by waaytoomuchintothis » Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:02 pm
When I was shopping for 4WD, I looked at the 4 door Jeep, the Toyota FJ (?), and the X-Terra. The X-Terra was useless to me, but the Toyota had a lot that I wanted, and I have had excellent luck with Toyotas over the years. But incredibly, you can't choose your own options or equipment on it. For example, you can't get the rear carrier for the spare tire if you get a standard transmission. If you get the standard interior rather than implausible luxury version, you can't get the nice radio/CD player, not to mention you can't get a normal radio/CD player without a lot of crap I'll never want that connects to cell phones and MPEG players and stuff. It goes on and on- only two states sell the 2WD version (and one of them is in the snow belt!), paint colors tied to transmission choice, all kinds of completely silly combinations. I told the salesman, in front of customers, that I am the guy writing the check, I want it my way or I'll write the check to someone else. He thought I was joking, and so did another salesman standing nearby. The customers didn't, and as I drove away from the parking lot, I saw them getting in their cars, too. I have been thinking about the Jeep products ever since. On the other hand, we haven't had significant snow any year since that episode! Woohoo!