 Winter
Cruisers
In our last trail report covering the excursion into
Leatherwood territory,
Transitions,
there was some talk of how things have been evolving for us in recent
years. Our big interest in highly modified Jeeps had slowly turned to a
major interest in those nice things like "reliability" and "comfort".
Things that we never thought we would utter when it came to getting muddy
on the mountain trails. But there is two schools of thought on this.
First, highly modified 4x4s are generally much higher maintenance and
higher cost overall when compared to a good solid new 4x4 with a few mods.
Plus, the bigger and badder that rig is, the more it takes to challenge it
and have fun. Bigger challenges lead to more damage, more costs,
transportation overhead of that 4x4 (trailering, big truck, gas, etc).
Then you have to find the challenges. Around here, we have limited
choices. A few offroad parks and open lands (Rausch Creek, Columbia county
coal area, etc) and then there are some remote locations only we know
about. These locations are not extreme but they are some great tracts of
outstanding Pennsylvania wilderness. Then there is the equation of family.
Kids love to come with us and to be honest, sometimes all that
 work
to get a big 4x4 trailered up to the wheeling territory while looking out
for the younger ones is a lot of work. Sometimes more than it's worth. So
here's the where the transition comes in. The pursuit of a decent,
reliable, comfortable 4x4 large enough to hold gear and family yet small
enough to navigate the trails we spend most of our 4 wheeling time on. Not
many choices out there, is there? For the average Joe looking for used
4x4's, there is a handful of Jeeps and Toyotas and a few other choice
4x4's that would fit the bill (been there). When looking at new 4x4's,
there's a short list of choices. In our minds, it really boils down to
two. The Jeep JK and the Toyota FJ Cruiser. A couple years ago we had a
great opportunity to compare these to 4x4's first hand as two of our
friends each purchased a new JK and a new FJ. We spend the weekend
together and had a great time (Wheeling
in Rattlesnake Country). Our impressions of both were very positive.
Both had there own positives and negatives and both are great choices if
one is looking for a new 4x4. But the trend up here has been Toyota,
and the FJ Cruiser. |
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The plan was simple.
Make the purchase of the new 2010 FJ Cruiser Christmas Eve. Keep
it a secret from the guys at work for 3 weeks until our cabin trip where
12-15 winter trip diehards would converge along with a nice attendance of
several FJ Cruisers. It would be that day that I would let it be
known that I'm now a proud owner of the latest FJ in the fleet.
Well things have a way of not turning out as planned. Especially
when there is kids involved. What was supposed to be a fun weekend
on a snow covered mountain, ended up being a weekend taking care of a sick
child. Thanks to a rough winter of colds and viruses making the
rounds through families and schools, my 7 year old shotgun co-pilot and I
stayed home, getting occasional updates in the form of pictures and HeyWay
updates (iPhone GPS locations).
We're planning on the spring trip though. Ardmore
Toyota I do want to mention a great Toyota dealer to deal
with in the Philadelphia area.
Ardmore Toyota
in Ardmore PA. I had called several Toyotas dealerships in
my area over several months looking for a 2010 FJ Cruiser.
After talking to several dealerships during late 2009, Ardmore was the
only dealership to actually hunt down a very hard to find 2010 Sun
Fusion FJ Cruiser with the convenience package and option package 2.
All the other dealerships were telling me I'd have to order the FJ I
wanted and wait 4 to 5 months for delivery. Ardmore called me and
said they found one that fit my specs and had actually shipped it in to
their location before calling. I guess they knew I was serious.
When it came to negotiation, they matched the best quote I had
negotiated among the bidding dealers for my order, a very reasonable
price based on my research. To top it off the guys and gals at
Ardmore that I dealt with were good people. They seemed to work a
little harder than I expected to make me a happy customer. No, they're not
providing any kind of kick back here for saying that here, it's just my
experience. So coming from a customers perspective, if you're from the area and in the market for a
Toyota, give
Ardmore a call. And if you've called any other dealers in
the area, you might see what I'm talking about. Ardmore Toyota -
www.ardmoretoyota.com
219 East Lancaster Avenue
Ardmore, PA 19003
(610) 645-5000
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Brand new 2010 on the lot, xmas eve |
Dupont Children's Hospital, departure day |
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| Grice family contribution to the area |
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| Dinner at the Central Hotel. Why do we pos photos of the food?
We love this place! Best Delmonico's in the state of PA! |
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Wheeling
in Rattlesnake Country
In this offroad report we have the opportunity to take a
2007 Jeep JK Wrangler Rubicon and a 2007 Toyota
 FJ
Cruiser up into the Pennsylvania Mountain Trails for a
Weekend of Offroading. With this report we will
run down the pros and cons and our offroad impressions
of the FJ Cruiser and the JK Wrangler Rubicon. But
bear with us as we get the report together...
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