Why
Having lived in Souhtern Ca. for morre years than I care to talk about, SUV's never made much sense to me. Performance, handling, & gas milage ranked higher on my list of priorities.
When I moved to Southern Oregon, the L.A. hot rod came with me. A '96 Mitsubishhi Eclipse AWD turbo, 5 speed manual trans, HUGH disc brakes, four wheel ABS. It was loaded, and it was a nice car. But it was out of it's element up here. It couldn't get back into some of the places I wanted to go. Those nice sticky road tires were inadequate for back roads,,,or boat ramps. It had a do-nut spare. Which means if you have a flat (read ruin the tire before you get stopped) you are grounded until you locate a replacement tire!
I had driven hi performance cars too long to just give up everything. There were a few features I insisted the replacement vehicle have. Foremost was four wheel disc brakes,,,,with ABS on all four wheels! A full size spare tire. Four wheel drive, of course. Power adjust mirrors. It also had to be high enough to see over a drift boat, have enough power to pull it, and have adequate ground clearance. Leather, because I happen to like leather,,,,and,,,,,you can sit on it while wearing wet waders.
After doing some research & number crunching on the internet, what I came up with was a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I would have prefered a Toyota Sequoia, Highlander or 4 runner, but they were too pricey. Yeah, gas milage on the Jeep sucks. But I don't have to rack up as many miles since I've retired. Roof racks it has, but cross bars not. None the less, I can strap two fully assembled Spey rods to each side and go tooling down the interstate. :whoa: Nine foot rods, float tube, all the other necessary parafanailia, will fit inside. A Ferarri it ain't, but it'll do. :smokin: