From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Subject: Re: Sport Utility Vehical comparisons? Any Opinions?
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Lines: 21
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

> I just read articals on this in Road and Track and Car and Driver
> (Is that one mag or two? =B^), and I was wondering if people out
> there have any opinions that differed from what these mags have to say...

Depending on how you plan to use your SUV, I might recommend also
browsing Trailer Boats and one or more of those Pickup, Shotgun,
and 4WD magazines.  The car rags mostly seem to consider recently
graded pea gravel to be offroading and ten sacks of redwood chips
to be a bedload.  Considering that most of these SUVs seem to be 
used mostly as robust station wagons, that's probably not a bad
approach, but if your applications are more demanding, pick your
information sources accordingly.

Of the three vehicles on your short list (Explorer, 4Runner, 
Pathfinder), I'd recommend the 4Runner as being closely based 
on a rather robust pickup and the Explorer for being comfortably 
carlike.  Don't know much about the Pathfinder.

Good luck,
--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"
