Bronco Truck vs Gladiator

[stickshifter]

FJ Cruisers are the only affordable vehicle I know of that appreciates. They're really nice rides, Toyota made a grave mistake discontinuing them in 2014 when gas prices were surging. Now they're extremely sought after. Not exactly for me, but they're Toyotas and have a following due to reliability.

The FJ is a great vehicle: super reliable (built at the Japanese factory that makes land cruisers and 4-runners), manual transfer case, manual transmission option, the manual was full-time all wheel drive, and you could shift into true four wheel drive (very appealing for snow country and driving on roads that alternate dry/snowy/icy/dry), it is really good off-road (though it won’t articulate anything like a JL or JT), and the 4.0 has decent torque for the segment. Sadly, the effort by Toyota to create a cool design resulted in terrible visibility forward, over your right shoulder, and out the back. Never has such a short vehicle been in such need of a backup camera. I’m sure new FJs all come with cameras today (in Japan, the Middle East, etc.). I’d love to see a redesigned FJ (4-door, 120-inch wheel base, manual transmission and transfer, same simple but tuff interior, good visibility and seating position, reasonable price) to compete against the Bronco and Wrangler, but i just came close to describing the 4-Runner. I don’t see a redesigned FJ coming

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[Blue Ridge]

A buddy of mine bought one in January. I got to drive it kind of off road (the road to his his property is practically a trail it's so poorly kept up), and really liked it though I couldn't believe he'd payed $35k for a 2013 vehicle IIRC. There were some blind spots for sure, but wasn't sure how much of that was me being unfamiliar with the vehicle. For that cash I'd get a JL 10 times out of 10, but he loves it. And even in our hour driving around town had someone compliment it. An odd vehicle, but I can see why it has its fans.

 

[stickshifter]

A buddy of mine bought one in January. I got to drive it kind of off road (the road to his his property is practically a trail it's so poorly kept up), and really liked it though I couldn't believe he'd payed $35k for a 2013 vehicle IIRC. There were some blind spots for sure, but wasn't sure how much of that was me being unfamiliar with the vehicle. For that cash I'd get a JL 10 times out of 10, but he loves it. And even in our hour driving around town had someone compliment it. An odd vehicle, but I can see why it has its fans.

In 2013 and 2014 no one was buying FJs and you could get a new one for a lot less than 35k! Amazing the appreciation. I almost bought one in 2014; I was going to trade a 1997 Tacoma and pay 18k for the FJ (plus tax) - if I am remembering correctly. They were desperate to get rid of them!

 

[Willpower1]

I’ve got two FJs, a 2007 and a 2010. Bought both new. They are fantastic vehicles with rock solid reliability. After having the Mojave however, I don’t feel the urge to drive the FJs too much. I am seriously considering selling the 2010, as I’ve driven it 11 years, put 86k miles on it, paid 28k for it new, and it’s still worth close to that on KBB. Pretty astonishing if you ask me. Still, I’m procrastinating bc I really don’t want to sell it...

 

[WhatExit?]

I’ve got two FJs, a 2007 and a 2010. Bought both new. They are fantastic vehicles with rock solid reliability. After having the Mojave however, I don’t feel the urge to drive the FJs too much. I am seriously considering selling the 2010, as I’ve driven it 11 years, put 86k miles on it, paid 28k for it new, and it’s still worth close to that on KBB. Pretty astonishing if you ask me. Still, I’m procrastinating bc I really don’t want to sell it...

Careful! That FJ is likely worth a lot more than what KBB is telling you! Don't leave money on the table (and now is a great time to sell)

 

[Willpower1]

Careful! That FJ is likely worth a lot more than what KBB is telling you! Don't leave money on the table (and now is a great time to sell)

Thanks Dan! I’ll investigate thoroughly before I put her on the market.

 

[LadyLightning]

I’m a Jeeper ??‍ I’m not interested. I’m loving my Gladiator!

 

[P.Lo]

For me, it's still not a Jeep.
And that's where it ends. ?

 

[FormerToyotaGuy]

I had a 2008 FJ Sandstorm lt was a GREAT vehicle drove it for 8 years. Spent most of my time on two wheels at that time and kept the mileage low. Sold it for only 5 grand less than I paid for it. Then I bought the 2016 TRD Off Road Tacoma. Great truck, horrible seating I had sun roof since 16 didn't have the power slider. With the sunroof you loose about 2.5 inches of head room which was a lot. Biggest complaint was the 3.5 engine totally wrong for a truck ...zero low end torque had to spool it to the moon to get torque out of it. The 4.0L was way better.
On topic, I like the look of the Bronco truck front end but the back looks too short. Reminds me of the Explorer truck they had back in the day with its mini bed

 

[badger719]

