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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
My wife needs a new SUV and I am torn between the truck-based SUV's (4Runner, Explorer, Pathfinder, etc) and the car-based ones (Rav4, Highlander, Pilot, etc). She has to drive a rough gravel road 10 miles a day. Would the car-based unibody type vehicles hold up to this punishment? We want something that will comfortably seat 4 but still get decent mileage. Anyone have long term experience with unibody SUVs on rough roads?
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
I'm asking because our Taurus has suffered several broken body welds due to the vibration. It's unibody, and apparently flexes a great deal.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
Randy, do you mean the Liberty CRD? I looked at those, and there are a few things about them that put it further down my desireable list. For one, they have a rocking sort of a ride where it rocks front-to-back. The CRD isn't discounted like the gas versions, and the payback just doesn't seem to be there for the price premium. The gas engines get terrible mileage for such a small vehicle and the CRD mileage is reported as being disappointing - less than you get with your Cummins in fact.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
oneace, maybe I shouldn't have said "truck based", rather body-on-frame as in the subject line. Although Edmunds does refer to the Explorer and 4Runner as truck-based SUVs. A V6 Explorer would be perfect for her, and they are heavily discounted now, but I'm having a real hard time with the idea of buying another Ford.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
I was surprised that the CRD mileage was so poor. I've read several sources that say the gas Liberty gets 16-17 mpg and the Jeep website says the CRD gets "up to 32% better mileage". Assuming the optimistic case that Jeep's numbers are accurate, that puts it around 21-23 mpg which seems pretty poor for a vehicle that small. The competitors gas engines do nearly that well, and the $5k CRD premium would buy a lot of gas!
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
GMC is another brand I wouldn't buy, but I hadn't considered a Pacifica. We looked at the Dodge Magnum with the Hemi that can shut off four cylinders, but that's not being discounted. Thanks for the tip on the Pacifica!
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
The Jeep website claims 17 mpg in town (with no highway number). Since most of our driving is in-town that's the number I'm working with.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
Pete, the 4.0L 4WD Explorer would be perfect. We had relatives visit from out of town and they rented a Mercury Mountaineer AWD. That was really nice but it was sickening to watch the electronic display show 13.9 mpg on the highway during a trip to the coast. Our small town has only one dealer, a Ford dealer, and Ford service would be most convenient for us. But we have had so many problems with our last three Fords I am very reluctant to risk it again.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
I have a friend who's a land rover technician. He says they're pretty reliable but they leak all the time. Any experience with leaks on yours Murf?
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
On Edmunds dot com they compute a total cost to own which includes purchase price, gas mileage, maintenance costs, depreciation and insurance. Most of the SUVs I've been looking at come in around 48-55 cents/mile. The LR Range Rover is $1.15/mile over five years. Holy Cow!
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
Murf, I don't think they sell the Discovery any more. They sell a Freelander and an LR3 though. Not sure which of those is close to the Discovery. As far as Edmunds TCO ratings, the Navigator at $1.00/mile comes close to the Range Rover. Others are up there as well - the BMW X5 is .88/mile. They don't have a number for the Escalade yet.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
AV8R, thanks a lot for your input. At this time we've narrowed it down to three choices - Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Pilot, or Toyota 4Runner. I don't completely trust Consumer Reports, but their reliability ratings give the Honda and Toyota the edge so we're leaning toward one of those. A neighbor has a GC a few years old and she has had a lot of trouble with it. Since we're in the boonies, trips to the dealer for service are a major problem for us so minimizing those is a very high priority.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
We have a definite budget in mind, and there's a possibility the Jeep will be the only one that won't stretch it. If so, that may well be the way we'll go. The employee pricing and additional $2k discount is certainly an incentive.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
Yeah, I looked at the Touareg. It's really nice but out of our price range. The plan is to sell the Taurus and my Ranger and buy a diesel pickup too. Probably used, at least until the tractor is paid off next year. Here in Oregon the idiotic, moronic, and generally clueless governor wants to impose California emissions standards for no particular reason. It's not like we have a bad air quality problem here. The radio commercials against are implying that if that happens diesel vehicles won't be sold here anymore.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
You're thinking of the illegitimate Washington governor, Christine Gregoire. In Oregon it's the legitimate but incompetent governor Ted Kulongoski (aka Ted Tax-and-gouge me).
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
Yooper, you're right that the Explorer is a heck of a deal right now. And they're very nice and really would be perfect for my wife. But I'm prejudiced by prior experience with certain brands. There is no way I'll own another GM. After our last three Fords I'm inclined not to own another one of those either. The Jeep Grand Cherokee is on employee discount now with another $2k cash back so it seems to be in the same ballpark as the Explorer. The odds are that the Honda or Toyoata would have the best reliability. The question is if that extra reliability is worth another $5k.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
paulss, thanks for your input. I thought the Armada was a little too big with lousy mileage. The Pathfinder just doesn't seem to have the rear legroom that the Pilot and 4Runner have - the legroom looks OK, but it's an illusion because the seats are really short. The 4Runner is now our first pick on paper - we need to price and drive 'em all though.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
We're planning to order a Toyota Highlander on Monday. We drove everything and my wife liked that the best and she will drive it most. With disciplined option selection we can get it for about $2k more than the Jeep+incentives. Neither of us really cared for the 4Runner - we both preferred the driving characteristics of the Highlander. The Jeep reliability is an unknown and the nearest Honda dealer is too far away for comfort.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
Just to close out this thread, we picked up a Highlander today. Ended up not ordering because they aren't making the 06's yet, the literature is not yet available, and a 2% price increase is expected while existing incentives expire. We found an 05 which is not our favorite color but otherwise equipped the way we want, except it's missing the rear spoiler which will get installed next week (hopefully that will keep the back window dust down on our gravel road). It looks like a great SUV for my wife, with good space utilization and pretty good performance/economy. For me the seats are a bit too short in thigh support, it has a surprising amount of road noise (maybe tires), and the radio reception is much worse than our Fords. Hope it proves to be more reliable than our 88 Corolla was.
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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
In our case it's because we had two crappy Fords in a row. My business was their's to lose and they lost it.
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07-11-2005, 17:33 
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