ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
One of the world’s most successful car manufacturers has broken their silence over a controversial model the company makes.
The senior executive board at Toyota have admitted for the first time today that the FJ Cruiser was ‘a bit of a brain snap’.
Aside from being one of the weirdest-looking cars on the road, the FJ Cruiser was also cursed with the same handling and uninspired engine that found it’s way into the hearts of the FJ’s older cousin – the Landcruiser and Landcruiser Prado.
It handles like a stack of falling encyclopedias and wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding but it would certainly turn a head, said one Toyota board member.
“Which isn’t what Toyota’s about.”
While it enjoys a similar reliability and resell position of other Toyotas (if you gloss over the diesel injection issues) it remains a ‘brain snap’ in the eyes of those who created it.
“We just got a bit too excited. A rush of blood to the head, if you will,” said the same executive.
“We saw what BMW did to the Mini and how successful that was. We saw the Rover 75 and thought, ‘that’s exactly what we want but with the FJ Cruiser,’ and then when we got the chance, we just took it,”
“We admit this now in the hope that we win the trust back from the customer. At least it’s not as bad as those new MG cars now. Nothing is that bad.”
More to come.
