Re: The Colorado BS thread
Just got back from El Paso, made it in 10hrs. Holy hell thats a long drive though. We rented a Chevy Traverse because neither of us (My wife and I or my Brother-in-law and his girl friend) had a large enough vehicle to take us all down there. With 4 adults and my son in there it still had plenty of room, the 3rd row is a split bench so we left the single side up for my son and folded down the other side for all of our crap. That left the second row open for my brother-in-law and his g/f. I have to say, we all liked it. Its the AWD variant and nothing fancy features wise but it got just over 20mpg the entire trip, seats weren't super comfy by any means but they didn't give you reason to complain either. The ride was nice, road noise well controlled. Over all it was a nice vehicle. Its getting added to the list of vehicles the wife and I are going to be looking at next year.
I still lean towards the Touareg TDI though because of the 28-32mpg HWY rating and 7700lbs tow rating. Pricing is much different once you add in the leather, satnav, and other options to the Traverse/Acadia to match the base TDI Touareg. The only thing the Touareg lacks is the third row seating. Not absolutely needed for a 3 person family but its a nice feature.
Our list for a new SUV consists of:
- Touareg V6 TDI (my favorite minus the pricing)
- Current Grand Cherokee/Durango (I wish it was available with a diesel)
- WK Diesel (only if a very low mileage one can be had)
- Acura MDX (I say hell no to Jap crap, but she likes them)
- Chevy/GMC Traverse/Acadia (Very nicely priced and the 3rd row option is a major plus)
- Range Rover Sport (she's fraking dreaming if she thinks thats happening, although they are cool)
- 4dr JK Rubicon (Apparently I'm dreaming because she says hells no)
- New Ford Explorer w/ 4cy Eco-boost (I like the TDI rivaling 30mpg hwy fuel efficiency, although neither of us like Ford's all that much. Its still worth a look)
We just both want to get 1 new vehicle that we know will last for years to come, has plenty of room for the family, and gets respectable fuel economy. Currently of oour 3 cars 1 is at 185,000miles and the other 2 are at about 210,000 miles. I'm getting tired of fixing things and frankly none of our vehicles are as large as we'd like. The Passat is really the only one that could hold us comfortably for a really long trip but its also the neglected beater. The WK and Touareg Diesels are my top 2 because of their fuel economy and ability to act as an interim tow vehicle for the YJ. The issue with the WK though is its a few years old now and just trying to find one.
