Schmosef's new car

[Gurm]

FYI the Escape is based off a Madaza 626 Platform and is considered to be the best Small SUV on the market. It came out about 6 months after the Focus hit the market

AHH. So it IS based on a tiny car. At least it's a DECENT tiny car. See, being considered the "best small SUV" on the market is a dubious honor. It's like being the best line dancer in the world. Nobody takes you seriously (except maybe Gabe from Penny Arcade), but you're REALLY GOOD at something completely useless.

You can't put a lot of stuff in it, it handles worse than the 626 due to the higher center of gravity. It's not rugged, it gets lousier gas mileage than the 626, and costs more. I'm failing to see the point. That's my complaint about ANY small SUV - it is, by definition, worse in EVERY WAY than the small car on which it was based. The RAV4 is worse in EVERY SINGLE WAY than the Corolla. I see no point in ever owning one, there isn't a single advantage to it, and it costs more. Same with the Escape, or the Kia Sportage, or ... any small SUV. They're rolling lessons in vehicles that never should have been designed.

When you make a wagon or hatchback out of a small sedan, there's demonstrable usefulness. There's MORE SPACE. Cool! When you make a "small SUV" out of the same sedan... well, there's usually less space than the wagon version. Less length, but more height, so perhaps the cubic feet works out better, but since you can't REALLY pile stuff to the roof behind the rear seats (or else heaven help the rear seat passengers when you slam on the brakes) that extra cubic feet of storage space isn't so helpful, now is it? It has a higher center of gravity, hence worse handling and worse safety. And it has no more ground clearance, yet the advertising clearly shows people offroading, hence making people FEEL more indestructible and increasing the number of accidents and breakdowns due to trying to go mudding in your Saturn VUE. It is heavier and has larger tires, therefore worse mileage. And it costs substantially more.

All in all it's a lose-lose situation. A pointless endeavor into making a car worse than it was before.

In regards to the the S40....the new S40 based on the C1 Focus Platform (which we dont get here in US and Canada) is much better then the POS Mitsubishi charisma platform that the previous S40 was based off of. The previous gen S40 was one of the worse Volvos ever sold.

Now there you won't get an argument from me. The European Ford Focus is a GREAT car. I continually am amazed that Ford manages to consistently turn out "top of class" cars in Europe, but the American versions are little shitboxes that fall apart when you sneeze on them!

You just can't get over that Ford bought them, you should feel fortunate that they didnt get bent over and ****ed like Saab did by GM, by getting a Trailblazer SUV with a Saab front end on it and a WRX wagon with a Saab front end and then getting degraded with all the discounts GM offers on their cars.

Well, it's interesting because when Ford has acquired European car companies lately (by lately I mean "in the last decade or so") they've done right by them. Brought consistency of production and service, yet NOT tried to turn those cars into "Fords". Volvo's existing platforms were so far ahead of what Ford was capable of producing that they left well enough alone, except to make them more reliable. Excellent! Then, as you pointed out, the S40/V40 platform was crap, so they offered up the Euro-Focus platform. Again, excellent.

What I do find amusing is... well, look at the Ford 500. It's an S80 with a Ford grille. LOL.

How about Daimler-Chrysler? The CEO of Chrysler, when that merger happened, said "we're still not going to make any rear-drive cars, and this is a true merger". Of course we've seen what happened - their current lineup is predominantly rear-drive, looks a lot like Mercedes' current lineup, and all Daimler got out of the deal was, again, consistency of manufacturing.

[Marshmallowman]

small 4 wheel drive = suzuki

[Elie]

Get a Subaru Forrester, I own one and it great!

Get the XT model with a 2.5 Litre 4 Cyl. Turbo

[Gurm]

Get a Subaru Forrester, I own one and it great!

Get the XT model with a 2.5 Litre 4 Cyl. Turbo

No no, he refuses to get a wagon. It'll keep him from getting laid, or something.

Sorry, I know I'm being sarcastic now.

[Marshmallowman]

Subaru foresters have viscous coupled differentials, effiecent and smooth on roads and tracks. But when you get insituations where you really need 4 wheel drive the viscous coupleing can heat up, and then start sliping effectively becomeing a no wheel drive...Its not hat bad becasue you wait an hour and you get full coupling back. But this can really suck in hot climates.

Quite a few of those "mini SUV's" don't even have low range, so can be of quite limited when offroading, but I guess you wanted something that looks the part and not *is* the part

[schmosef]

My Jeep was the last thing in the world from bullet proof. And the service I received from numerous Chrysler 5 Star dealerships was abysmal. I will never own Chrysler again.

My Jeep had multiple "modes" The only two I ever used were RWD and "Full Time" 4WD, which was the 4WD mode designed for regular driving. The "Part Time" 4WD mode I never used. Nor the 4WD towing mode.

I want 4WD/AWD because I could really feel the difference when driving during the rain or snow. But I'm not any kind of "weekend warrior" off-roader. I'm pretty sure that the X-Trail has a low range mode, but I'd never use it.

My Jeep had a towing hitch on it but I never towed anything so it went to waste. The only time I came close to using it was when I almost bought a rear mounted bike rack that was designed to hook up to it. I decided that it was easier to just stuff my bike in the back with the seats folded down.

