Dogmobiles: Road-testing the Toyota FJ Cruiser
By Gina Spadafori
November 13, 2006
I have not yet driven a vehicle that brought out such strong love/hate feelings as the Toyota FJ Cruiser. This vehicle could have been such an incredibly perfect dogmobile, if Toyota had just done a few things differently. And oh, are those drawbacks aggravating.
First, the alarm system. Evidently Toyota believes we are all forgetful idiots. The FJ will not allow you to leave it unlocked. If you walk away without locking it, after a few seconds it will lock itself and set the alarm. At that point, any motion in the car will set off the alarm.
OK, so let’s take a dog-travel scenario. Say you’re planning to drive with two dogs (say, two retrievers named Woody and McKenzie) from Sacramento to Chino, a seven-hour drive down Interstate 5 (and then across the 210, to the 57, to the 60, to the 71, to I-15. Or something like that, again, this is purely hypothetical), to compete in, say, the hunt test of the Golden Retriever Club of Greater Los Angeles.
A normal person might have to stop a couple of times to use the restroom, or grab a bite to eat. The weather being cool and all, said person would want to roll down the windows just a little bit and lock the car, since (I imagine) Toyota frowns on having its test vehicles stolen, and a normal person frowns on the same happening to her dogs.
A normal person generally takes more than the approximately 45 seconds Toyota allows her before the FJ locks itself and the dogs set off the alarm.
This is a serious design flaw.
The manual reassures a buyer that the system can be disengaged by the dealer if one so chooses, but say the car doesn’t belong to you so that wasn’t an option.
Leaving the realm of the hypothetical, let me say that never has anyone used a bathroom as quickly as I did on I-5 this weekend. And never has anyone wanted to reach into a car and rip out the wiring as much as I did on I-5 this weekend.
Since I’m dwelling on the negative, I’ll continue through the list:
- Premium gas required. It’s an off-road vehicle. When we’re in a Mad Max end-of-world situation, this would be the car you want. If only it didn’t insist on premium gas, like some high-performance sports car.
- Seats the don’t fold flat. C’mon. This is basic. How difficult to engineer seats that fold flat?
- Not enough cargo space. My crates would have fit if the seats folded flat. Without that … not enough room. Just gimme a couple extra inches of space, please!
These problems are enough to rule the FJ out as my own personal dogmobile, and that’s a shame, because frankly, there are few vehicles I’ve tested that I’ve enjoy driving so much. The looks of it, with its retro styling, are I’m guessing going to be a matter of personal preference. Like the Honda Element, you’re going to love FJ’s throw-back looks, or hate it — no in-betweens. Reactions over the weekend backed up my hunch: People either exclaimed that it was the ugliest thing they’d ever seen — or the coolest. (And “the coolest” was in the majority.)
This is a serious off-road vehicle. At the hunt test site, we were in valley, down a steep and deeply rutted dirt road. I could tell some of the folks with vans and even two-wheel-drive pick-ups were just a little nervous about the trip up out of the valley. Not me. I didn’t even have to engage the four-wheel drive. The FJ in low powered up the road like it was cruising down the interstate.
And on that interstate, by the way, it was a very comfortable ride.
I think if you live in snow country or do a lot of off-roading and have just one large dog (or smaller ones than I do), you’ll love the FJ. For me though, I have to say with no small measure of regret: So close, so close, but it just won’t work for me.
With a price just under $30K for completely blinged-out model with off-road credentials out the wazoo and a base price in the lower regions of $23K, it’s a great vehicle for the right person. Fuel economy would be an acceptable 17/21 were it not for requiring premium gas.
Final note: Be prepared to turn heads if you buy an FJ Cruiser, even if you don’t get it in “Sun Fusion” (a/k/a “taxicab” yellow). I haven’t driven anything yet that drew such interest from everyone who saw it.
