OFFICIAL: FJ Cruiser discontinued at the end of 2014 Model Year
 

The Toyota Fleet website has officially confirmed that the FJ Cruiser will be discontinued at the end of the 2014 Model Year.


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Is the End in Sight? (UPDATED) - FJC Magazine - For FJ Cruiser Owners and Enthusiasts | FJC Magazine - For FJ Cruiser Owners and Enthusiasts

Good riddance, now maybe Toyota can start to work on a proper entry level 4x4 SUV for less than 30 grand... one that doesn't make you feel like you're driving inside a football helmet.

Haha! A football helmet. I had to imagine it to understand, but once I did, haha!

But aside of the jokes about its styling, here's a real rant about the FJ Cruiser.

I bought one of these when they first came out, it was SN 24XX of the first few that made it to American shores.

What Toyota envisioned: a "reborn" Land Cruiser, they even prattled on about it with their FJ Cruiser magazines with the pictures and hasty summaries of LC's family history some intern up in California cribbed from the net and left out a bunch of trucks that shared essential DNA with the LC family.

What happened: a disaster of a Prado-derived vehicle that was 100% style over substance... let's take it down one by one

Windshield: flat, wide, far from the driver, 3 wipers, prone to cracking, poor gunturret visibility, can't be replaced by your average PPG tech

Body: bloated "homage" to the 40 series. What it really is is a swath of plastic paneling, plastic cladding, weird round and hard angles, dumb bumper winglets, bulging signal lights that catch trees on the trails, idiotic marker lights on the mirrors, and super heavy swingaway rear hatch. The back seats are useless and getting in is impossible because the front doors are so long and back ones are so short. There's room for kids in the back, adults will find more room than a Taco, less than a 4Runner, and will sit in pitch blackness from the tiny porthole windows. How can a truck as large as the FJC have so little space in the back? Cargo area is the same, plastic intrudes upon both sides and chokes useful room.

Visibility: can't see out the front, tall waistline means you can't see out the side, huge C and D pillars choke off view in the back (made worse by tiny windows), slitlike back glass is blocked by huge spare. People wheel these all the time, yet they're 4x4s where YOU CAN'T SEE OUTSIDE THE VEHICLE. It's idiotic. My 60 series was a glass greenhouse, so is my 80. The 40 series was a frickin Jeep.

Toyota quality: it's built by Hino trucks, so it's cheaply put together from leftover Tacoma and Prado parts with tons of plastic thrown in. Out of the 6 plus Yotas I've owned, the FJC was the worst put together, sadly my Trail Edition is the second... Early FJCs have had issues with the front fenders cracking under extra weight of ARB bumpers and off-roading. All 6MTs have had issues with grenading T/O bearings--a problem Toyota didn't fix with their Tacomas and wasn't about to bother with the FJC. The paint was paper thin and really didn't hold up to trail abuse. Ditto for the interior.

Drivetrain: it's light and the 4.0L is fast enough, but detuned compared to the 4Runner. Toyota feels you need a cheaper engine with a cheaper truck.

4x4 performance: throw a lift on it, put on some big tires and fancy bumpers and it will wheel like anything else similar out there. FJC owners seem to think it's in a class of its own and get very butthurt when it's compared to its natural competitor the Wrangler (which is a much more fun and capable vehicle in Rubi form, albeit less well put-together). In reality the many driver aids available on the more upmarket versions of the FJC were picked clean and given to the TE 4Runner--putting all the advantages of the FJC into a more practical vehicle.

So what's the deal: The FJC is cheap. Very cheap. I got mine for about 25k back when they first came out in 07. Prices have swelled a bit, but you can get an SUV Toyota that will wander off road and survive reasonably well for the price of a stripper Xterra or 2-Door Wrangler. Toyota has made all the FJC's utility available in the TE 4Runner, but no matter how you cut it, that truck is close to 40 grand. Frankly, I don't see the value in the Trail Edition to make it cost that much, and I can see the brutal cheapness in the FJ Cruiser. Toyota will have a gap in their product line when they kill this truck and the question is whether they will fill it with an entry level enthusiast off-roader SUV or feel that the Trail Edition and Tacos will overlap enough for the American market who has started to lose interest in this segment.

I am 100% with Landcruiser here. There's a gaping hole in Toyota's lineup where there should be a Sport UTILITY Vehicle - not a grocery-getter Highlander, not a small trendy AWD like the RAV4, not an oversized and overpriced status symbol or land whale like the current LCs and 4Runners. It needs to be moderately sized (the current 4Runner and Tacoma are too big), it needs to be simple and rugged (not covered in plastic cladding or fiberglass), and it needs to be functional and utilitarian (not designed to be a fashion statement or make a driveway look better). It doesn't need to tow huge boats or seat seven passengers or fit your entire house in the back. There's vehicles for all of those other needs, but lord help me the only vehicle on the market for a guy looking for a proper Sport Utility Vehicle at a decent price is the Wrangler.

