I test-drove an FJ over the weekend. I love the open platform and the ability to customize it for off-road and on-road friendliness. I'm having a hard time with the limited family space though.
Family will spend about 10% of their riding time in this vehicle. I'll commute, get off-road for kicks (no major rock crawling) and use it for volunteer search and rescue work if needed. I live in Northern CA and make a couple trips to the Sierras and the Lost Coast annually.
Please give feedback.
I have two daughters, 6 years and 12 months. Seems cramped and claustrophobic in the back. No open windows, little air, limited legroom even for kids. Has this been a problem for anyone?
What about wind noise? The factory rack was whisteling along on the test drive. Are the Gobi racks just insanely noisy. Must I simply accept this as the price of driving a truck?
Anyone considered the benefits of simply waiting a year or two for things like earth tones; grab handles for passengers; a diesel? I don't know that any of these things are coming but like many in the FJ community I'd like more choices.
Manual or automatic? If I dare the Rubicon one day is a manual tranny a must, or can I happily bounce over it, kids in tow, with an auto? Seriously, I don't think they'd come with, but I'd be tempted.
Re: Gobi -- why go Safari? Seem the Ranger offers greater utility. Am I missing something here?
ATRAC and diff locks -- what do I need really. Can I enable ATRAC on an automatic for $50, or is that only on the manual jobs.
Base models: I'd like to get a base model and use my money to build up the beast. Is this even an option, or must I spend close to $30k simply to get diff locks?
Why does the plastic seem so cheap, even for plastic?
I think that's all for now. All non-flaming responses are appreciated.
Oh, about my login ID on my first post. Before you get any weird ideas you should know my wife is a Sagittarian. Sagi + Phile = sagiphile.
Gone down this road, not sure at 50 years old, kids grown that this is the great family vehicle, although in hindsight this is better than what we had then. Do you want to offroad or do you want to be a street cruiser. Is this your second car or is this your only car? I think it is your second, so hard call, being a dad with the Misses, how hard do you and her will think it will be getting the youngins in the back?
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What about wind noise? The factory rack was whisteling along on the test drive. Are the Gobi racks just insanely noisy. Must I simply accept this as the price of driving a truck?
Not sure why, but my roof rack hardly makes any noise at all even though I've read that some others have complained of this. Maybe it is the spacing of the cross members???
Quote:
sagiphile previously said:
Anyone considered the benefits of simply waiting a year or two for things like earth tones; grab handles for passengers; a diesel? I don't know that any of these things are coming but like many in the FJ community I'd like more choices.
Earth tones and a diesel sure would be nice! But who knows if they'll be out anytime soon. But, the aftermarket crowd such as All Pro and other forum sponsors here are creating lots of upgrades with more to come.
Quote:
sagiphile previously said:
Manual or automatic? If I dare the Rubicon one day is a manual tranny a must, or can I happily bounce over it, kids in tow, with an auto? Seriously, I don't think they'd come with, but I'd be tempted.
I have a manual. I LOVE it for driving around town & normal stuff but much to my surprise I don't like it off road. When I bought the FJ I expected the exact opposite and have been surprised by this. The Autos seem superior offroad in my opinion. The crawl ratio in the FJ manual is just not high enough but this is overcome by the torque converter in the Auto. To be fair, this is only noticable when you are doing harder terrain such as rock crawling where very slow and precise driving is required. I'm pretty sure that I read that even the Toyota trail team members prefer the auto and they've taken one down the Rubicon.
Quote:
sagiphile previously said:
ATRAC and diff locks -- what do I need really. Can I enable ATRAC on an automatic for $50, or is that only on the manual jobs.
If you are doing much beyond mild offroading you will really need either or both the ATRAC and the rear locker. Personally, I don't use my rear locker much since the ATRAC pretty much handles most situations. Come to think of it, I did two days of wheeling in the Sierras this weekend and didn't use the locer once. But, when you need it it is nice. And your comment on the plastic is right on, but hey, nothing we can do about that.
Welcome to the forum!
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FJBlack Manual, rails, 285 MTR's, All Pro rear links upper & lower, All Pro Adj. Lift front & rear, custom scratches down the sides...
