Why I ended up with a Land Rover Discovery instead of an FJ Cruiser. Rated ★☆☆☆☆
About six months before they came out, I decided I wanted an FJ Cruiser. Signed up for the FJ forums, listened to all the rumors, got more and more excited. From the forums it sounded like Longo was one of the good places to order one and they were taking early deposits. So I drove on out there.
The first vulture on the lot to walk up to me is the one I got stuck with, and he was an idiot. I’ll call him “Salesdork.” I knew far more about the truck than he did, and I’m certain I knew more about selling cars than he did. After asking around, he figured out how to take my deposit. Tried to talk me into a trade right then and there. Told him specifically that I wanted a manual transmission in yellow or blue.
Later, on the forums, I learned that there was an “FJSales” guy there who was great to work with. I called him and told him that I wanted to be sure he was my salesman when it came time to actually buy the car and that I did NOT want to talk to Salesdork ever again.
Two months later, the FJs started to show up. And a day or two later, I get a call from Salesdork telling me my car is there and ready. So that evening the wife and I headed down there. Salesdork is the only guy there who will talk to me. We get in the golf cart and head back to their parking garage. The parking garage was dark. There were two models he could sell me — a black one and a bruise-purple one. Both were automatic with other options I didn’t want. The manual Yellow or Blue ones might take months to get.
Sitting in the car, pissed off for wasting my time, I discovered that the visibility was utterly awful — like driving a cave. The back seat was like the black hole of Calcutta. The rear cargo area was tiny. And my wife hated it. Asked for my money back. Two days later, got it back.
Drove down to Land Rover two days later and bought a low miles, preowned Discovery instead. They treated me reasonably and professionally and I got a great deal — about 2/3 of what I would have paid for the FJ for a far better vehicle.
This is one of those places that any time I drive by I give them the finger, and I sneer pretty much every time I see an FJ. Way to build customer loyalty, Salesdork.