Expeditionr

As I head into year five with my favorite mechanical buddy, I am proud to announce that I have officially achieved my goal of bringing this site’s textual content and photos up to the FJ’s current status. I’ve scoured through nearly all of our photographs and can now confirm that I’ve completed documentation on all of the major modifications. There are still a few minor modifications, however, that have remained in hiding thus far. The main reason I have not yet addressed these items is that no one single mod was worthy of an entire article. But rather than just skip these upgrades entirely, I’ve decided to compile them all together into a single mini-mod article. Although a few of the below-mentioned items fall into the pricier category, most of these upgrades are either do-it-yourself type mods and/or modifications that fall into the quick and cheap category. In the end, whether your mods are major or minor in nature, it is the combination of the alterations that makes each person’s vehicle their own. So without further delay, here are a few of mine.

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It seems that no matter what the vehicle, there will always be compromises in its design.  Vehicle manufacturers typically have an intended market in mind when they design and sell a particular vehicle.  As such, they engineer features into the vehicle to accommodate future owners the best they can.  But with safety and emissions standards becoming more and more stringent, fuel prices on the rise, and the economy on the fall, auto manufacturers have been forced to make sacrifices for the greater good.  It’s disappointing at times but it is reality so as consumers we’ve learned to live with it.

The FJ Cruiser does indeed lack certain luxury features, but despite its low introductory pricing, it comes very well equipped.  With a focus on functionality instead of features, Toyota did a great job of determining what was needed in a vehicle aimed at the off-roading community.  No doubt the lack of available luxury items is intended to reduce production costs.  But based on the target demographic, Toyota was smart enough to realize that for many owners, features such as dual climate control would only add unnecessary cost.  So by eliminating some of these options, Toyota was able to produce a reasonably-priced but very capable vehicle.

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