There Can Be Only One

(Or: Oh God, There's an SUV in my Driveway)


Until last week, we owned two well-traveled, well-loved mid-sized sedans with a lot of miles on them. We liked not making car payments. We didn't like having to leave stuff behind when we went camping. We needed something bigger. The family is growing. We've got a house now. There's more stuff going in and out. (For example - We bought a fake Christmas tree a few months back. The thing was so big we had to drive home from the store with the box sticking out the window of my car. While I might have found it amusing my younger days, at the time I just thought it pretty much sucked...)

Over the course of the winter, we started looking for something a little bit newer (and bigger) than what we had in the driveway. A station wagon or small SUV would probably best fit our needs. If they still made the Honda Accord wagon, I'd buy it in a second. But they haven't made one for the US market in 10 years (although you can buy one here and get it shipped... But good luck to you if anything ever goes wrong with it).

We started looking at the station wagon offerings from Volvo and Subaru. But we had concerns about the reliability of a used Volvo (Consumer Reports listed "engines" and "transmissions" as concerns on a used Volvo... Yikes... those are big ticket items) (Reliability in my vehicles is very important to me. Among the first cars I owned were a 1983 Dodge 600 and a 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra -- possibly two of the worst American cars ever made). And the Subaru's we've been in just feel a little cheap on the inside.

We then moved on to the small SUV class. I really liked the Honda Element. Unfortunately, the way back section wasn't going to be big enough for our 60 pound Lab (and the Element is a little noisy at highway speeds). Same problem with the Honda CR-V and Toyota Rav4.

We started looking at Honda Pilots and Toyota Highlanders (anything bigger than that wouldn't have fit in our driveway). Toyota and Honda are pretty much tops on everyone's list when it comes to reliability. In the Toyota vs. Honda battle, I've always been a Honda guy. Honda's designs always seemed a little more interesting to me. And I found driving Hondas to be much more enjoyable. "Toyota: safe, reliable, predictable. Like the missionary position with the lights off."

But, to my surprise, I kinda liked the Highlander in the test drive (and the V6 was much more confident than the 4 cylinder). I wouldn't say I LOVED it, but I liked it enough to move it up the list a few spots.

The other advantage the Highlander has over the Pilot is that you can find them used. Used Pilots seem to disappear immediately.

We've had the Highlander since last Friday. Considering how reluctant I was to consider an SUV at first, I'm surprised to find that I actually like being up high and being able to see everything. It changes your approach to driving. You can see what's going on two cars ahead of you.

The short commute is really the only way I can justify owning an SUV in my mind... And we're going to hang onto the Acura for most of our driving. But man... There's times when you just needs something a little bigger...



(Artist's depiction of what we were looking for from our next car... I think we came pretty close.)