That is really tempting to go. I may be siding my moms house though. If I can get out of It I'll seriously think about it. That fake jeep thing is hilarious. I dont know where that Mc Donalds is? Is it the one right off the 26 freeway? If I do go I will just head for the trail and wait for a bunch of FJ's to show up.
Sweet, if you can make it that would be cool, but if not, its totally understood. It is Mothers day this weekend after all.
On the Fake Jeep thing, its actually fairly accurate... The J in FJ does indeed stand for Jeep. Heres some history (way more info than you'd ever want to know).
Credit to Dragon from the FJ ForumDragon previously said:
"J" is indeed for Jeep.
The original designation was the BJ.
"In 1950, the Cold War turned hot. The People's republic of North Korea - supported by it's communist allies from China and the Soviet Union - invaded the Republic of South Korea. The ensuing battle would be supported by the presence of some 400,000 American Military personnel.
To move it's armed forces around the rugged Korean Peninsula, the U.S. Army needed vehicles. The Willys jeep may have ruled the day through WWII, but the army didn't think war surplus general purpose vehicles would cut it in this new terrain. Mountains cover more than 70 percent of the Korean Peninsula, which has a cold and wet climate.
The Army sought updated vehicles, and it wanted them produced as close as possible to the peninsula. So it went to Toyota with blueprints to the venerable and combat-proven Willys Jeep and worked with the Japanese company on changes needed to meet the challenges in Korea. These changes included the need for a slightly longer wheelbase, a slightly more compliant suspension, and a more powerful engine than the four cylinder motor in the WWII jeep.
The engine chosen was the 85 HP Toyota Type B, an inline, 3.4 liter six cylinder fed by a single barrel carburetor.
Officially, the vehicle was designated the Toyota Jeep, though it was better known as the BJ because it combined the B engine and a jeeplike body and chassis
At first, the BJ was considered inferior to the "real" jeep, but in July of 1951, Toyota Test driver Ichiro Taira drove a BJ prototype to the sixth of the 10 hikers checkpoints on Japan's 12,388 foot Mount Fuji. That was higher than anyone thought likely-or even possible -in a four wheel motor vehicle. Then inspired by a historic horseback riding feat accomplised centuries earlier, Taira drove to Okazaki City and up steep temple stairs.
Taira's drive drew attention to the BJ."
"When Willys objected to Toyota using the "Jeep" name outside Japan, Toyota opted for "LandCruiser"-a twist on the name of the British-built Land Rover that had become the post war standard among civilian, if not quite civilized, four wheel drive vehicles."
"In 1955, the original LandCruiser, the BJ, was in it's final model year and a new version, the FJ, was making its debut. This new Landcruiser had a revised body with a face inspired by a traditional Japanese warrior's mask."
Toyota FJ Cruiser
-Larry Edsall
Basically what I gathered out of all of that is that Toyota has a long term tradition of palgerizing (sp) other companies model names ;D So... Fake Jeep (while not completely accurate), is fairly fitting.
Oh, and the original name for Toyota was Toyo
da based on the founders name.
Credit WikipediaVehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda" (ƒgƒˆƒ_), from the family name of the company's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda. In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Out of 27,000 entries the winning entry was the three Japanese katakana letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. But Risaburo Toyoda, who had married into the family and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota" (ƒgƒˆƒ^) because it took eight brush strokes (a fortuitous number) to write in Japanese, was visually simpler (leaving off two ticks at the end) and with a voiceless consonant instead of a voiced one (voiced consonant is considered "murky" or "muddy" sound compared to the voiceless consonant, which is "clear"). Since "Toyoda" literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also helped to distance the company from associations with old fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the "Toyota Motor Company".
Like I said, way more than you ever wanted to know. ;D