For a long time, there was nothing grand about Suzuki’s Grand Vitara.
This small, ugly vehicle was the red-headed stepchild of SUVs, constantly getting one-upped by the Ford Escape, Honda CRV, Nissan Xterra, Jeep Liberty and other great competitors. The only good reason to buy it was the price, and even that was coming under attack as competition among mini-SUVs reached a white-hot frenzy, translating into dirt-cheap prices for vehicles that were much better than this one. Read more…
Funny Name For A Serious Contender
To satisfy my not insignificant curiosity I turned to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to see just what a Vitara is, because, as is often the case, no one here had a clue. As it turns out, neither does Webster. About the closest match was Viterbo, which I thought might be some kind of forced induction, but is actually someplace in central Italy. So I looked up grand and found several definitions, one of which is “very good”. Now we’re getting somewhere. It appears that whatever a Vitara is, this one is very good. Judging by the vehicle I just spent a few days with, a Vitara is a small SUV that can now compete with anything in its class without excuses. Read more…
No, you don’t have to plug it in.
That’s the answer to the question lots of people asked about the 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. They simply couldn’t figure how a big, muscular SUV with great power and acceleration could get the same gas mileage as some four-cylinder compact cars.
But, thanks to the miracle of gas-electric hybrid technology, that’s exactly what this SUV does. Read more…
POTEAU, Okla. — It looked like Christmas shopping season in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
Evidently there’s not much to do on a Friday night in Poteau — other than huntin’ and fishin’ in the nearby mountains — so it seemed everybody in town had shown up at Wal-Mart to meet their buddies and share a little gossip on this cool April night. I had to hike from my faraway parking spot to get inside, where the locals were talking a lot more than they were shopping. Read more…
Just Say No To Blurring Lines
Standing tall and proud the Explorer in no way tries to blend into the ranks with the ever increasingly popular crossover vehicle. The Explorer was one of the first SUV’s to define the segment and bring it to its prime. Then gas jumped over $3 per gallon and the weak kneed suddenly lost interest in filling the 25+ gallon fuel tanks these barges carry. Read more…
Soft-Roading
About mid-April, DaimlerChrysler dropped off a new Grand Cherokee for us to run around in. So, unlike any good soccer mom (more like dad), we loaded up and hit the trails with our V6-powered runabout. Nope, no HEMI in this dude. Someone back at DCX PR headquarters missed the page on the order sheet titled: Options. Read more…
A Case Of Mistaken Identity
This is an interesting SUV for sure. In my professional opinion I think the engineers built an SUV with a case of mistaken identity. Regardless, the Endeavor does live up to its nameplate, endeavoring to be more than merely the sum of its parts. Confused yet? No more than the editor writing this review, trust me. Read more…
Hey, This Thing Only Seats Five!
A few years ago, when the “XL-7” descriptor first showed up attached to Suzuki vehicles, it represented a special stretched version of the Grand Vitara small SUV. The longer wheelbase made room for a third row of seats that brought the seating capacity to, you guessed it, seven. The ability to seat seven passengers in a vehicle roughly the size of a Grand Cherokee and sell it in the low $20,000 range was a unique strategy that put Suzuki on the forefront of the race to stuff a third row of seats into every SUV larger then a RAV4. Read more…
Until now, it’s been easy to compare the Mercury Mountaineer to its near-identical twin, the Ford Explorer.
Mercury’s new 2006 Mountaineer, though, would make a better comparison with the bigger Lincoln Navigator.
The Mountaineer is still based on the same platform as the Explorer. It looks pretty much like the Explorer, has the same amount of space as the Explorer and is even assembled in the same factories as the Explorer — Louisville, Ky. and St. Louis, Mo. Read more…
