but thats about it… I liked driving it, and was not in loive with the Fisher-Priceness of the blue one. I’m going to keep the Chevy for a little while longer…The thing is I don’t want a Car. I want something with some utility.
Seriously. I looked for about a year. My Wife has a 02 Grand Jeep that we like a lot, but it has had its share of problems. I rented and drove an '05 Jeep, and just did not really like it. The Pathfinder, for a V6 has lots of power and room. It’s a 7 passenger, which I really did not want. But, the seating arrangement is very flexable, and all the rear seats fold down completely flat. Keep an eye out for that, I remember that the Libertys seats do not fold completely flat. I think the same may be true for the new Jeep Grand. This is very important if you carry dogs or just need the utility of a flat area.
The off road comes with a lot of very nice options.
Adustable pedals. Pretty much put the 4 runner out of the running, so to speak.
Roof rack and tow kit.
Anti-slip both front and rear. This is not a true locking dif, it’s controled by the brakes. I think this system will work very well for me. In fact, The first day I drove it to work the roads where horrible, and I did just fine.
I mentioned rear heat and air conditioning. The 5 vents are in the roof. The controls can be operated from the front or back. It allows me to put air conditioning on our dogs, or allow me to flood extra heat in the car when it’s cold.
Real good ground clearence compared to many of the new SUV’s. You can actually go off road.
Front tow hook. Sounds silly to some folks, but it can be tough to add a tow hook on some of the new vehicles that have IFS.
The Pathfinder has a rear hatch instead of a door. Again, utility. I can run with the hatch open for longer stuff. Wouldn’t do that with a door on the back.
For myself, a little bit of brand loyalty comes into play. My last Pathfinder was a great car. 200,000 miles of mountain driving. Going into 4x every day for 6 months out of the year, and never a problem.
