Quote from mrodgers :

This past winter, we spent at least 6 weeks where we never saw the road surface. I had to take her Tribute to work through all of that because my car wouldn't have made it, or it would have added hours onto my drive to and from work. My car would have been crawling along at 10 mph or so. In the Tribute, I happily motored along as normal at 60 mph.

Uuuh, so you would only be able to do 10mph in a 2WD car, but think it's safe to do 60mph in the same conditions with 4WD? You know that all cars only have 4 wheel braking, right?

Quote from mrodgers :

When I was a kid, my brother and I were packed into the back of a Ford Escort. It was not fun being hauled around scrunched up in the back of that thing constantly. I prefer to have the room of a larger vehicle so my own kids aren't scrunched up in the back of something.

And I prefer to have a Ferrari, but hey, tough titties.

Quote from mrodgers :

It's not enjoyable when they are not big enough to have their legs bent at the knees and their feet in the footwells so their legs are straight out and feet are pushed against your seat while you are driving.

Well, I have to admit I've always been very impressed by the American ability make all the space inside a car disappear. But I'm sure any mid-large family car (eg Ford Mondeo) has more than enough space to prevent the scenario you describe above.

Quote from mrodgers :

But you have no idea what their needs are outside of the commute to work. Are they hauling a boat on the weekends? Are they hauling a camper? Are they driving up paths through the woods to reach their camping spots on the days off?

But those aren't needs. They're wants. You don't need to haul your boat around because you don't need a boat, unless you live in Florida and work in Cuba, or are a fisherman. You don't need to haul your camper along through paths up through the woods - you have a house.

Dress it up how you like, it's all just excuses for leisure activities that are based on the assumption that vast vehicles with vast weight and vast engines are sustainable.

Hauling stuff for work is fair enough, but the rest of the world (RoW) doesn't really buy huge full size pickups. Do you think that the RoW doesn't cut any trees down, or carry construction equipment/supplies, or generally do anything? We do. We just don't pretend we need pickups and big petrol V8s in order to do it.

Quote from mrodgers :

So, why do people choose to get the big Chevy and Ford over the Land Rovers and others that folks on this board always combat with? Very simply, Chevys and Fords don't cost a house mortgage to fix. They don't cost a house mortgage to insure, and they don't cost a house mortgage to purchase.

I don't think anyone's combatting the big Ford and Chevy pickups by saying they should get a Land Rover instead. Discoveries and Range Rovers weigh in at nearly 3 tons, for starters.

No, I think they're saying that they just shouldn't get a monstrously huge and heavy vehicle at all.

Speaking of which, I heard the news about Hummer's new owners today. Oh how I laughed.

Quote from majod :

IKEA has announced it's intention to take over GM and sell cars.

Hehe flat packed car made out of plywood would be awesome.