Appealing FJ Cruiser bulldog-cute
For a company that normally doesn’t do cute, Toyota sure nailed it with the new FJ Cruiser.
Cute may not have been the mission — the little sport-ute’s bunker-narrow windows, heavy body pillars and squared-off wheel wells agitate for more masculine descriptors — but its pastel-on-white color scheme, retro dimensions and pug-nose grille render it a little heart-warmer.
Toyota targets the FJ Cruiser to active young males. The kind of guys who snowboard in the winter, kayak in the summer and venture off-road for the thrill of it.
Two-wheel-drive models are priced from $22,555, including destination; 4WD models start at $23,735.
At the outset, Toyota expected 30 percent of buyers to be males in their 20s, but it may find it has attracted a different audience altogether. I know a professional, middle-aged woman who’s mad for the rig. She may spend her weekends scouting fishing holes, but I doubt it.
“The majority of people we’re selling them to are men in their late thirties, up to their fifties,” said Downtown Toyota sales manager Tom Price. “It’s definitely an older audience than Toyota expected.”
The FJ Cruiser is the newest — and smallest — member of a family of Toyota SUVs with better-than-average off-road capabilities. Cute as it may be, it can’t be shoehorned into the cute-ute category its RAV4 sibling occupies. Nor is it a reasonable stand-in for Toyota’s comparably priced mid-size crossover, the Highlander.
Those sedan-based rigs offer roomier rear seats and better access to them via full-size doors, as opposed to the FJ Cruiser’s narrow, rear-hinged access panels. Its body-on-frame architecture produces a ride that leans in the direction of truck-like. Its tall, soft-walled, off-road-ready tires respond slowly to steering inputs.
None of this is meant to imply that the FJ Cruiser is an unsuitable driving companion; it’s not. But neither is it as road-friendly as its sedan-based siblings, each of which is better suited for kid-hauling and grocery-getting
Visibility is another concern; the FJ Cruiser is riddled with blind spots. The pillars and narrow windows conspire to block lateral vision, while the rear-mounted spare and rear-seat headrests limit the view out the postage stamp-sized rear window.
Such maneuvers as changing lanes and backing out of parking spots require significant extra care.
The FJ Cruiser comes into its own where the trail grows narrow and steep. With its 105.9-inch wheelbase and 183.9-inch overall length, it’s small enough to negotiate the tight sections of that backwoods trail. Its narrow angles of approach and departure allow it to creep over tall obstacles, and its 9.6-inch ground clearance and aggressive break-over angle minimize the risk of hanging up the underbody on a boulder or log.
A 4.0-liter, 239-horsepower V-6 borrowed from the truck side of the family powers the FJ Cruiser. It’s happiest on high-test gas although it will run on lesser grades.
The FJ Cruiser can be had with a six-speed manual or five-speed automatic transmission. There are two available 4WD systems and two types of locking differentials. An automatic limited-slip rear differential measures the speed of each rear wheel and matches them. Toyota’s optional A-TRAC system replicates the functionality of a locking differential, but without the low-speed binding that can occur in tight turns in a conventional system.
Even 2WD models can be ordered with a locking rear differential, which does a surprisingly good job of taming the outback.
The FJ Cruiser is packed with tie-downs and storage crannies. The rear seat cushions can be removed and the seatbacks folded nearly flat. An easily cleaned rubber-like surface covers the cargo floor and rear seatbacks.
The interior is a light and bright place — the center console is painted to match the body color — and the Toyota-quality gauges and controls include an optional inclinometer that measures the degree at which the vehicle is slanted on a hillside.
A full complement of electronic stability control and braking systems are on board as standard gear. Curtain-style airbags are optional. Satellite radio is available and there’s a jack for your MP3 player.
The front seats are great, the steering wheel is pleasant to the touch and the cabin is reasonably quiet at highway speeds.
In the final analysis, the FJ Cruiser may be a cutie, but it’s bulldog cute. You might want to scratch it behind its adorable ears, but it is as real and as rugged as the grip of that formidable jaw.