At 10:18 AM -0800 2/16/00, Matthew Yip wrote:
Except for the Suburban and Excursion which can tow a small house,
SUVs and SAVs are merely cash cows. As a whole, they're too small to
be decent trucks and too large to be decent cars.
For the most part I agree with you. Full-size SUV's are great
for hauling/towing a lot of stuff, however, they're just too damn big
for serious off-road use. IMO, a full-size van or truck is usually a
better choice. My girlfriend's Pathfinder (older generation) is not
that much bigger inside than a compact station wagon, and it does
weigh about 4000lbs. However, we've been places off-roading in it
that a Tahoe or Expedition could never have squeezed through, let
alone a Suburban or a Excursion. A little Jeep might be better for
pure off-roading, but it's a nightmare as a daily driver, or on long
trips. Mid-sized is, IMHO, the best compromise. The new pathfinder
has gone 'up-market' along with most of the SUV's, but the new
X-Terra is more in the spirit of the original Pathfinder, 4-Runner,
Cherokee. . . and would be my choice for a new SUV. Now, if you take
off-roading out of the picture, why the hell (besides image) would
anyone want an SUV anyway? Get a minivan!
The X5 is the most
"car-like" of the bunch but it's still not a car.
The MB M-class and Lexus RX300 fall into the same catagory,
BMW's just playing catch-up there; at least they're honest about the
focus of the vehicle.
The irony of the X5, the Sports Activity Vehicle is that it's useless
in snowy weather. New owners found the X5 to be undriveable in snow
b/c the 19" tires FLOATED on snow. The good news is that BMW gave
the same characteristics to the X5 that it gave to every other BMW
ever made (except the iX) - they're the safest car in the snow b/c it
won't move - period.
My old 2002 had abysmal accelerative traction in the snow,
but once you got it moving it was not that much worse than my GTI.
I'm sure the X5 would be fine with the right tires; like any
'performance' vehicle, you have to expect to switch to snow tires.
Just my 2 cents,
Lee
W. Lee Hendrick
[email protected]
http://soliton.ucsd.edu/~hendrick/
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