Blog #2 - FJ Cruiser?

Well... ever since the FJ Cruiser came out, I've been really interested in that retro-looking beast. I just love the way it looks! I don't know what happened, but a few weeks ago the FJ popped into my head and from then on, everywhere I looked, there was an FJ Cruiser. In fact, last week at SXSW, it seemed like every other car in Austin was an FJC.

Have you every seen that commercial with that guy who has a VW Beetle growing on his forehead and getting bigger and bigger as the day progresses? Well, that's definitely been me with the FJ.

Last week while doing more research online about the FJ Cruiser, I fell in love... I came across a picture of the Trail Teams edition. What a sweet look! I had never seen that before online or on the road.

Meant to be or just coincidence? This past Friday, after work, I was having a drink with a co-worker and guess what pulls up... the Trail Teams edition FJ Cruiser! All white with black TRD wheels, fogs, and just mean looking. I was hooked. On Saturday, my wife decided to humor me and went to the Toyota dealership with me. They had 2 there - both pre-ordered. One was in the sold section and the other was on the roof of the dealership waiting for it's new owner who was smart enough to have pre-ordered it. The sales guy told me that they already had a backup buyer for it and a backup to the backup. Depressed but still determined, I added myself to be the backup of the backup of the backup. My sales guy then proceeded to try and sell me one of the other colors. But, I had my heart set on that white one. While leaving the dealership, I immediately sms'd google to get the phone numbers of the other dealerships around town.

I started calling around and was getting the same responses - "Nope", "have one but it's reserved for someone", "I can add you to the backup list", and "good luck!" Apparently, Toyota only made 3200 of these Trail Team editions and each dealership was only allocated anywhere from 1 to 5 total. Once they were sold, they were gone.

A little later in the day, I tried one last dealership... Fletcher Jones Toyota. I was skeptical since they didn't have anything listed on their website. I called and asked for the Internet Sales dept. Justin, in Internet Sales, answered the phone and I asked my question, "Do you happen to have any of those Trail Teams edition FJ Cruisers?" He started by telling me that those were hard to come by but he would check for me. After hearing some keyboard clicking over the phone, he says... "Wow... it looks like we may have 2!" I almost fell over. I asked him to double-check and he did... they had 2 and they weren't pre-ordered. The wife and I jumped into the car and headed right over. When we got there, it turned out they actually only had 1. Good enough for me. Turns out, it was fresh of the truck that day. It still had the protective film on it from being transported. Took it for a test drive and dropped a deposit to hold the car (it was getting late and I had to meet some friends for a Las Vegas Wranglers hockey game). Yeah!

On Sunday, car dealers here in Las Vegas is closed... it's the weirdest thing... when I find out where it came from, I'll write something up on it. Tomorrow is Monday and the dealerships are open. I'm planning on taking delivery of my all new FJ Cruiser Trail Team edition. I'm excited. It really is such a cool ride.

Anyway, I plan to take some pictures of it once I bring it home (and there is daylight). Until then, here is a link to the introduction at the 2007 SEMA Auto Show:

SEMA2007


- skim