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Its funny but I kept waiting for the "SUVs for every budget" article to show me a vehicle that was within my budget (which would be around $15k) and got nothing. LOL The closest was one that stated "starting under $22,000". I am assuming that was a "bone" they threw to those of us who don't have much money. I guess maybe the article should be re-titled to "SUVs for most, but not all budgets" or to "SUVs for everyone but the poor folks"
Wow! Every person posting, seems to to be either mad their S.U.V. isnt listed or trying to convince everyone else they bought the right rig.
I've owned 2 Chevy Tahoe's which my wife drives. They work great for me, cause I live in the sticks and need the clearance, weight and 4WD because we have a 1/2 mile lane and the MN winters are nasty. A lighter, more fuel efficient rig would work 99.9% of the time, but the .1% where I need the Tahoe, its works good 4 me.
That said, my Mom has a Ford Edge AWD, which suits her needs better. She lives in town and the 25+ MPG is a big plus.
The new Cherokee looks like a nice rig & the 2011 Ford Explorer is impressive to me, but buying any vehicle the first year is (in my opinion) not a smart move.
Happy Hunting
"msn's rating is nowhere near the thoroughness of the top dog review/reporting company that is Consumer Reports. They give you a much more in depth look at vehicles by class, and they flame all Chevy's (especially the Equinox) and GMC products for one or more reasons."
Really? So that's why Consumer's Reports recommends both the 4 and 6 cyl versions of the Equinox? By the way as a researcher, I can tell you Consumer's Reports "o****ective" quality measures which are derived from it's reader's experiences sound fine and dandy except they have no way of verifying if those readers actually own any of the products. For example I've seen studies that suggest over 40% of people can't correctly identify the combination of make, model, year and engine/drive configuration of the vehicle they own. You're going to use their input? Good market research starts with qualified and verified inputs. Otherwise the output is garbage.
The Flex has always been considered an SUV. The ability to go off roading hasn't been a qualifier for many years now. Considering that 95% of SUV owners never go off road, I am not even sure why we are talking about it.
Would you guys be happy if they provided a "Top 10 Offroaders" list? I wouldn't mind reading that.
msn's rating is nowhere near the thoroughness of the top dog review/reporting company that is Consumer Reports. They give you a much more in depth look at vehicles by class, and they flame all Chevy's (especially the Equinox) and GMC products for one or more reasons.
If you're going to rate SUV's, then do it by class, not all together. small size, mid-size, full, size, etc. If you're going to rate the top 10 across all classes and what type of owner they're geared towards, then break them up msn. This report serves no benefit to anyone who doesn't know what they're looking at.
How the Nissan Xterra isn't on here is quite interesting as is the fact it's missing the Subaru Forester. But then again, they may be on a list if they were to do this by class size which is really the only way to separate all SUV's, just like cars. You don't compare a Mercedes SLS AMG to a Ford Fusion, so why would you put a Toyota 4-Runner on the same list as a Ford Flex?
Also- because soccer mom's and hipster dad's need something other than a mini van to be seen in, they should really drop the "SUV" title from the vehicles that will never see any off-road action; it gives a bad name to the real 4x4's and AWD's that you see in Moab, the Rocky Mountains, mud pits, snow drifts, etc. Long live the first generation Nissan Xterra! :)
