You know your business. I have never seen an insurance carrier deny a claim for fuel contamination. I have seen them deny claims for actual collisions and of course my favorite: rodent infestation. After three or four claims they get suspicious. You should write some posts on insurance life. I’m friends with a few…

Great post Kristen. This happens more than you’d know. I’ll give a specific anecdote. Back when I was a service writer one of my customers called me to ask for assistance. He was out of town and his daughter had driven his FJ to school that morning. She stopped to fill his tank on her way home from school. (As all…

You speak the truth. The OEM’s incentivize us to stock the models they prefer to build for the reasons you listed. (It also explains the boring colors but that’s a whole other subject)

Here on Jalopnik there seems to be a large population of knowledgeable commenters. Obiviously there are some head scratchers but mostly not. When I write a comment I’m relying on my own personal observations from being in the industry for over two decades. Your experience may be completely different than my own.

I think oilchangesarecheap hits the nail on the head. There is a huge pent-up market of folks who want cheap, reliable basic cars and trucks. Not every person on the interwebz who proclaims they’d buy X only if it was brown, manual, etc. is lying.

Nope. The FJ was profitable for both Toyota Motor Sales and dealers.

You’re totally right. The name is because they displayed white goods out front. I’m the type that doesn’t care about names and such but even I was like whoa, that’s special.

I thought you were joking. You were not.

All of their taglines for the different models are questionable.

I wholeheartedly agree and would like to subscribe to your newsletter... What’s that you say? Oh, I already do. Carry on.

I totally agree with you. The TRD Pro lineup has been a huge sales hit for Toyota as well as very profitable. Believe it or not there was a time when the 4Runner was on the chopping block. The sales data at the time indicated that people were unwilling to pay more money than a Highlander for less interior volume and…

Ford is not Toyota. If Ford sells more than 150k units annually then the Bronco will be with us for a couple decades at least. Think 4Runner not FJ. Toyota made a huge mistake when they canceled FJ production and Japan HQ knows it. (See used FJ prices) The FJ should have been refreshed and a four-door model developed.…

This. It will not take long before local municipalities mandate that you cannot pass these SDV’s* on the road. Easy scenario: A child runs out into the path of the Nuro vehicle so it stops immediately. Mr. I just want to get home goes around the Nuro vehicle and....

I’m glad to hear they reinforced the frame but I hope it’s enough. You know someone is gonna go too far and end up like some Raptor owners.

I’m very interested in that “orthopedic seat design”. I’m getting old...

I both expect and understand that human drivers are imperfect beings. I found that out recently myself.

I wasn’t even gonna touch that part. Substandard (and non-existent) repairs are a common occurrence in the industry. Shoddy electrical work, convertible tops spray painted, bent rims, duct taped bumper covers... So many horror stories. But if OEM’s start playing with over the air software that is a very dangerous game.

I really, really want this technology to succeed. This tech has the capability to fundamentally change how we receive our goods at home and at work. I place way more trust in this firm than I could in Uber. However, I don’t want to see any headlines like this.

I completely agree with you. I liked the last model’s overall styling. I feel like this one harkens back to the 1996-2000 Chrysler Town & Country a little too much.

I’m not too sure why you’ve chosen this particular hill to die on but you’re very, very wrong. This situation does not occur with other automakers because they have tens of thousands of internal employees whose sole responsibility is to make sure something like this does not happen.