vehicle thoughts

[Houndoc]

As my wife's Duramax climbs towards the 350K mark, thinking it is about time to retire it from being a daily driver.

Trying to decide on our options. Don't want to spend a heck of a lot (newly sent out missionary and all that), so looking at less than $8,000. She wants 4WD/AWD and is not too keen on most cross-over types (which surprised me.)

Would like feedback from personal experience on the following, and toss out ideas I may not have thought of:

1) Ford Explorer, roughly 03-06 with average of 120K miles, seems to fall in budget.

2) Chevy Trailblazer. About same year and miles as the Explorer.

3) Honda Element. I know, not comparable to the above. May be able to twist my arm into driving one and turning my truck over to her (although I love my truck.)

Looked at Subaru and few others, but are all higher miles for the money compared to the Explorer and Trailblazer.

Add Durango/Dakota into the mix as well.

 

[mesha]

We had an element for awhile. I really liked it. It looked stupid, but it was great to drive and very useful for bikes and camping gear. We had the all wheel drive option and it worked pretty darn good.

 

[skippy]

My favorite DD vehicles second to my Bentley of course have all been Hondas, I have never owned a Pilot but I wouldnt hesitate to

 

[Skylinerider]

Get the element, then you can do this to it:

 

[Kiel]

we buy a lot of explorers and trail blazers. They all seem pretty good if they were cared for well. Our mileage on ours are from 100k to 180k. When I start a lot of explorers with the 4.0 pay attention to any cold start rattle even for a couple seconds. The timing chain tensioners like to break and rattle at startup and even if it was just for a second, it seems that within 20k I'm paying to have the chains done, which involves pulling the engine. I walk away from any startup noise ones

 

[boogie_4wheel]

I drove a few rental TrailBlazers in 07-08. I really liked them. They would make a decent camping and mild trail rig. The suspensions are super soft and flexy. The down side would be the poor ground clearance. I took them exploring and was surprised on how well they did. Back seat folds flat, and I remember laying down back there to nap a couple times (6'2").

Working on a mine site, we pretty much beat on these little things. I don't remember fuel economy, but they did decently on climbing hills. First gear is tall, 1-2 ratio gap is huge from what I remember. But the I6 pulled well.

Also had an Explorer from that era (the IRS one). It would flat outrun the TB, but sucked for everything else. The ride was stiff, head room was poor, offroad performance was terrible (I think my Escape would out perform it on the trail). Nobody wanted to drive it.

I couldn't do an Element. I wouldn't mind a TB for a DD if the Escape ever dies.

 

[Houndoc]

Get the element, then you can do this to it:

View attachment 95476

Kind of cool. Not practical but cool.

 

[Houndoc]

we buy a lot of explorers and trail blazers. They all seem pretty good if they were cared for well. Our mileage on ours are from 100k to 180k. When I start a lot of explorers with the 4.0 pay attention to any cold start rattle even for a couple seconds. The timing chain tensioners like to break and rattle at startup and even if it was just for a second, it seems that within 20k I'm paying to have the chains done, which involves pulling the engine. I walk away from any startup noise ones

Good detail advice, thanks.

 

[moab_cj5]

My folks have an 05 Explorer. My dad swears it is the best snow vehicle he has ever driven. He loves his explorer. Iirc, he has replaced the thermostat and fuel pump. He has over 120k on it and bought it with 45k.

 

[Houndoc]

Although I think I have sworn off Dodge/Chrysler products after my frustrations with my Ram 2500, just for fun lets and Durrango/Dakota into the mix (roughly 03-07).

I had a 98 Durrango, really liked it at the time, but sold it with only 50k or so miles.