I test-drove an FJ over the weekend. I love the open platform and the ability to customize it for off-road and on-road friendliness. I'm having a hard time with the limited family space though.
Family will spend about 10% of their riding time in this vehicle. I'll commute, get off-road for kicks (no major rock crawling) and use it for volunteer search and rescue work if needed. I live in Northern CA and make a couple trips to the Sierras and the Lost Coast annually.
Please give feedback.
I have two daughters, 6 years and 12 months. Seems cramped and claustrophobic in the back. No open windows, little air, limited legroom even for kids. Has this been a problem for anyone?
What about wind noise? The factory rack was whisteling along on the test drive. Are the Gobi racks just insanely noisy. Must I simply accept this as the price of driving a truck?
Anyone considered the benefits of simply waiting a year or two for things like earth tones; grab handles for passengers; a diesel? I don't know that any of these things are coming but like many in the FJ community I'd like more choices.
Manual or automatic? If I dare the Rubicon one day is a manual tranny a must, or can I happily bounce over it, kids in tow, with an auto? Seriously, I don't think they'd come with, but I'd be tempted.
Re: Gobi -- why go Safari? Seem the Ranger offers greater utility. Am I missing something here?
ATRAC and diff locks -- what do I need really. Can I enable ATRAC on an automatic for $50, or is that only on the manual jobs.
Base models: I'd like to get a base model and use my money to build up the beast. Is this even an option, or must I spend close to $30k simply to get diff locks?
Why does the plastic seem so cheap, even for plastic?
I think that's all for now. All non-flaming responses are appreciated.
Oh, about my login ID on my first post. Before you get any weird ideas you should know my wife is a Sagittarian. Sagi + Phile = sagiphile.
KJB
A quick response for some of your questions based on the consensus of past forum posts -
- Plastic - yep, could be higher quality
- The $50 A-Trac option works only when you have the Rear Diffy Lock. So that means every manual and the Auto's with the Rear Diff Option. On the auto the Rear Diff Lock can be had as a stand alone option and is not necessarily tied into one of the packages. Availability for any given combination of options seems to run very dealer and region dependent. Do you need it? That depends on how much you wheel in what conditions. Thinking of it like having a more extensive tool kit. Diffy Lock and A-Trac give you more job specific tools - you can find workarounds for a lot of situations without them but when you really need them its nice to pull the exact right tool out.
- Gobi - Height is a big factor - the FJC starts tall - add 8" with the Ranger rack and a lot of parking garages and home garages are out of play. Add the Stealth rack and save some height with only giving up a bit of utility. Also relates to wind noise.....
- Wind Noise - Disclaimer - I don't have my FJC yet but I have driven trucks and off roads for 20 years. Wind noise depends a lot on individual tolerances. With the Gobi's there are deflectors that can fooled around with to limit some noise but add a rack and maybe some lights to an already blocky figure and it aint no luxury sedan for a quiet ride.
- Manual or Auto - whoo, huge question with a lot of discussion in a couple of threads. It's all about personal preference when you are not off roading. Good arguments on both sides. For 97% of the off-roading out there it won't make a difference either. As a matter of opinion for "easy" off-roading (low technical factor) you could argue that an automatic is easier, especially for a beginner, as there is one less thing to think about. But, one point not up for argument is that the crawl ration in low gear is much better (though still not close to stock rubicon) in the manual then the automatic. Again, the amount of times this makes a difference is limited but when it does make a difference there is no replacement. Personal opinion - manual.
- Waiting a year or two? - no official word on what Toyota will change, how many they will produce next year, offer as options, etc. A lot of threads on the a first year model two. General consensus is with Toyota you won't have the same first year issues as with a lot of other manufacturers and, this late into the run several changes are likely to have been made on the production line to address known issues already - therefore it is more like a 2007 1/2 now. Not a word out of them on Diesels - not going to happen for '08. New colors - a strong possibility. Things like grab bars? Anyone's guess. Waiting a year - not a chance for me.
