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SUV Body-on-frame or unibody
I have a very good friend who is a Volkswagon Tech, and he was very vocal in NOT recomenting the Touareg, diesel or gas. They are an electrical nightmare right now. Untill they get all the electrical and computor bugs worked out, they are a $65K boat anchor ($75K for the diesel!).
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Ken,
If you definitely won't go GM or Ford, I'd bite the bullet and buy the Pilot or FourRunner. I've got many friends that love their Grand Cherokees and an almost equal number that are extremely unhappy with theirs. Be sure to drive both the Honda and Toyota for a few miles as they are very different. My wife's vehicle is a Highlander (similar to the Pilot) and she loves it. After 3 years and 67,000 miles, nothing has been done except for normal maintenance. The brakes still have decent pad thickness!
Another choice may be the Nissan Armada or the Pathfinder. The Armada is based on the Titan pickup and has the best gas engine (V-8) in the class and the Pathfinder is all new and has more horsepower and torque than the FourRunner or Pilot. It is comparable to the FourRunner. If the styling doesn't turn you off, the Nissan Murano has a great powertrain and competes against the Pilot and Highlander.
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I would agree with Paulss that an equal number of grand cherokee owners seem to love it as hate it. When I was shopping the reliability on Cherokee wasn't great but it seemed to be mainly electronic problems, at that time fairly advanced. I don't know if they have the bugs worked out by now. But I would pay attention to the tow capacity of the these vehicles. The cherokee has decent tow capacity, and soon or later it always seems you are going to want to tow with your vehicle.
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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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We have a 05 4Runner with 10,000 miles on it. We really like the way it handles and the quietness out on the highway. The vehicle seems tight and the ride is pretty smooth but not as smooth as the more car like Highlander or even my longer wheel base Tundra. It does seem to handle good on a well graded gravel road. We havn't had it a real rough pot holed road yet. It was my wife's pick between the Highlander and the 4Runner. I also planned to drive the Pilot but once she drove the 4Runner her mind was made up and we never made it to the Honda dealer. Since she let me buy a new tractor last year, a new zero turn mower and ATV this year I thought it was fair that she get to make the decision on the SUV. As far as reliability goes I don't think you will go wrong with either a Toyota or a Honda. Whether you like how they handle depends on how they feel when you and your wife test drive them. I guess it is like buying a tractor you got to get behind the wheel and see what feels comfortable. I did find Edmunds to be accurate on their invoice and MSRP figures.
Good Luck and have fun looking.
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Ken, did you ever decide on a vehicle or are you still looking?
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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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From what I have heard, the Highlander is a typical excellent Toyota. My aunt has had one for several years, her first Japanese car. She is still thrilled. I believe it is built on the Camry platform also an excellent vehicle.
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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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Hmm I dont know why everyone dis's Ford. Right now I have 2 GM, a CV an F350 and an Explorer sitting in my driveway, all in good condition. As far as repairs go, nothing really out of the ordinary, A few suspension parts, and a fuel pump pretty much sums up the problems we have had with them. Granted Ford COULD have used better parts for the ball joints, but considering what VW has been having issues with, the Ford parts are having a better track record. The Explorer is OK, its not my type of vehicle, too small. I had a 97 V8 AWD, sucked gas like crazy, but held its own pulling a 7000lb horse trailer. Had an F150, never had an issue other than a faulty ground wire in the wiper motor which was covered under warranty. The only reason that was sold was I found an F350 Dually crew cab lariat powerstroke for a steal and traded it in on that. My wife has a 98 Explorer, and the only thing that has been replaced in over 113000 miles were the shocks and front rotors. As far as the other models they make, well cant comment on those since they are FWD and I will never own another FWD car after finding out the hard way just how hard it is to pull out of a spin in one of those once you lose all traction. I tend to like big cars and the Fords have never let me down. I cant say the same for GM, and Chrysler just doesnt do it for me.
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