We are thinking about buying an SUV...I would love feedback, both positive and negative, because we are in need of a new vehicle soon.

TIA

By Cat on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 11:27 pm:

We have a Ford Expedition and a Dodge Durango. I love my Expedition (the Durango is dh's ). Seats 8 comfortably, 4 wheel drive. Doesn't get very good gas milage, though. It's only about 13mpg. The Durango drives a lot like a Jeep (we used to have a Wrangler). Dh loves it though. He's only had it about a month. He had a Nissan Patherfinder before that. We've also had a Toyota 4Runner, a Ford Explorer and a Jeep Cherekee in the past. We like SUV's, can ya tell? lol The only ones we had problems with were the Explorer and the Cherekee, but with the Explorer I think we just got a bad used car. The Cherekee, we heard bad things about them, but not the Grand Cherekees. That was a long time ago (back in 1995). If you'd like better gas mileage a van would be a better bet. Jmho.

By Texannie on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 11:29 pm:

I had a Suburban, my dh drives it now. I now drive a Yukon. I love SUV's!!! I love being up high and seeing around the traffic. I love how safe I feel. With our Suburban, I love that each kid gets their own row and there are no "he's touching me" fights when we are on long car trips.
The downside, the gas mileage, there are really bad blindsponts on the Yukon (not so bad on the Suburban, but there) and the a/c gets incredibly cold in SUV's (there are 5 million vents!) that we all wear sweats when we travel! LOL

By Shellyg on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 11:47 pm:

I had a Pathfinder which I LOVED, had for 8 years and never had one problem with it! Excellent 4x4 fun with the Pathfinder also. I just bought a Landrover Discovery! WoW, it is so beautiful, drives amazing, and seats seven. It is big, but not as big as a Suburban or Yukon which is a bit too big for me. It also has two Sunroofs and wow, the 4 x 4 possibilities!

By Texannie on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 07:10 am:

My Yukon is a 5 passenger, which isn't great for long trips or carpooling, but nice for running around town.

By Babysitbarb on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 10:45 am:

We have been really wanting a Tahoe and just not sure if this is the way to go. We have a astro van now and don't want to lose much room but,not sure wether we should just stay with a van or go to a SUV.

By Texannie on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 10:56 am:

I love driving my Yukon (same as Tahoe) but I will say that the backseat leg room is not good. My son is 5'7" and sits with his knees in his lap. If we didn't have a Suburban already, I would not have gotten this one. I never had any problem adjusting to driving the Suburban and I went from a LITTLE car. They are very easy to drive.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 11:09 am:

We have a Ford Explorer and a Honda CR-V. Love the explorer. It has 3 rows of seats. It's very comfortable and drives very well.

Don't get a CR-V. Ours is a 2002 and we have had at least 5 recalls on it. Plus we had a problem with the brakes, the a/c and some other stuff. It's a pain and we want to get rid of it and get something else as soon as possible.

By Marg on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 11:40 am:

We have a very old mazda navajo 91 my dh wishes we could get a newer one, but it really goes in the bad weather. I wish I had one!

By Shellyg on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 11:59 am:

Sorry, hope I did not offend any Suburban or Yukon drivers. What I meant to say is finding a parking spot in Los Angeles is a hard thing to do. My best friend drives a Suburban and that is her biggest complaint, parking it or finding a parking spot, besides that she loves it. She did trade in her Yukon for A Suburban because A. there was no leg room in the third row seating and B. There was no space behind the thrid seat to put her stoller.

By Mommmie on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 12:26 pm:

Had a Suburban for 3 years but the thing became a chore to drive especially in the downtown area. Also hard to park and didn't fit in our garage and the gas it required...don't ask. Turning it is tiresome. On the other hand, I felt very safe in it and it was nice to have at the lakehouse.

Have a mini-van now and I like being able to move through the rows inside the vehicle vs. the Suburban which involved crawling over the seats between the rows. Sure one seat of the 2nd row pulls forward to allow people in the 3rd row but it doesn't allow much room (and I'm thin) and it's quite heavy and the car has to be parked and the door open to use it.

By Kay on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 01:36 pm:

I have a 2001 Chrysler Voyager right now, but have been driving a 2003 Ford Expedition as a rental after a collision I had a couple of weeks ago. While I had fun driving that big monster, it really was much more difficult to drive and felt too much like a truck. I would love a Dodge Durango, particularly because the Dodge larger vehicles (vans, suv's) are built on car chassis, as opposed to the others (like Ford and Chevrolet), which build them on truck chassis.

The difference in the feel is very obvious - I feel like I have to work harder with the Expedition (I'm 5'1" and have a left arm that is recovering from an injury). Turning seems to be tougher with it.

By Truestori on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 02:37 pm:

Thank you for all the pros and cons...

Kay,
I think I may have to rent one for a vacation and see how I like it. Great idea..

I have a Mazda van now and absolutely love it, but I will probably be giving it to my mother soon. So that leaves me with no vehicle. My husband said he won't buy another van,(I guess its to girly,lol So we are looking into the Chevy Tahoe and the Expedition. I know the Tahoe is smaller and more manageable to park, so we will see what happens.

By Melanie on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 02:39 pm:

Dh has an Expedition and I hate driving that beast. It doesn't fit in parking spaces and it is simply too big for our narrow mountain roads. I do like having an SUV, don't get me wrong, I just don't feel comfortable in this one because it is so huge.