Toyota FJ Cruiser

Preface: A few times during any given year, my father has an odd tendency to leave the house unexpectedly and come back hours later with new and interesting items. This tendency has resulted in several family pets, including (but not limited to) puppies and kittens, desktop computers (it was in the early 90's when computers were just getting mainstream) and most recently...

The story (as I heard it):
My parents were at home one night, when my father decided to head out for a bit. Little did my mother know that he was a man on a mission: to buy that new toy or gadget that would keep life interesting and fun (guys, you know what I'm talking about). Hours later, much to my mother's chagrin, my father arrived in his new toy: a Toyota FJ Cruiser. I can only imagine the lecturing that took place at that point by my mother, but the damage was done. My father had purchased his second, mid-life crisis car designed for young beach bums.

I actually had a chance to drive this thing to the beach and I can confidently say that my father does not fit the demographic that Toyota was trying to hit with this car: it's styled to cater the adrenaline-deprived "Mountain Dew" generation, the exhaust is tuned to be loud and aggressive, rearward visibility is poor and interior comfort is moderate at best. But ultimately, does that matter? He likes it as a weekend car and that's all that really matters. Besides, I tore up his first mid-life crisis car as a careless 16 year old teenage punk, so he deserves at least this.

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