I am going to have to buy a new car here in the next month or two. I have been looking at both the FJ Cruiser because I LOVE the look, and the slightly better mpg. I KNOW you get way more car for the money by getting a GX (but its a soccer mom mobile) I am currently drawn towards the gx because the engine and transmission are way over built for a rig of its size. Its just so damn boring in design. Here is what I need in a rig I need it to carry me the ladyfriend and all the stuff to set up a sales tent at an art fair. I want to put a RTT on it so we can stay at Ntl forest/ blm or a campground then cruise in set up sell and gtfo minimizing our expenditures for lodging. I am planing on driving this thing all over the western us until its only value is as scrap metal.
I currently live in Arizona, but I keep seeing decent deals in the Denver area on both FJs and GXs and Frontier flights are stupid cheap. I am only holding on to the funky retro FJ dream by a thread. I am concerned with the engine transmission being a little undersized for the size. I also know the FJ is a might bit smaller than the GX. I dont want to mod it too heavily but I want it forest service road capable, I also want it to blend in with all the other cars at the art shows so I probably want it to look as stock as possible.
So what are the finer things I need to look at, are certain model years just better? How many miles is too many? Is there a price to year/ mileage sweet spot? How long do we expect the drive train service life to be? I really love the quirky look of the FJ I know they are probably more off road capable, I am just really hung up on the value for money proposition. I kind of feel overwhelmed right now. The ideal budget is between $10-17K
I currently live in Arizona, but I keep seeing decent deals in the Denver area on both FJs and GXs and Frontier flights are stupid cheap. I am only holding on to the funky retro FJ dream by a thread. I am concerned with the engine transmission being a little undersized for the size. I also know the FJ is a might bit smaller than the GX. I dont want to mod it too heavily but I want it forest service road capable, I also want it to blend in with all the other cars at the art shows so I probably want it to look as stock as possible.
So what are the finer things I need to look at, are certain model years just better? How many miles is too many? Is there a price to year/ mileage sweet spot? How long do we expect the drive train service life to be? I really love the quirky look of the FJ I know they are probably more off road capable, I am just really hung up on the value for money proposition. I kind of feel overwhelmed right now. The ideal budget is between $10-17K