Oh my goodness! That sounds like my dream vehicle! I love, love, love yellow—the really hot yellow with enough orange to make it pop! I have agile Belgian Tervuren and most of the time would have only one dog with me, an assistance dog who needs to ride uncrated so as to assist me. If it were my very own vehicle (oh my!), I could have the alarm timing adjusted.
My hubby has a Toyota Avalon we bought used and adore. We love it so much that when it was totaled in an accident and the other guy’s insurance paid, we took the money, added extra of our own to it, and got it fixed so we could keep it. It’s still doing great. But the Avalon doesn’t come in—gasp—YELLOW! Be still, my beating heart!
—-Kathy Diamond Davis
Comment by Kathy Diamond Davis — November 13, 2006 @ 8:11 pm
Snow country, one dog, lover of all things yellow … it’s PERFECT for you, Kathy!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 13, 2006 @ 8:23 pm
One of these was following me on the interstate last week and my eyes were riveted in the rearview mirror the entire time, even though I knew it had to be a gas hog…
Comment by Susan — November 13, 2006 @ 11:58 pm
Seats the don’t fold flat. C’mon. This is basic. How difficult to engineer seats that fold flat?
Rats! I could live with everything but this. Oh well. I’m guessing that I won’t be getting one of these (of course, I’m guessing that I’ll always be getting Reina’s old vehicles ;>).
Comment by KT — November 14, 2006 @ 10:08 am
Hey Gina- do you remember if you could just remove the lower half of the back seat? Then the seat backs might fold flat. This is what I have done in my Subaru, but I have to know in advance if I am going to have mulitple passengers so I can put it back in- two bolts is all it takes. I also have spotted the FJ Cruiser around town and have been glued to the view. I parked next to one recently and saw that it is about the same length as my Subaru Outback, but much higher off the ground. I have driven Subarus for years but the new Outbacks are definitely smaller than my current model, 2003 so I may have to switch when I am ready to replace it. I will also consider the Forester as I think they have improved the comfort of the ride over earlier versions, and it now has more cargo space than the Outback (used to be the other way around). Anyway, glad to have found this website link- I’ll keep checking for more updates.
Comment by Mardee Kayser — January 30, 2007 @ 11:49 am
Hey I found someone with the same problem I’m having. I love my new FJ cruiser but I also love taking my two Labs everywhere with me. In my 4-Runner they sat on the back seat and always had their heads out the window. I even got them doggles to wear. So they are not to happy the side windows don’t roll down or even pop out. So no more sticking heads out windows or goggles. In the FJ they get a little relief by driving with the back window in the folded up position but it’s just not the same for them. My biggest problem is the alarm always goes off as soon as they move around. I’ve tried just putting them in the back with seats up so they have less room to move around. I even bought a Hammock for the back seat hoping it would keep them from setting the alarm off. I called the dealer but thay have no Idea. So I liiked up the alarm on the net and there is a button in the front column below the radio on the far right bottom. This is to deactivate the motion sensor part of the alarm but the reat of the alarm still works. I tried it and it works. But I think you have to hit the button each time you exit the car or it does’nt work. I’m still trying to figure it out though. Otherwise I love my FJ.
Comment by Derrick Keller — February 24, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
As for the alarm when leaving pet(s) in the FJ, when you’re ready to exit the FJ, lock the doors, open the drivers door, manually lock and unlock the drivers rocker lock switch 3 times till you see the dash indicator for the alarm start flashing, then lock the doors again either with the rocker switch, the electric lock button, or the remote. Done, your alarm is set with the interior motion detector temporarily deactivated.
Comment by Andre — March 27, 2007 @ 8:42 am
PS. Don’t forget to close theb doors…
Comment by Andre — March 27, 2007 @ 8:56 am
I think that one of the best features with the FJ in regards to dogs is that there is no carpeting interior. I know every time I would put my dogs in my old car to go to the park or the vet we would get home and I would have to spend a good hour cleaning the carpet and vacuuming all the hair out of it. Now that I have an FJ all I have to do is sweep it would and take a wet rag to wipe it down…I love it!
Comment by Kasey — January 25, 2009 @ 8:13 pm