Audience participation
We spent much of Saturday test driving a few cars. We need a 4 wheel drive car. My family lives on the west side of the northern lower penninsula in Michigan and we go up there every Thanksgiving. When travelling from Chicago, that means driving the entire way in the lake-effect snow belt. And so we generally spend between 6 and 10 hours (depending on the weather) in who-knows-what-will-happen weather. Add that in with our monthly-ish trips up to the cottage in central Wisconsin with a quarter mile long driveway which goes down a big hill, then up a smaller hill.
Obviously, we actuallly do need 4wd - we’re not just being city losers with Hummers for no reason. Our other requirements are:
*good gas milage
*enough room for a car seat, an 80 lb. dog, and probably another car seat and dog eventually.
*fairly small - we do live in the city
*safe
Oh, and if that weren’t hard enough to find - I don’t like SUVs and my husband doesn’t like station wagons.
Test driving, though, changed both of our minds a little. Right now the front runner is the Subaru Outback, followed closely by the Honda CR-V.
Anyone with any opinions on either of these?
October 9th, 2006 at 9:01 am
We’ve got a CRV - Beth’s car. It’s great. And the new ones look awesome too! I looked at the Subarus for me a while back but they seemed overly expensive for what you were getting. We even talked my in-laws into a CRV that they love.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:21 am
We have a CRV and LOVE it. We have not driven it in the winter yet though. We looked at the Subaru and it was supposed to be a great car for its class (Consumer Reports) but we didn’t like the look of it as much as the CRV. Reality with gas mileage (based on short distance driving) the CRV gets about 19 miles per gallon. Not great but pretty decent for an SUV.
October 9th, 2006 at 11:05 am
We are a two CR-V family and are very happy with them. We bought my CR-V first because it met my conditions for a new car…one that met car safety standards rather than the laxer truck standards found in SUVs….one that met car emission standards…and one that had some 4 wheel drive capabilities. THe CR-V met all of those. We drove it around for a year and then when my husband needed a new car, we bought a second one. We are quite happy with both cars.
October 9th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
I love my CRV, and I am a tried and true SUV hater.
October 10th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
I’ve always wanted a CR-V can’t beat a Honda for logevity and gas mileage!