SKIroad'r

A guy I work with has a 2005 allroad 4.2, he's looking for a second vehicle for his country house. The town roads are all dirt and they definitely have a muddy season and get pretty rutted up. So he's thinking a) another allroad; b) Acura MDX; c) Jeep Grand Cherokee d) Pickup(Toyota Tundra or F150); e) Lexus GS -- he is NOT buying new. This vehicle would be somewhat of a beater -- something that can handle muddy, rutted crappy dirt roads and minimal highway driving. Roominess is important as he has a family to haul around.

girlroad

don't mind replacing them more often

My second would be the good old Suburban...I got decent mileage in my '99 and my '02...prefered the '99 as it was more truck-like, but it depends upon who is driving...hauls people and stuff better in more conditions than any other vehicle I can think of and the older ones are going at a good price and you can get them serviced out in the middle of nowhere IMHO

gragravar

so from that list the F150, or expedition. or an older grand cherokee, better yet an older regular cherokee.

BlueDog

F150. My home is in a rural area, live on an unpaved road. In fact, the county I live in I've been told has the most unpaved roads per square mile. He will no doubt find needs for a p/u truck. Hauling crap to the local landfill, picking up supplies from Home Depot, towing a trailer, etc. With a p/u you can toss stuff in the bed, don't need to worry about scratching it up, washing it out, etc.

Don't even bother looking at things like the mini psudo trucks, like the Honda Ridgeline, or the half trucks that everyone seems to do. Get an F150, solid frame underneath, it will be able to handle just about anything he can throw at it.

2002ar

A midsize truck-based SUV, such as a Toyota 4Runner.

arnick'02-6spd

Owned a fullsized chevy blazer for ten years. Poor reliability. Poor design. Poor build quality. The only good thing was the engine and that needed heads redone at 60000. They've had over a half a century to get that motor right....

Misplacedyankee

and I didn't need an SUV or extended seating I would get a pickup truck given the scenario. Probably stick to a Toyota truck or a chevy or ford.

If I was to get a beater SUV I would probably get an xterra, cherokee or a 4runner.

Trango

Look at some of those SUV's you've put in there. There's a really easy test I've found to seperate the "wanna be" SUV's (MUV's, to create a semantic distinction) from the real SUV's - look at the exhaust routing. If it goes UNDER the suspension or axle components, it is not a good candidate for offroad travel of any sort.

Also, IRS/IFS doesn't take ruts and mud like solid axles - another reason why, say, an F150 or older 93-98 ZJ Grand Cherokee or later 99-200x WJ Grand would be a great choice. Call me biased, but I'll stick with solid axles on a truck that sees abuse, although Toy fronts are pretty solid for IFS.

My second streetable vehicle is also a truck.

Bob

mustbeaudi

Laredo. It impressed me, and I even found the seat to be comfortable. I could never make either statement about any prior generation of that vehicle (after the first, classic Cherokee of the 80's, anyway).
But, if utility's his thing, a pickup is the answer. For towing and people, the new body Grand Cherokee.
I can get him one at the Chrysler auction if he wants - possible with the F150, too.
greatnewcar at yahoo dot com
J

kkrzeminski

My buddy just got a F150 loaded - sweet vehicle with Ford Leather and stuff. the Jeep is to small but would survive the beating better than an Acura or Lexus.