I look at the FR-S, and I have hope (and also WANT, but that's another thread). It's a very basic little sportscar - front engine, rear wheel drive, simple interior, good power and good size and basic but sharp styling, and it's just $25,000. Obviously somebody on that side of Toyota gets it. They looked at the market saturated with Corvettes and Mustangs and 370Zs and said "you know what, I bet there's room for a simpler, less expensive sports car". I want that person to look at Toyota trucks next. I want the truck version of that FR-S. A real Sport Utility Vehicle.

And if it had a removable top that'd be super. :D

This has been my dream truck for so long. I guess I will have to buy used :( :moping:

Two points that I completely agree with.

The Wrangler can still be had so basic that it's a blank canvas for modification. You can have it as much off road or mall crawler as you want and Chrysler is fine in selling it to you that way instead of trying to get an all-in-one off roader, mall crawler, family hauler.

Since when is a third row seat and DVD player something I'd want in a 4x4? In a sense the FR-S/86/Subaru BRZ embodies that attitude but in sports car form and makes me hold out hope that Toyota hasn't lost its way completely.

The only problem is that I'm completely out of touch with what kind of market segment Toyota's SUV and truck products represent. For that matter, do the Wrangler, FJC, and Xterra move enough butts for Toyota to remain active in the segment?

I wish I could have a cheaper Toyota SUV (not pickup) for my hunting, mountain biking, and deep woods/fire road excursions. I'm mostly okay beating a 37k Trail Edition into a scraped-up and rusted mess (now that my Land Cruiser is getting too expensive to fix routinely), but in the end would prefer to do it to a cheaper vehicle. The Xterra S was actually a strong contender for my new ride, and at 26 grand was a bargain... too bad Toyota doesn't offer something like that.

I could get banned for posting this, but as a former 2011 TE owner and locked 3rd gen, I can confidently say that the FJ IS much more capable than any 4runner built. And to your comment about plastic and cheap body pieces, thank god. I would much rather roll into my dealer and ask for some plastic trim piece than roll into a body shop and ask for fender replacement.

The FJ was built FOR offroad. How much more do u have to spend for the rear locking diff and KDSS? KDSS alone was upwards $1750 when I bought my trail edition and it still had less travel than a stock FJ.

I am also basing my opinion on my June 11th purchase of my FJ and already am convinced that the 4runner can't to what this thing can. I have the 07 trd edition and all I put on it was a spacer kit and BFG ko's, and now have the same approach angle as a wrangler and 4 degrees departure difference.

Everyone knocks the FJ so visibility and cheap materials, but my hood doesn't wobble when I'm driving down the highway like my 2011 did...

The end of the FJ era is Toyotas view that this vehicle type is not needed in the market, which further validates my suspicion that we will soon see a redesigned 4runner similar to the redesign of the pathfinder.

I just bought a 2013 4Runner and traded my 2010 FJ Cruiser. I only did it because we had no more children at home when I bought the FJ and the back seat wasn't an issue. Well now we have adopted two of our foster kids and they are 8 and 9. They were growing out of the back. I also have a Great Dane which is still a puppy but already 150 lbs.
These are the only two reasons I traded. The 4Runner feels very similar to my FJ before my Icon upgrades as far as driving and power. I also lost my 4Runner is Lowes parking lot the day after I bought because it looks like every other silver SUV. My FJ was one of a kind and all the bull people said about blind spots didn't drive one very long. I liked the big windshield and three wipers. I liked the big fat body. As far as off-road, I could go anywhere. The 4Runner is nice but so are explorers, pathfinders, and jeeps. The FJ is one of a kind and its one of those vehicles you either love or hate. That's what I liked about it. It was me in vehicle form. I have no grey area but I now have a grey 4Runner.
Please don't ban me. The 4Runner is growing on me and I am missing my FJ a little less everyday. I am just saying that the FJ doesn't have to be a turd for the 4Runner to be good.

I drove one for close to 70k miles. You can't see out of the damn thing. You can't see out of the side (tall waistline), you can't see out of the back (giant spare and gunturret back window), you have no 3/4 view because of the tiny porthole windows and huge C pillar for the swing away doors--if you have to merge from a center island diagonally--you're screwed or get used to setting yourself up to be t-boned. The hood is half of a mile long and with any lift you can't see over it. You can't see stop lights because of the dumb design of the windshield. The first gen had useless sun visors.

Yes, it's unique. It's like the lumpy ash tray you made your parents in school (yes, I'm showing my age). There's not many like it, but that's not a good thing. People get hung up on it because it's one of the few affordable 4x4s on the market. The lack of any competition makes its many shortcomings much easier to forgive.

I didn't think it was THAT bad when I drove it...

I owned 2 FJ Cruisers prior to purchasing my 4Runner. You definitely have to drive with your mirrors. After having the 4Runner for 3 months, I think the thing I enjoy most is all the glass: sunroof, roll down tailgate window, 2 back windows that open. The glass makes it easier to enjoy summer. We all are allotted a finite number of summers....

You are right, the FJ is not for midgets. There are two big mistakes I have made in my life. 1. first marriage and 2. Trading in my FJ. Live and learn.
I miss my third windshield wiper.

My buddy Little Mike drives the shit out of his truck and he is quite vertically challenged.

If anyone watched ink master season 2, he's the little guy on there.

I'm 6'3", how tall do you need to be to properly see out of the FJ Cruiser?