Like any fashion business, selling cars is all about personal identification. Successful automakers offer vehicles that match the images people want for themselves.
So at first it's a little surprising that Toyota, the world's most successful car company, should bring out a brawny, ultra SUV just when the popularity of sport utilities is crashing.
But after you examine Toyota's new FJ Cruiser, its arrival seems perfectly timed. FJ isn't an ultra SUV as much as it is an anti-SUV. That is, it's an SUV in the old style: rugged and rough. I won't say it's unadorned, because FJ Cruiser is in fact very carefully adorned. But it is styled and decorated to give off a rough and rugged attitude. Cleverly, FJ also conveys funkiness and fun, with a wide, white roof and discreet back doors that are hinged in the rear, opening like clamshells for back seat riders.
In that way FJ thumbs its flattened nose at contemporary SUVs that are cushioned and prettified to disguise their origins as extreme trucks. FJ stands apart with an extreme posture that makes it one of the most gawked-at and sought-after vehicles in America, while other big SUVs beg for attention.
But it's not sought after by everyone. Nationally FJ is in tight supply because Toyota limits the number it makes. "They're a niche. It's not something that we're selling like RAV4," said Derek Eastman, sales manager at Jaffarian Volvo Toyota Scion in Haverhill.
RAV4, more compact and genteel than FJ, is Toyota's top-selling utility model. Last year, the car company sold more than 150,000 RAVs in the United States. After introducing FJ in March, Toyota sold just over 56,000 of the new, sporty utility vehicles.
Starting around $22,000, FJ is priced for juiced, youthful drivers who want to show that they make their own roads. At Jaffarian, the hauler pulls in car shoppers up to about age 35, Eastman said. In Salem, N.H., Rockingham Toyota Scion Nissan Honda sells FJs to motorists attracted by its rough-cut image.
"You don't see too many people with children buy it," said Jerry Malone, general sales manager of Rockingham. "People buy it because of the persona that goes along with it. It looks rugged. It is rugged. But it can also drive well on the road."
Sales of FJ Cruiser split about 50/50 between men and woman, Malone notes.
So at first it's a little surprising that Toyota, the world's most successful car company, should bring out a brawny, ultra SUV just when the popularity of sport utilities is crashing.
But after you examine Toyota's new FJ Cruiser, its arrival seems perfectly timed. FJ isn't an ultra SUV as much as it is an anti-SUV. That is, it's an SUV in the old style: rugged and rough. I won't say it's unadorned, because FJ Cruiser is in fact very carefully adorned. But it is styled and decorated to give off a rough and rugged attitude. Cleverly, FJ also conveys funkiness and fun, with a wide, white roof and discreet back doors that are hinged in the rear, opening like clamshells for back seat riders.
In that way FJ thumbs its flattened nose at contemporary SUVs that are cushioned and prettified to disguise their origins as extreme trucks. FJ stands apart with an extreme posture that makes it one of the most gawked-at and sought-after vehicles in America, while other big SUVs beg for attention.
But it's not sought after by everyone. Nationally FJ is in tight supply because Toyota limits the number it makes. "They're a niche. It's not something that we're selling like RAV4," said Derek Eastman, sales manager at Jaffarian Volvo Toyota Scion in Haverhill.
RAV4, more compact and genteel than FJ, is Toyota's top-selling utility model. Last year, the car company sold more than 150,000 RAVs in the United States. After introducing FJ in March, Toyota sold just over 56,000 of the new, sporty utility vehicles.
Starting around $22,000, FJ is priced for juiced, youthful drivers who want to show that they make their own roads. At Jaffarian, the hauler pulls in car shoppers up to about age 35, Eastman said. In Salem, N.H., Rockingham Toyota Scion Nissan Honda sells FJs to motorists attracted by its rough-cut image.
"You don't see too many people with children buy it," said Jerry Malone, general sales manager of Rockingham. "People buy it because of the persona that goes along with it. It looks rugged. It is rugged. But it can also drive well on the road."
Sales of FJ Cruiser split about 50/50 between men and woman, Malone notes.
That fact surprised me, as it surprised a lot of other people who expected FJ to be a guy-buy when Toyota brought out the vehicle one year ago. FJ is burly and broad, with a menacing, low-cabin look. Everything about the SUV appears large: large wheels and tires, a big jutting bumper, fat tubes on the optional roof rack, wide-arching wheel openings beneath pronounced fender bulges, big outside mirrors. Even the interior seems super-sized, with long seating expanses, a flat, upright dash, high-standing stickshift and heater knobs so big you can twist them when you're wearing ski mittens.
FJ's off-road capabilities match its rough-it-up appearance. The contemporary SUV is inspired by the FJ40, an adventure vehicle sold by Toyota as the Land Cruiser in the U.S. from 1960 through 1983. (Toyota now sells a very capable but luxurious Land Cruiser priced around $60,000.) The original Land Cruiser conquered uncivilized terrain around the world. Today's FJ, powered by a 239-horsepower V6 engine, will take the worst that our region can fling at it. I felt supremely confident driving my test model in tough conditions. Last Sunday, for example, prodded by the tauntings of a 6-year-old passenger named Madeleine, I bumped the FJ into a 2-foot bank of crusty snow. Pitched steeply to one side, Cruiser stepped through the obstacle with as much command as I've experienced in any trail wagon.
All that attitude and ability exacts some penalties, especially at the fuel pumps. Befitting any beefy bruiser slung with weighty, four-wheel drive, FJ Cruiser has an EPA fuel economy rating of only 16 miles per gallon in city driving, 19 mpg highway, when outfitted with six-speed manual transmission - it's most capable off-road configuration. With four-wheel drive and automatic transmission, estimated fuel economy ticks up to 17 mpg city, 21 mpg highway. A two-wheel-drive model rates 18 mpg city, 22 mpg highway. FJ burns premium gas.
For comparison, the smaller RAV4 - which also seats five people, but gives them much less space - earns an EPA rating of 22 mpg city, 29 mpg highway with two-wheel drive and a V6 engine burning regular gas. An all-wheel-drive V6 gets 21 mpg city, 28 mpg highway. That's 33 percent better than FJ for highway mileage.
Another problem is that FJ's flat-wagon styling hurts rear visibility. You do well looking forward, thanks to FJ's broad windshield and wide doors. But most of the rear quarters are blanked out. That makes passing somewhat problematic, and it demands extra care when you back FJ out of parking spaces.
But those trade offs can be easily accepted for a vehicle with so much flavor. I enjoyed just parking FJ. In a big Market Basket lot, I pushed the front wheels high onto a pile made by the snowplows. I left it perched there, like it had climbed the Matterhorn. Emmett Horgan, owner of Rockingham Toyota, snatched up the first model his dealership received. He customized it and enjoys the sideshow his FJ creates most every place he drives it.
2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser
Vehicle type: 4-door, 5-passenger, rear- and all-wheel-drive sport utility vehicle
Price range: $21,910 to $23,500 (plus options)
Warranty: 3 years/36,000 miles basic warranty; 5 years/60,000 miles powertrain warranty; 5 years/unlimited miles corrosion warranty
Engine: 4.0-liter V6
Power: 239 horsepower at 5,200 rpm; 278 lb.-ft. torque at 3,700 rpm
Transmission: 5-speed automatic
Fuel economy: 18 mpg city; 22 mpg highway
Wheelbase: 106 inches
Length: 184 inches
Width: 75 inches
Height: 71 inches
Weight: 4,050 pounds
Fuel capacity: 19.0 gallons
Turning Circle: 41.8 feet
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