4WD offers a lot of advantages on wet roads. Not with regard to stopping, but it certainly improves wet weather cornering.
AWD and full-time 4wd systems do, but the part-time systems that have traditionally come in trucks and truck-based SUV’s don’t really because you can’t use them on a merely wet or only partially snow-covered roadways.
+1000
I almost completely agree, except I don’t see valuing image over practicality as being any sort of “fortunate” thing. I see it as more of a psychological handicap, unless you mean fortunate to be wealthy enough to own half a dozen cars, one for each kind of function, mood, whim, and desire to impress.
I always find it very hard to get my head around this “image” thing. I hear that there really are people who will buy a particular car because of what it will supposedly cause their friends or some total stranger on the street to think of them. To me it’s like hearing about the strange cultural rituals of the native tribe of some remote country: I know they exist, but I cannot understand how they think.
Here’s how I assess a car purchase:
90% = functionality – that it does what I need, its gas mileage, reliability and build quality
10% = aesthetics, comforts and amenities
0% = what it will supposedly cause my friends or some total stranger on the street to think of me
Yep. Minivans and SUVs both have their place. Usually the the right, informed choice for a particular need is fairly obvious.
Yes, but what we’re trying to establish here is whether the husband has what is technically referred to as “a reason” for that preference. Well, scratch that, I think we’ve established that he doesn’t.
It’s not going to hurt anything as long as you’re not in low range, is it?
It won’t hurt anything so long as you only drive straight. 4wd locks the front and rear axles together, but when the vehicle goes through a turn the two axles have to be turning at different speeds. When you’re in the slippery stuff at relatively low speeds, it’s no big deal since the wheels just slip a bit, but if you’re on dry pavement either the tires will skip around through turns (leading to unpredictable handling) or the transfer case can bind up or you can even break something in the drive line. That’s the reason why part time 4wd has to be part time.
I’m glad you don’t care what other people think of you. I’m serious about that; I wish I were the same way. But come on, stop superciliously acting like it’s this inscrutable thing.
Fair enough, and perhaps I can elaborate a bit. It’s not that I don’t understand how they think, it’s that I don’t understand how they prioritize. Let’s face it, whatever car one gets, it does in fact send a message. The point I was getting at is how much you care what that message is, and what others think, versus getting the right vehicle for your needs. But there’s a secondary point. Even if you do care, what message does it send when you’re trying to stuff kids and luggage or whatever else into a “manly” SUV that is obviously a poor choice for what you’re using it for, but which is squatting out there on the pavement like a phallic metaphor going “Behold my manhood!”. I’d consider it downright embarrassing.
I’m reminded, conversely, of one of the most successful and ubiquitous cars of the 20th century, the iconic Volkswagen Beetle. It was wildly popular because it was inexpensive and well-built, the body panels fitted so well that it was practically airtight, the silky-smooth transmission technology shared with Porsche. Yet it was grossly underpowered and funny-looking, even by the admission of Volkswagen itself who used its purported ugliness as a selling feature.
If ever there was an “emasculating” car, this was it. And yet it was so wildly popular that it seemed every baby boomer had one at some point in his/her life. And it’s ultimately not hard to explain. A shiny Cadillac might send the message “look at me, I’m rich!”. A big truck might be the aforementioned phallic metaphor. A beat-up Chevy might send a message of pitiful embarrassment. But the Volkswagen Beetle transcended that conventional symbolism. Even the wealthy bought it, and it was said that those who wouldn’t be caught dead pulling up to their country club in a mere Chevrolet thought nothing of doing so in their Beetle. Why? Because the Beetle sent the beautiful message “I don’t care!”.
So yes, it was kind of an ironic example of the fact that there’s inevitably going to be a message read in to whatever it is you drive, and the one that many of us would prefer to have read into it is that we don’t care, because we really don’t, and we’re making choices for ourselves and not for an audience.
Enjoy! Everybody should drive what they like and ignore peer pressure, whether that pressure is from Axe-Doused sports stat-heads or from tiny entitled heel-stompers bitching about somebody else’s “penis mobile” :rolleyes: .
deletes that Russian Dash-Cam clip of and SUV “getting over” a minivan at 80 MPH
Certainly. Who wouldn’t want a car that shouts “I’m richer than you, I’m better than you, and I have an absolutely ginormous penis!” For the young and the young at heart, the idea of a car as transportation is absolutely nowhere compared to the siren call of male to female fertilization in the mating season.
I should mention that the other thing that communicates to potential procreational partners that one has a ginormous penis is having a car with a tin-can muffler. The way the ear-splitting sound of that thing attracts all the better class of women is incredible!