- The back seat dungeon - again refer to my earlier disclaimer. This was a major issue for me so I spent a lot of time researching it as I have three boys, 10, 9, and 3. Those that have been down this road report it has not been a problem in general. Getting in and out for kids is not an issue, room is not an issue, etc. The one comment I have seen is that they sometimes do complain that the window doesn't roll down in the back. I thought about it and then realized I rarely let my kids put the windows down anyway (and in my Bronco it wasn't an option or problem for them either) as it is - with my three boys the odds of a ball or book going out the window and causing an accident when "I was just tossing it to him" is their excuse is too great.
Okay - that's all I got. It sounds from your post like you almost want to be talked out of it. Just imagine yourself three years from know looking back at the car purchase you made in 2006 - in hindsight which vehicle are you most pleased that you bought? If its the FJC stop hesitating!
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The FJC Countdown - less than 5 days until returning to the States and getting my FJC (and some decent Sushi)!
I appreciate the input. I'd like to be able to wait, not sure I can. Need a 2nd vehicle and would like to buy one for the long term.
If I get one and modify as I'm currently thinking I'll post plenty of pics.
Anyone ever mounted their own grab points on the interior? I wonder if it could be done with a few rock climbing anchors behind the interior trim and clever knots. Do you need much more than a rope and handle? And of course a nice way to finish it so it looks "factory."
i took a 750 mile / 12 hour trip with three 18 year old girls. They rotated the front seat with stops. Two of them said the back seat of the FJ was as comfortable as my old FJ 80; the third like the old cruiser better
We removed the crossbars (a five minute job) and it made a significant improvement in wind noise...in any event, the vehicle is VERY quiet by truck/SUV standards and is quite good even by car standards.
Motor Trend writes: "And while the FJ lacks genuine forward-hinged rear doors like the others, its 'Access Doors,' which open 90 degrees, nonetheless make ingress and egress a snap." Bull. Rear seat ingress and egress is a problem. You can't get out of the back seat unless someone opens the front door for you. If someone gets in the back from the right side, with no front right passenger, driver has to go around and close the front door. Not a problem for us, as we seldom have back seat pax, but not family friendly arrangement.
Compromises? It is what it is; a very cool vehicle that's great fun to drive, has an awesome stereo, and will go damn near anywhere in exchange for a slightly higher annual fuel bill. But consider this: if you drive 12,000 miles at 20MPG you'll use 600 gallons. Pay $3 for gas, it'll cost you $1800. Buy a Prius, at 40MPG you'll use 300 gallons and pay $900--so you'd save just $900 dollars on fuel compared to the FJ. If that's important to you, consider this: if you buy 2 lattes at Starbucks 3 times a week it'll cost you over $1000.
Skip Starbucks, drive an FJ and save! Or do like we did--buy an FJ and a Prius and you can still go to Starbucks...or something like that.
For me, the backseat room (or lack of it) is not really an issue, as my FJ is not a kid-hauler - we've had adults in the back for short trips, and there have been no real complaints, but I'm not sure that anyone would want to ride across the continent back there.
I've never had a problem with wind noise from the rack since I adjusted the crossmembers right after I purchased it. That seemed to solve the issue.
Colors, manual or auto, Gobi - those are personal choices. I myself could never go back to an MT - too much work.
The plastic is without a doubt my biggest disappointment with the FJ - they could have done a much better job with this. I have to be ultra-careful everytime I put my gear in the rear cargo area, and already have some significant scratching....I can't imagine what it looks like with the dog owners on this forum.
My two previous vehicles were Land Cruisers with very high quality plastic, and the 2000 model I traded in for the FJ had zero scratches on its interior plastic. I just wish that Toyota had added another $1000 to the base cost of the FJ, and installed some better plastic.
I just got back from King's Canyon. It was about a seven hour drive, super windy drive. I had my 13 year old daughter in the back, and she was totally comfortable. Not one complaint out of her. I even had the small seat down for easy cooler access.
I just got back from King's Canyon. It was about a seven hour drive, super windy drive. I had my 13 year old daughter in the back, and she was totally comfortable. Not one complaint out of her. I even had the small seat down for easy cooler access.
How much for the girl? 7 hours and not a complaint out of her.
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