Surfing Product Reviews and Gear

Surfing and Cars - Review of the Toyota FJ Cruiser

While I happen to think that Hummer drivers are trying to accommodate for a lack of size in their…err…quiver, I haven’t seen a Hummer or H2 carrying a surfboard in my surf travels. (And that’s a good thing - if you see one, you have my permission to wax it with “locals only” etc. etc..)

I have, however, seen a number of the beasts pictured here - the Toyota FJ Cruiser - carrying quivers full of looooongboards on top to my local break. I have to admit that these SUVs look pretty bitchin’ for their manufacturer’s suggested price of $23,000. Having sat in one of them, as would be expected, they have more space than you can shake a stick at. As a plus, they come with a factory rack for your quiver (though it appears to be a bitch to adjust it). So long as you have some straps, you’ll be good to go. One surfer I know hitched the boards up top with wrapped in a blanket and tied with bungee cords. That said, you could easily fit an 8′ funshape inside. (Not that you’re surfing a funshape, just sayin’). One of the big pluses of this SUV is that you can clean the sand out of it really easily, in that you can literally spray out the inside with a hose. (Great idea.)

One knock that I hear repeatedly is that the FJ Cruiser has some serious serious blind spots, and the miles per gallon on this puppy is listed at about 16 miles per gallon in the city, 20 miles per gallon on the highway. On the blind spot issue, it is a real problem. First of all, your neck is going to be stiff after paddling so much, let alone having to strain to try to look through small windows. We haven’t heard of a hybrid version, but that’ll put the price on this surf transportation device wayyyy too high. So that basically sucks.

Point is - as cool as the Toyota FJ Cruiser looks, as wicked as the amount of space it has, I wouldn’t buy it for my own surf vehicle. It’s much better than buying a Hummer and having some grom wax your window, but I’d rather buy a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris and save the money for more surfboards!

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