I had a 2008 FJ Sandstorm lt was a GREAT vehicle drove it for 8 years. Spent most of my time on two wheels at that time and kept the mileage low. Sold it for only 5 grand less than I paid for it. Then I bought the 2016 TRD Off Road Tacoma. Great truck, horrible seating I had sun roof since 16 didn't have the power slider. With the sunroof you loose about 2.5 inches of head room which was a lot. Biggest complaint was the 3.5 engine totally wrong for a truck ...zero low end torque had to spool it to the moon to get torque out of it. The 4.0L was way better.
On topic, I like the look of the Bronco truck front end but the back looks too short. Reminds me of the Explorer truck they had back in the day with its mini bed

I had a 2nd gen Tacoma with the 4.0. Test drove a 2017 Tacoma before ordering the Gladiator, glad I did. As you mentioned the seating position is awful in the newer Tacomas plus the acceleration is horrid. I don't know what Toyota was thinking when they put the 3.5 in the 3rd gens, especially seeing as how the 4.0 is still in the 4Runners and is the much better engine.

 

[WXman]

The problem with the FJ Cruiser is that Toyota had a golden opportunity to compete with Jeep and they failed. Miserably. They put a fixed roof on it. HUGE mistake. They put IFS on it. And they didn't hang 4 real doors on it. Those three things killed it.

The 2007 and 2008 models, I recall, had some issues also.

To make it worse they were ugly. One of the huge off road magazines built one and called it the "Ninja Turtle". The FJ Cruiser does kind of look like a turtle. Toyota really fumbled the ball, as usual.

Ford at least was smart enough to put a removeable top on the Bronco. And 4 real doors. So it should do a little better against the Jeep. Still though, problems will riddle this Bronco for years and the engine options need to expand.

 

[maligator]

Looks like Ford is going to try and compete with the Gladiator. To me it’s a bit of a head scratcher since it’ll pull some folks from the ranger and f150 market. I’ll stick with Jeep. Thoughts?

https://www.motortrend.com/news/exclusive-ford-bronco-pickup-coming-battle-jeep-gladiator/

I've been a ford fan for a long, time. The only reason I got into the Gladiator was because of curosity after how bad my Bronco Order/outlook felt. Compitition is good, Bronco will help force jeep to fix / refine things where before it wasn't possible.

 

[FormerToyotaGuy]

I had a 2nd gen Tacoma with the 4.0. Test drove a 2017 Tacoma before ordering the Gladiator, glad I did. As you mentioned the seating position is awful in the newer Tacomas plus the acceleration is horrid. I don't know what Toyota was thinking when they put the 3.5 in the 3rd gens, especially seeing as how the 4.0 is still in the 4Runners and is the much better engine.

I actually think they were going for gas mileage with the 3.5. Mine was better on gas than the older 4.0L in Tacoma/FJ and its better than the Gladiator but 100% agree wrong motor for a truck.

 

[FormerToyotaGuy]

The problem with the FJ Cruiser is that Toyota had a golden opportunity to compete with Jeep and they failed. Miserably. They put a fixed roof on it. HUGE mistake. They put IFS on it. And they didn't hang 4 real doors on it. Those three things killed it.

The 2007 and 2008 models, I recall, had some issues also.

To make it worse they were ugly. One of the huge off road magazines built one and called it the "Ninja Turtle". The FJ Cruiser does kind of look like a turtle. Toyota really fumbled the ball, as usual.

Ford at least was smart enough to put a removeable top on the Bronco. And 4 real doors. So it should do a little better against the Jeep. Still though, problems will riddle this Bronco for years and the engine options need to expand.

Yeah the FJ was kooky looking I loved mine blind spots in all. But you are correct, they should have made it like the old ones (removable top) four actual doors or at least an option for four full size doors. The other screw up was the rear windows didn't roll down. Should have made that happen and get rid of the stupid pop out rear window, in 8 years of owning I opened it like twice. But a roll down rear window like 4 Runner would have been sweet.

I also agree on Bronco, I was totally stoked about it coming out BUT IFS front suspension could have lived with but should have been straight axle like Jeep, oh and like the old Bronco. The biggest screw up is engine choices. It should have had a 5.0 V8 roll out with 302 badging. Yes, I know throw 2 turbo's on a sewing machine engine and it can make power in 2021, but some of us don't want parts spinning at 40,000 rpm x2 sounds like a repair nightmare.

 

[LostWoods]

I actually think they were going for gas mileage with the 3.5. Mine was better on gas than the older 4.0L in Tacoma/FJ and its better than the Gladiator but 100% agree wrong motor for a truck.

100%, and I dunno about you but with the 6MT I never wanted more power any more than I have in the Gladiator. With the AT the gearing was way too tall for that double OD but it was all in the sake of squeezing out those MPGs for Toyota's CAFE numbers. Regearing the automatic to where the MT was makes it a totally different truck.

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