What I need an SUV for is the cargo room. Especially the vertical cargo room. When I'm moving computer equipment sometimes the boxes are taller than a wagon will allow. I remember this one time we borrowed my business partner's mom's wagon (because my Jeep was in the shop) to move an HP 5 Mopier and we had to disassemble it to fit it in (it was huge, it's packaging included a wooden skid on the bottom!). That's just one example but there are others. I rarely have more than one passenger and my Jeep ususally had the rear seats folded down.

Could I find a wagon that was tall enough? Probably. But I have my reasons for not wanting one.

Why don't I get a truck? I need safety from the elements. I'm not hauling wood you know.

More and more I'm thinking that I'm going to get an X-Trail LE. I'm going to squeeze in a few more test drives this weekend. We'll see...

[gt40]

every truck or SUV I've ever owned received the 'towing' package weather I used it or not.
the option gives you a class III hitch if you every needed it, but also an upgraded transmission cooler, a power steering cooler and also an upgraded radiator in some cases - well worth the extra money in my opinion.

[schmosef]

Doesn't look like an option in my X-Trail brochure. The brochure lists a towing capacity of 1 ton but it doesn't seem to say anything about a hitch. It recommends towing brakes for towing weights over half a ton.

I'm sure it'll be fine.

[Elie]

Subaru foresters have viscous coupled differentials, effiecent and smooth on roads and tracks. But when you get insituations where you really need 4 wheel drive the viscous coupleing can heat up, and then start sliping effectively becomeing a no wheel drive...Its not hat bad becasue you wait an hour and you get full coupling back. But this can really suck in hot climates.

Quite a few of those "mini SUV's" don't even have low range, so can be of quite limited when offroading, but I guess you wanted something that looks the part and not *is* the part

That is interesting, never thought that about the Viscous, I don't think mine includes the viscous though because it is only avaiable on the standard transmissions only, not automatic.

Also in Canada the AWD system is primarily used in the winter time when it's -10c and your snowed in or would like to get out of a situation, so overheating should not be an issue I think.

Regards,
Elie

[Gurm]

every truck or SUV I've ever owned received the 'towing' package weather I used it or not.
the option gives you a class III hitch if you every needed it, but also an upgraded transmission cooler, a power steering cooler and also an upgraded radiator in some cases - well worth the extra money in my opinion.

Mini-SUV's usually don't have that option, due to actually being compact cars in disguise.

[schmosef]

So I've been renting a Camry for the past two weeks. It had just under 7000 KM on it when I got it. Now it's got a little over 7000 KM.

I have to admit that I've been driving it kind of hard. I've been flying over speed bumps, accelerating really hard, turning sharply, braking hard too. I guess I've been taking out my aggressions on the poor thing. Generally, I've been doing things that I never did in my Jeep. It's a rental, I don't really care about it.

Interestingly, the car doesn't seem to appreciate the treatment I've been giving it. When I first got it I swear that I couldn't tell that the engine was running when in idle. It was smooth as glass. Now while I'm idling there's a definite vibration. It’s faint. Maybe I’m just more in tune with the car now but could have sworn that that wasn’t there when I first picked up the car.

Do you guys think that it's all in my head or have I put some real damage into the car? Just curious. Like I said, I don’t really care.

[Gurm]

So I've been renting a Camry for the past two weeks. It had just under 7000 KM on it when I got it. Now it's got a little over 7000 KM.

I have to admit that I've been driving it kind of hard. I've been flying over speed bumps, accelerating really hard, turning sharply, braking hard too. I guess I've been taking out my aggressions on the poor thing. Generally, I've been doing things that I never did in my Jeep. It's a rental, I don't really care about it.

Interestingly, the car doesn't seem to appreciate the treatment I've been giving it. When I first got it I swear that I couldn't tell that the engine was running when in idle. It was smooth as glass. Now while I'm idling there's a definite vibration. It’s faint. Maybe I’m just more in tune with the car now but could have sworn that that wasn’t there when I first picked up the car.

Do you guys think that it's all in my head or have I put some real damage into the car? Just curious. Like I said, I don’t really care.

You've ... broken it. LOL!

No seriously, I noticed the same thing after driving my Grandmother's Camry for a week or two. I can only assume that it didn't like me driving it aggressively.

[schmosef]

Ok, quick update and a question...

Here's the update. Been too busy with work to do any more car shopping. My business partner's been very sick too so I've had to cover a lot of his work. So far, I've been renting. I had a Camry for a few weeks. Then a Grand Am.

I'm planning on going on a road trip this week so I switched to a higher class rental. I was given a brand new Dodge Magnum. How ironic. I've driven it now for about 5 minutes; just from the rental place back to my office. Here's my question: Does this thing have a parking brake? I couldn't find one. I ask because I'm worried that I was driving it with the parking brakes engaged. It seemed sluggish in its pick-up, heavy. It accelerates FAST, I'll give it that. But taking your foot off the brake hardly moves it forward at all, and you have to put more pressure on the gas than I'm used to to get it moving. I floored it at one intersection, just to see what would happen: it MOVED. fyi, looked for, and couldn't find, a brake warning light on the dash.

[ZokesPro]

It should, some models have a foot parking brake as apposed to a hand parking brake. Otherwise, I don't know.

[Gurm]

Here's my question: Does this thing have a parking brake? I couldn't find one.

It's right... HERE: