Special Edition FJC in the Works

[madams557]

Edmunds.com reports:

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Toyota is planning a mid-summer launch of a special-edition 2007 FJ Cruiser sport-utility vehicle that is beefed up with off-road performance features, Inside Line has learned.

"Look for things like shocks, tires, wheels, and off-road performance features," said Mark Amstock, Toyota's national truck and SUV market planning manager here at the launch of the FJ Cruiser on Tuesday.

Amstock said Toyota is working with tire manufacturer BFGoodrich on the yet unnamed special-edition FJ Cruiser. He added that Toyota designers are "pushing for traditional FJ colors, including tans and reds."

The Japanese automaker is also considering an FJ model without the signature white roof — a feature which will be standard at the SUV's launch — as well as a convertible version. "We're giving that a lot of thought," Amstock said in regard to a topless FJ Cruiser. "But nothing specific yet."

The FJ Cruiser, priced in the mid-$20Ks, is set to make its debut in late March. It competes against the Hummer H3, the Jeep Wrangler and the Nissan Xterra.

Amstock said Toyota will export a few of the FJ Cruisers to Canada and 183 to the Middle East. He said there are no plans for a right-hand-drive version of the vehicle or a diesel version.

What this means to you: Toyota aims to defy every inch of the Rubicon Trail with its special-edition FJ Cruiser.

 

[madams557]

Note the 'Topless' remark by Toyota Exec.

 

[petescoffee]

Very Cool. Hope they lift it a bit and have some optional gear ratio's either in the tranfer case or Axles.

 

[VTCruiser]

...no plans for a right-hand-drive version of the vehicle or a diesel version....

*sigh*

 

[DBS311]

Doesn't it seem the FJC's main competitors would be the XTerra, H3, and Liberty? I still don't think Jeep has any competitor with the Wrangler.

 

[Isotel]

Name

50th anniversary Edition

Seems fitting to me

 

[UltraFJ40]

Blasphemy I say!!

 

[Gasser]

Missing the boat

Nissan's Ghosn said he thinks SUV's will continue to be in strong demand, but in diesel engine form. Toyota is missing the boat. Diesel's equal good fuel mileage.
Low sulfur content fuel is coming, and I want the high mileage. The GX 470 is the same as a Prado, with a fuel thirsty V8 and a lot of extra luxury stuff. If they don't pay attention to us (no surprise) they will pay attention to Ghosn and strong diesel Nissan sales. We'll just have to stay tuned.

[Asian pickup/SUV makers looking at diesel powerplants
It's been rumored for some time that Nissan and Toyota are considering a diesel option for the Titan and Tundra.

"Diesels make sense on the large pickups and large SUVs, particularly in the fight on CO2," Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said. "I think diesels will come to the U.S. market, through large pickups and large SUVs..."

Even Honda Motor Co. has said it is developing diesel engines for large vehicles in the United States. CEO Takeo ***ui has said Honda will offer a V-6 diesel but has not indicated when. ]

 

[TX_TLC]

Diesels are not the wave of the future.....Toyota isn't completely off their rocker.

 

[Ocelot]

Diesels are the wave of the future... hybrids offer no advantage

 

[clemson55]

Diesels are the wave of the future... hybrids offer no advantage

You have to be a complete idiot. Hybrids and electric engines are the only way we will even be able to have cars in another 50 yrs. There isnt enough oil left on this planet to continue to support our consumption or it.

 

[Ocelot]

You can grow your own diesel.

Quote from Car & Driver:

I'm not exactly a betting man, but I'll give you 100 to 1 odds that if you're reading this nonsense you are not a hybrid-car owner. That's probably a good wager, considering that the new miracle vehicles are stuck at about a one-half-percent market share of the roughly 17 million annual new car and light-truck domestic sales and that you are vastly more likely to tear up the asphalt in a gas-swilling, earth-choking, mega-speed road rocket like the rest of us motorized Neanderthals.

Of course, if we pay attention to the Cassandra-like fulminations of the liberal media, we might be led to believe that hybrid vehicles are our only hope to save us all from ozone asphyxiation and indentured slavery to the Arab oil barons. To ignore their PC incantations and to continue our binge buying of conventional internal-combustion engines will, according to these all-knowing scribes and electronic chatterers, doom civilization to a dark age embroiled in a heat-soaked Sahara.

Yeah, maybe. Then again, maybe not. Yes, we understand the feds are giving a one-time $2000 tax credit to hybrid owners, and 16 states are offering come-on tax breaks ($1500 in Oregon, $4173 in Colorado), inspection exemptions, and single-driver use of HOV lanes as incentives.

Moreover, the hybrids being sold by Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Ford, and, soon, Chevrolet are all reasonably priced. Example: The hot-selling Toyota Prius—with a three-month waiting list in most markets—can be purchased for under $22,000 loaded (although most experts estimate that Toyota is taking a $2000 hit on each sale). The Pious—oops—Prius costs about $5000 more to manufacture than a conventional Corolla and retails for about three-grand extra.

Now let's jump ugly about the whole situation and talk a little reality. The guys at Edmunds.com, who run hard numbers about the car business as well as anyone, estimate that a Prius owner would have to drive at least 66,500 miles annually for five straight years, or gasoline would have to soar to 10 bucks a gallon, to equal the cost of operating a cheaper, conventional Corolla.

Then we have the battery pack, that heavy lump of nickel-metal hydride juice boxes that presumably improve fuel efficiency (but not that much, according to our road tests). Although the warranties are for eight years or 100,000 miles, battery replacement will cost $5300 for the Toyota and Lexus hybrids, and the Ford Escape replacements run a whopping $7200.

Moreover, the industry types aren't talking about total battery life. Will they actually last 100,000 miles? How will this affect resale value? Will the systems stay at full efficiency, or will they slowly drain power as they age or operate under heavy use? These are questions that remain to be answered, understanding that storage batteries, be they dry cells in your flashlight or exotic Ni-MHs, all have finite lives and store less power with age.

And now comes word that the computer brain inside the gas-electric grids in some Priuses is tending to go nuts. This causes instant blackout stalling at either 35 mph or 65 mph—the latter possibly in the fast lane of an interstate where 50-ton semis running 90 mph can crush compacts like beer cans.

This brings up an undiscussed issue: At some point, all these hybrid batteries will die and have to be disposed of somewhere, somehow. These are hardly biodegradable items like spoiled vegetables. They are in fact self-contained toxic waste dumps. How and where millions of these poisonous boxes will be deposited in the new hybrid nirvana has yet to be considered, much less resolved.

And speaking of the environmental component (the glamour issue centered on the brave new world of hybrids), a number of EMT and fire crews have announced that they will refuse to rescue victims trapped in such vehicles, openly fearing electrocution or fatal acid burns.

As with the now-defunct electric-car miracle, where it was quickly realized that the national power grid could not energize millions of vehicles without massive expansion of horrors—nuclear generation—the dark side of the hybrid miracle is now beginning to surface.

Says a dealer friend whose immense franchise network includes several brands offering hybrids: "There is no advantage to owning a hybrid in terms of fuel mileage when the extra cost of the vehicle is added in. Period. Do the math. This is a feel-good purchase. Hybrids are a statement about the environment, and they simply do not square with economic reality.

"The truth is, although the Prius is selling like mad, hybrid Honda Accords and Civics are backed up on dealer lots. Why? Because they look like conventional Hondas, whereas the Prius has unique styling. It has an iconic status among the Greenies. Like it or not, that's real life."

Until hybrids become economically feasible in terms of cost, reliability, and valid fuel savings and make real sense regarding performance and disposability, we're going to be driving conventional internal-combustion-powered vehicles—either gas or diesel —until rogue asteroids clean us all out.

I'll take diesel instead. The poor reviews of hybrids (inconsistent braking logic as the brakes are heavy untill the batteries are recharged and then without warning the braking becomes weak. As well when going up a hill once the batteries run out of juice the small engine struggles to keep the vehicle moving and you have to rev the piss out of it, decreasing fuel economy), combined with the fact that the lexus hybrid overheats off-road, the fact that hybrids are almost impossible to maintain yourself, and the fact that field repairs will also be almost impossible, will keep me from buying a gas-hybrid.

 

[Ocelot]

Hybrids also offer no fuel savings on the highway, whereas diesels do.

 

[VTCruiser]

i vote for diesel-hybrid.

 

[Ocelot]

I would find diesel-hybrid acceptable

 

[clemson55]

Your right you can grow diesel vege diesel is cool its the same problem though because a large majority of fertilizers are made using hydrocarbons around 40% of all hydrocarbons to be exact. Which means that in order to grow more crops you'll be using more fertilizer and in exchang more hydrocarbons. So in the end youll use it up just as quick.

 

[LukeO]

How hard would it be to build your own diesel hybrid of sorts?

See a niche, find someone with cashflow and fill it.

 

[Ocelot]

Your right you can grow diesel vege diesel is cool its the same problem though because a large majority of fertilizers are made using hydrocarbons around 40% of all hydrocarbons to be exact. Which means that in order to grow more crops you'll be using more fertilizer and in exchang more hydrocarbons. So in the end youll use it up just as quick.

Plants grew for millions of years without fertilizer.

 

[Ocelot]

How hard would it be to build your own diesel hybrid of sorts?

See a niche, find someone with cashflow and fill it.

Couldn't be that hard using modern technology... you'd have to pair up with someone who already has the gas-hybrid technology though.

 

[Gumby]

Diesel hybrid does not offer the advantages of gas hybrid. i.e. the complementary powerbands.

Hybrid is a bridge to the future, it is not the answer. it is moving in the right direction.

Diesel is a bridge to the past. It isn't really an option.

This conversation has also been done to death, and does not really have any bearing on the FJC.