I have been thinking about starting an SUV appreciation thread because they deserve it. Mine is a mid-sized one and I didn’t know I couldn’t live without until after I got it. A few weekends ago, I was driving back down from New Hampshire with my wife in the passenger seat, my daughter in her car seat, the other half of the rear folded down, 250 bricks on the floor, my 100 pound dog on top of those, two bags of fertilizer off to the side and a huge bookcase tied on the roof rack. You can tone down the sport and emphasize the UTILITY right there. I would have been pulling a trailer at the same time but my trailer hitch assembly was being delivered late. Since our house started being rebuilt I hall major crap around all the time. I am took a cross-country trip by myself once, folded the rear seats down and used it as a camper. If we started making a list of everything SUV’s are good for, we would probably collapse the server. Good choice.
Tigers fan here. The Yankees are hated. Very hated. Despised. Words fail me now due to flustration.
aruqvan, all those arguments were made and rejected. He said he wanted a little more room. (He’s lanky.)
What I got: a 2002 Kia Sportage. So it really isn’t all that big. In fact it seems to be a few inches shorter than the Saturn. Of course it makes up for that by being twice as tall. Gets good mileage, too. But: not a lot of power, and no place to put stuff (my drink, my cell phone, my stack of crossword puzzles…)
He did drive it to work today, so maybe, maybe this will become His Car, which would be good. I wouldn’t have to bleach my hair, etc. (Not that it would matter, because the thing has “privacy glass,” which would be great except that I can’t see out of it, either. So I feel like I’m driving around in a large shoebox.)
We used to have a Toyota Tercel with 4WD and it was great. We only needed the 4WD a few times in the years we had it, but it was nice to have on those occasions. But I’ve successfully driven through some pretty scary road conditions with the Saturn, not that I liked it, and I live in Denver where it’s mostly icy roads to worry about rather than snowpacked and I don’t think there’s any particular advantage to 4WD on ice. Maybe going up hills. It’s not like I have any great need to drive through snow, or even a small need.
I do have regular need to pack several 10-year-olds into a vehicle. Usually 3 or 4, once a month or so. This means one of them has to ride shotgun, and it’s no different in the SUV. I could conceivably stack them in the cargo area but then they wouldn’t have seat belts and they would probably like it too much.
Actually, it’s wonderful. So far, since I’ve had the SUV, I’ve walked to Target (about 2.6 miles round trip), walked to Wild Oats (approximately 1.2 miles round trip) and walked to Blockbuster (same as Wild Oats). I needed the exercise.
Perhaps we should.
Weekend before last. Pathfinder towed my 2000 lb. (net weight) trailer to Denver to buy a new sectional couch. 200 miles. Three mountain passes. I asked what delivery would have cost. 'bout $500. And I would have had to take a day off of work. Then the next day, the old couch took the trip to the landfill. About 40 miles one way.
Last weekend, it worked great for my Wifes bike ride. The weather had turned to absolute shit (heavy rain, looked like snow was coming), and we could just stick all her gear AND the bike inside the Pathfinder. When she DNFed, I was able to quickly grab the dogs, pull out gear and go get her.
This Friday, I plan on picking up some more insulation for our addition that I’m building on my way home from work.
Different strokes for different folks.
My Wife and I shopped for over a year before she picked up her ’02 Grand Jeep. She had settled on a Liberty. Even ordered it, but changed her mind. Not the right car for us.
Car dealers hate us.
The Jeep is paid off. And it was time to look for another SUV. I looked and looked. For about a year. It was time for a new car for me/us. There was nothing out there until Nissan changed the model.
Perfect. Just perfect for our needs.
We are on the 5/10 year plan. Buy it, pay for it and drive it into the ground in 10 years. My Wife gets the next new one.