Toyota FJ Cruiser

Toyota Land Cruiser Prado The Toyota FJ Cruiser is a retro style, mid-size SUV with styling and off road performance reminiscent of the original Toyota Land Cruiser ( FJ40 ).Introduced as a concept car at the January 2003 North American International Auto Show, the FJ Cruiser was approved for production after positive consumer response and debuted at the January 2005 North American International Auto Show in final production form. The FJ Cruiser is built by Toyota subsidiary Hino Motors in Hamura, Japan since 2006 and shares many structural underpinnings from the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. On 5 November 2013, Toyota USA announced the 2014 model year Trail Teams edition would be called the "Ultimate Edition" and that the 2014 model year would be the last for the FJ Cruiser in that market. It will however continue to be made for sale in other markets such as Australia and the Middle East. By the time the production of the original FJ40 ended in 1984, Toyota had shifted towards increasing the size and luxury of the Land Cruiser line. The idea of a new FJ with rugged capabilities of the FJ40 originated in the mid 1990s with Toyota Product Planner Dave Danzer and then Vice President of Sales and Operations Yoshi Inaba. Danzer worked secretly with Akio Toyoda to set up a special shop at the NUMMI plant to test the feasibility of a new FJ40 by combining Tacoma underpinnings with the bodies of Toyota Bandeirante, an FJ40 based vehicle still in production in Brazil (as a diesel model only) at the time.[11] Akio Toyoda returned to Japan to join the board of directors giving high level support to the project. Toyota's flagship design studio Calty was then brought on to deliver a fresh interpretation of the FJ40 . Structurally the FJ Cruiser incorporates a body on frame truck style design based on the Prado platform. The FJ Cruiser uses a high-mounted, double wishbone front suspension and stabilizer bar, and a 4-link rear suspension with lateral rod with coil springs and stabilizer bar.The 120-series Land Cruiser Prado, Tacoma, 4Runner, and Hilux share the same suspension parts as the FJ Cruiser. The FJ Cruiser uses power-assisted 4-piston front/2-piston rear ventilated disc brakes with Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA) and is also equipped with Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) and a specialized traction control system known as (A-TRAC). The A-TRAC (active traction control) system applies braking to control wheels that have lost traction mimicking the performance of a locking differential without the "binding" that can make steering difficult in normal locking differential setups. Four-wheel drive models equipped with the RA61F manual transmission have a full-time 4WD system that is permanently engaged; it employs a center TORSEN differential, with a locking feature and distributes the engine's power 40:60 under most driving conditions. The TORSEN unit varies power distribution as needed, based on steering angle and wheel slippage. In the Lock position, the differential switches to 50:50 power distribution. Rear-wheel drive models are only available with automatic transmission, and come standard with a limited-slip rear differential.