I should add here that it wasn’t my intention in any of the preceding to slam SUVs. I have a number of quite reasonable friends who own them, though they are typically the smaller SUVs and not of the bloated battleship-on-wheels variety. And I know many more who own minivans. They seem to follow the bizarre idea of “Buy what you actually need” – what a concept!
I do this, too. And for my circumstances I always arrive at an SUV. The 0% at the bottom is important to me because despite the personal appeal there’s some asshole who always thinks that I’m destroying the environment or participating in a dick-waving contest, whereas I really just happen to like them, and so I can freely ignore them.
congrats on your new van. I reluctantly bought a Honda Odyssey and I adore it. It carries everyone and everything. It drives pretty well, even in nasty weather. It gets decent mileage for such a huge beast. I’ve taken it on rutted dirt roads with no problem. (I drive slowly on them.)
The only downside is that it’s hard to park in the city, because it’s big. Our other car is small and gets excellent mileage and can be used when we aren’t carpooling or on vacation or hauling stuff.
Lol, I have bad news for you. Any vehicle that children eat in will get like that. It has nothing to do with whether it is a van or a jaguar. Vans are often easier to clean than cars, actually.
I didn’t notice this before getting involved in the general SUV vs. minivan debate. Congrats! Car and Driver rating is 5 out of 5 stars, #1 in minivans. Looks like a great choice, seems to be exactly what you need, and I’m sure you’ll be happy with it for years and years to come! 
I can respect that. Full disclosure: My present minivan has served me well for an astounding 15 years, but to quote my faithful mechanic, it’s getting time to put it out to pasture, and it may be replaced by a small-ish SUV. But that’s because of my changing circumstances. I longer haul a family, a large dog, and a week’s worth of supplies up to the country cottage, for instance. But I want a small fuel-efficient vehicle that doesn’t make me feel like my ass is sitting right on the road. The SUV I’m looking at is a great deal and is also 4WD, which should be a bonus around here in the winter.
This is my wife and I as well. Though she is going to try a Subaru Outback for her next car instead of a full on SUV (she currently drives a Grand Jeep).
Though it isn’t about liking them. It’s about function. Snow is what we deal with. Lots of it. We run snow tires year round, it’s just doesn’t make sense to bother taking them off. Lock in 4x4 every day 6 months out of the year.
IMHO, SUV’s aren’t particularly good as people haulers if you have more than two or three. Or your friends are clowns or gymnasts.
The mid-size like the Grand Jeep or my 06 Pathfinder does well for the two of us and gear and dogs. And snow. Lot’s of deep snow (yep, winter is nearly here. Again.)
It does sound like the OP would be better off with a van.
If you guys decide that a minivan is not cool enough and you want an SUV, that’s fine, but I would be honest about that.
Deciding to buy an SUV instead of a minivan because you might go camping once a year is crazy. You can just rent an SUV for one weekend. What really matters is what will work best for you day after day, picking up the kids and running errands and driving to work and whatever else you do with it. Make your decision based on what you WILL do every Monday-Friday all year long, not what you might do one weekend in the summer.
I would put another vote in to consider the Subaru Outback as well as the minivans.
I take your point; I agree that choosing a car for image-based reasons when it’s the wrong choice for your family is…stupid.
Good choice. I drove a Sienna for years. It was a very dependable, utilitarian vehicle. Ours was FWD, and I had no problem in Chicago winters, but if AWB gives you added peace of mind, good for you. I always found the Sienna drove and parked “very small.” Wonderful space and flexibility for diverse uses. Enjoy!
Although one flaw with the “just rent an SUV” idea is that most rental agreements specifically prohibit taking the vehicle on unpaved roads. Sure it gets ignored a lot, but if something did happen it could be real mess. Especially if it happened on any sort of “difficult” dirt road, so that rather defeats the purpose of renting the SUV for outdoors adventuring.
I somewhat wondered about that, but I still think it’s absurd to buy a vehicle that you have to live with every day because of something you might do one weekend a year. People often buy pickups/SUVs because they occasionally run to Home Depot…a station wagon and a $19.95 + mileage rental pickup once or twice a year would probably be a better solution in almost every way. I can’t help but think this is similar.
If you’re taking your chances on difficult off-road scenarios on a regular basis, I get it. But you don’t need a Wrangler Rubicon to drive on the dirt road to the campsite at the state park, either…and this sounds like some very occasional dirt road driving and not hardcore rock climbing or trail 4x4 stuff.
Ha, yeah, the AWD was a compromise with him, because he just really likes the idea of being able to take it into worse conditions… I, personally, would not have gotten it (more expensive, poorer gas mileage), but eh, it doesn’t matter that much to me either way 
(Whereas whether we got a minivan did matter quite a lot to me.)