Recent content by BDL

No argument there. It really is amazing how consumer behavior has turned on a dime. Two years ago a full-size pickup, and arguably a real family-hauling SUV were thought to be the holes in Toyota's lineup, because the previous gen Tundra and Sequoia just weren't quite to American taste. Now...

I find this stuff interesting, so I'll point out a few things: 1. As the AP story says, these are raw figures. There were only 24 selling days in June versus 27 last year so there's a built-in decline of about 11%. This is true for all the companies. In Toyota's case, sales were really down...

This reminds me of an anecdote in a book I read a few years ago, called "The Great War for Civilization" by a British journalist named Robert Fisk. Many years ago he actually interviewed Osama bin Laden, before 9/11 and all that's happened since. To meet OBL, he was driven up into the Afghan...

Pine Canyon was great, but like everything else in the park last week, it was busier than we thought (spring break is their biggest week of the year). I'm under the impression that it's normally a pretty quiet spot, but there were three other vehicles at the trailhead and I think I got some of...

How about that - I was there last week, and my round trip was almost exactly the same as yours (2,130 miles). Unlike you, I managed to put some pretty good scratches into both sides of my 08 Land Cruiser, courtesy of the mesquite trees and cactus. A bit painful to see on a new vehicle, but...

The clearance is definately not 8 inches. This I have measured, by hand, and it's a bit more than 9 inches from the rear diff to the ground, so about the 8.9 that Toyota claims. Everything else is higher. About the sliders - yep, Petersen says they are available from Toyota. They are not...

I was a little surprised that it won, given the focus of the magazine and the competition. The H2 was in there as well (I think because it got a new motor). The LC won every category of 'Interior', but that only counted for 5%, so it wasn't just the comparative luxury that put it over the top...

If you're interested, there's a short review from Car and Driver: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/performance_files_tested_by_c_d/2008_toyota_land_cruiser_short_take_road_test Stats seem pretty impressive. They got to 60 in 6.5 seconds (same as MT), through the...

Nope, no remote start. What do you mean when you say 'merge two calls together'? I tried playing with the voice recognition tonight. It interpreted 'call voicemail' as 'show golf courses'. I'm not making this up. I may be from Texas, but I'm not that hard to understand...

Yup, 28 but not very technologically inclined. I got the bluetooth thing working today, though, and if you haven't done that it's great. Something I didn't know I wanted until I had it.

I haven't - really haven't focused on the audiovisual system yet. I did start playing with the XM radio and discovered I really like it. No ads and you can pick what you want to hear in pretty narrow slices - there's a channel for 80s and 90s country music I like. Sometime I'll get around to...

Re: Re: Probably should axe the Sequoia I agree with this. The Sequoia is actually much more logical in the overall product line than the 4R. They could probably cover the segment with RAV4 (compact), Highlander (midsize) and Sequoia (fullsize) plus the FJ as a niche product. If anything...

Yep, the LC manual is similar. I'm advised to use the center locker 'when the wheels get stuck in a ditch'. That's helpful. One other thing I've just noticed - for such a massive vehicle, there is no storage space. With 10 airbags, 14 speakers, 31 air outlets (!) and the console cooler box...

I haven't even tried to figure out the tire situation. It seems like it wouldn't be much harder for the sensors to be registered to a positions (GM does it!) but such is life. I'm just glad to have the numbers instead of an idiot light. We picked up a Prius for my wife tonight and it has an...

It's tinted. From the factory all you get is green-tinted anti-UV glass. The tint comes as an add-on or part of the big port-installed option package, the 'Extra Mile', which is $1600 worth of little add-ons, some worthwhile and some not. In my case, the salesman and I were a few hundred...