I just posted this to an FJ Cruiser forum, and have edited it to re-post here...
So, over the last couple of days I was pretty certain I'd go with the 4Runner. I should add that over the last month I've also been rethinking the whole boat idea, and it's quite likely that we'll never end up buying a boat, but I've decided that I do want to go forward with getting a new (used) 4x4, and I'm kind of interested in it being my main car, and not my wife's. Originally I was thinking we'd trade her Mazda CX-7 in and my wife would still be the primary driver of the new SUV, but the trade-in offers we've gotten are pathetically low, and I'm still having trouble deciding which vehicle we should get rid of (plus some other factors explained more below), so now I'm thinking we may have her keep the CX-7 (for now) and we'll just buy a new 4x4 without trading anything in, and then we can decide later which car we want to sell (FYI, both the CX-7 and SC430 are paid off - the CX-7 only has 62k miles and while the Lexus SC430 has 99k miles, I know that it can last forever).
I first got excited about the FJ because I've always liked the look of it. It's a bit over-budget of what I'd like to spend, but I decided to test drive one for fun. I've mainly been a sports-car kind of guy (owned a Mazda RX-8 and Toyota MR2 in previous years), while my wife has been more the SUV type (she has the CX-7 and previously drove a Lexus RX300). But I did once own a 2-door '89 Jeep Cherokee Limited, and the FJ brought back some fond memories of that. I liked that with the FJ I could feel the road and the steering wasn't too over-power-assisted. I was worried about the dark (i.e., lack of sunlight) back seat area and suicide doors, because I figured my daughter would complain. I also worried about the large blindspots, and figured my wife would complain about that. A week or so later, we ended up at a CarMax on a Sunday and test drove the Highlander and an FJ they had, but they had no 4Runner. To my surprise, my wife really liked the FJ, saying that she felt like she was driving in the old '60's car her parents had when she was growing up (i.e., like a tank). She really surprised me by preferring it over the Highlander. I didn't like the Highlander's over-power-assisted steering, but felt like it was probably more practical than the FJ for our family, and was thinking that the 4Runner might be the best balance between the two (better visibility and backseat access, but still truck-like).
The search was paused because of a week-long vacation away, so it wasn't until yesterday that we finally got around to test driving a 4Runner at a local used car dealer. I started off the test-drive, but we got off to a shaky start, because I couldn't seem to adjust the driver's seat to my liking (mostly a tilt issue). I also couldn't raise it as high as I'd like because of the sunroof cutting into the headroom. The fact that there are about four different controls for manually adjusting the seat certainly didn't help. Eventually I settled in on a position and it was fine. I noticed that the seat hugged my body more than I remembered the FJ doing, which I'm not necessarily stating as a pro or con, just a difference. I've always thought the 4Runners seemed "skinny" (being fairly high - especially when lifted or using larger tires - and seeming more narrow than other SUVs) and it seemed more narrow inside the cabin than I remembered the FJ feeling (it had been about 2 weeks since we drove the FJ).
We took it on a long test drive around town, and I liked the way it felt, but the feeling of being in a high-up narrow vehicle felt a bit odd to me (we had driven to the dealer in the CX-7 which felt wider/roomier width-wise in the cabin). I'm sure I would adjust to it, though. Halfway through, we stopped, sat in the backseats and deemed them to be comfortable enough. I folded the back seats down and was a bit disappointed that the width and depth measurements were slightly smaller than the CX-7's, but it was close, so I don't think we'd really be losing much if we were to take the 4Runner on a vacation vs the CX-7. I do like the rear roll-down window, which I could see being useful on rare occasions that I need to pick up some longer lumber or whatever. And my wife commented that the rear air conditioning vents (I'm pretty sure the FJ doesn't have that) would probably be appreciated by our daughter.
Then we switched places and my wife drove. Well, first she had to adjust the seat. And boy did she complain about that. She needed it in a very different position than I had it, and the manual controls were a pain (especially the pump lift which also ends up tilting the seat forward, which you then have to adjust for by tweaking the front knob). The FJ we had previously tested seemed to have the same sort of controls, but we weren't bothered by it. Why? We decided that it was probably because we were able to use the same height setting on the FJ. I like being high, but I *couldn't* be as high in the 4Runner because of the lack of headroom, so she didn't need to adjust the seat in as many ways when transitioning from me driving to her driving. In the end, we decided that if we get a 4Runner either we have to keep the CX-7 for my wife to drive so that she only rarely has to adjust the 4Runner's drivers seat, or we need to get a 4Runner with a power seat.
After driving it for a bit, she also determined that her knees were hitting the dash, and had to adjust for that. Not sure if that was more related to the driver seat height that she had settled on or if she just had it pushed too far forward. She was able to adjust it to a workable position. She pulled over to make that adjustment, and commented disapprovingly of the position of the hazard lights (the button was closer to the passenger side, and she felt like she had to reach to hit it). I personally wouldn't consider this to be a deal-killer, but it was just another minor negative point that got added to her list.
At the end of the test drive, I talked her off the ledge, and she surprised me by still agreeing that the 4Runner seemed like the most logical choice. But the experience got me to thinking about the FJ again, so I'm now thinking that we should try to test drive an FJ again real soon while the 4Runner is still fresh in our minds. There's a high-mileage model at a low price not too far from us (and it's even a color we like: silver) and I'm interested to see if they might be willing to let us keep it for a day or two, so that we can really see how it would feel to drive one for our day-to-day needs.
So, let me recap what I'm looking for...
- Ability to tow a boat (just in case we decide to get one). I was leaning towards the V8 4Runner just because it doesn't seem like the V6 gets that much better gas mileage, and the V8 would give me way more than enough towing capacity than I'd likely need. But one of the boats that interested me most (a 19' Yamaha Jetboat) weighs in at 3000lbs dry weight w/trailer, so I think even the FJ's V6 and 5000lb towing capacity would be sufficient.
- I'd like to spend less than $20k. Ideally, a *lot* less than $20k (like closer to $12k), but I figure that the Toyota engines can last forever, so I'm fine with a high-mileage vehicle (feel free to try to talk me out of that). There's an '04 V8 4Runner with 101k miles I found for $11k and a private party selling an '06 V8 with 118k miles real close to me for $12.5k. There aren't any FJ's in that price range, but there's a dealer near me with an '07 w/103k miles for a bit under $16k.
- I live in CT and we can get hit hard sometimes with snow, but I most likely will never do any serious off-roading (just take it on some dirt paths here or there - probably when going kayaking). I get the impression that most (?) of the FJ people active in that other forum are seriously into off-roading, so hopefully they won't give me a knee-jerk reaction of telling me to not get an FJ because of that, but if anyone has extensive experience driving an FJ as a daily-driver, and occasionally bringing a kid in the back seat, I certainly want to know if I'm going to hate it after a while.
My main concerns with the FJ are the ones I already stated above (rear visibility, especially when my wife's driving, and backseat comfortability for my daughter), but I also worry about reliability related to an '07 FJ being an all-new vehicle potentially prone to first-year problems of all sorts, vs an '04-06 4Runner being a vehicle that had already been out forever and was just going throw minor tweaks during '04-06. So if anyone here knows a lot about the FJ (again, I've posted much of this to the FJ forum already, so I'm sure I'll be hearing from them), please tell me either why this is a legitimate concern and specific things I should worry about or look for when looking at used FJ's, or tell me that I have nothing to worry about and that an '07 FJ is every bit as dependable and problem-free as a 4Runner.
