One of the big surprises of the day is the fact that as massive as the FJ appears, it fits in a regular parking space. If you are in a mall space, it is a bit tight and getting out of the back is a bit more interesting, but it can be done. Parallel parking is a bit more complicated, but surprisingly easy because of the squared-off design of the FJ.
The only parking issue I ever came across was backing out of an angle parking space when no one wanted to let me out. It took a couple of minutes before someone came along who wanted the space bad enough to let me get out. I was tempted just to back up and put up with the horns and single digit salutes, but discretion carried the day.
With such a squared-off design and aggressively designed tires, you do not expect the FJ to have such good highway manners. The large flexible sidewalls on the tires do not let the FJ wander in the lane and only when pushing hard in a corner does tire wind up become an issue when the front starts to push out. Such large sidewalls actually help keep the ride smooth on rough pavement and soak up tar strips so that you don’t know they are there.
If you don’t take your new “civilized” FJ off road, you will be missing an experience. For a product that is based on a car platform with four tall tires mounted up to get ground clearance, the FJ is remarkably agile. Toyota goes so far as to put a tilt gauge and an inclinometer inside so that you know what angles you can make.
All this is well and done, but the off-road ability extends to our gravel and dirt roads as well. I was able to get up to some pretty good speeds on poor trails. Stability was excellent and the water and mud that I did go through slowed me down considerably, but I didn’t get stuck.
Unless you are a hardcore rock crawler, the FJ Cruiser will fill your needs as both an in-town and off-road vehicle. It will go down the worst of roads or look good cleaned up and parked in front of the theater.
It isn’t often that my kids and I agree on something, but both my boys and I put the FJ Cruiser at the top of our wish lists for an off-road style vehicle. In addition, my neighbor who used to own a Land Cruiser came over for a ride three or four times during my test drives, just so that he could find new reasons to convince his wife that he should get one.
photo:Charles Renny
The only parking issue I ever came across was backing out of an angle parking space when no one wanted to let me out. It took a couple of minutes before someone came along who wanted the space bad enough to let me get out. I was tempted just to back up and put up with the horns and single digit salutes, but discretion carried the day.
With such a squared-off design and aggressively designed tires, you do not expect the FJ to have such good highway manners. The large flexible sidewalls on the tires do not let the FJ wander in the lane and only when pushing hard in a corner does tire wind up become an issue when the front starts to push out. Such large sidewalls actually help keep the ride smooth on rough pavement and soak up tar strips so that you don’t know they are there.
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| When you do find a gap in traffic, the power from the 4.0-litre V6 gets you from place to place quite quickly. |
If you don’t take your new “civilized” FJ off road, you will be missing an experience. For a product that is based on a car platform with four tall tires mounted up to get ground clearance, the FJ is remarkably agile. Toyota goes so far as to put a tilt gauge and an inclinometer inside so that you know what angles you can make.
All this is well and done, but the off-road ability extends to our gravel and dirt roads as well. I was able to get up to some pretty good speeds on poor trails. Stability was excellent and the water and mud that I did go through slowed me down considerably, but I didn’t get stuck.
Unless you are a hardcore rock crawler, the FJ Cruiser will fill your needs as both an in-town and off-road vehicle. It will go down the worst of roads or look good cleaned up and parked in front of the theater.
It isn’t often that my kids and I agree on something, but both my boys and I put the FJ Cruiser at the top of our wish lists for an off-road style vehicle. In addition, my neighbor who used to own a Land Cruiser came over for a ride three or four times during my test drives, just so that he could find new reasons to convince his wife that he should get one.
photo:Charles Renny
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