It will be a good yarn one day, and with time and countless telling, the legend will grow. Kids will hear about it, grandkids and their friends, about how so-and-so fooled the focus groups and talked Toyota management into building the 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser. If you listen, you can actually hear the story now: how management bought into the fact that it was just a modified 4Runner with a new design and a less expensive interior, and how focus groups thought it would be a cute SUV, a trendy piece of work that would appeal to the more garish among us. They didn’t hear the part about how the FJ Cruiser rides like an actual truck-based SUV, of all things, about how it jars a bit, jostles a bit, is a bit too loud and, well, generally acts like that uncle at your sister’s wedding.

Go, go, GO!
It’s refreshing when an automaker doesn’t put leather inside a cab because a truck isn’t supposed to have leather. It’s refreshing when an automaker keeps it real, builds a truck to do truck things, and doesn’t try to attract people who just will never, ever, get the bright blue paint and the white roof. The FJ Cruiser is the coolest, most unapologetic vehicle ever built by Toyota, a bold SUV not for everyone – but it could be, given its off-road prowess, capable engine, interesting interior and exciting design. About that design: that’s another thing that’s refreshing - when an automaker keeps to the original concept of a car and creates a really cool vehicle. Not so refreshing is a back seat built for no one – unless your name is Grocery Bag or Brief Case. There’s a good amount of legroom, true, but the setup makes you feel as though you're sitting in a dark hole. Also a bit stale are the suicide doors that are a bad old idea on a new vehicle.

Ultimately, to those who either don’t get the FJ Cruiser - or will never take it off-road - we kindly request that you purchase a RAV4, with the new V6. A nice vehicle, a safe, unassuming SUV, the RAV4 is something your mother-in-law will approve of, the kind of car she may even smile over. Pull up in an FJ Cruiser, however, and the first thing out of the old hag’s mouth will be something about growing up or having an affair.

So what. Growing up is overrated anyway.