Help finding vehicle

We have our second child coming and I am thinking of selling my 90
Mustang and 89 F-150 to get something I can drive and take the kids if
I want. (Know we go in my wife's 99 Malibu).

I drive about 50 miles a day during the week. I have been thinking of
a FOrd Escape or something used. I really would miss having a truck
that I can haul things around but I have a trailer I could pull.

Someone told me that there was not much difference in gas mileage
between the "small" SUv's such as the escape and the "large" ones like
the explorer or expedition. Is this true?

Whatever I get I would like to get 4 wheel drive, something decent on
gas, reliable and that I could either haul stuff in or pull a trailer
if needed. I will have to buy used and a cheap price is important.

ANything would probably get better than my truck in gas mileage. It
gets about 13 city or highway.

I actually hate to part with my mustang. I have had it for 12 years.
If I put it on cruise control I can average 20-21 mpg.

Thanks for your help!

A Jeep Cherokee is a nice mid sized 4x4 with lots of room. We get about
24 mpg in our old 88.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Don wrote:
>
> We have our second child coming and I am thinking of selling my 90
> Mustang and 89 F-150 to get something I can drive and take the kids if
> I want. (Know we go in my wife's 99 Malibu).
>
> I drive about 50 miles a day during the week. I have been thinking of
> a FOrd Escape or something used. I really would miss having a truck
> that I can haul things around but I have a trailer I could pull.
>
> Someone told me that there was not much difference in gas mileage
> between the "small" SUv's such as the escape and the "large" ones like
> the explorer or expedition. Is this true?
>
> Whatever I get I would like to get 4 wheel drive, something decent on
> gas, reliable and that I could either haul stuff in or pull a trailer
> if needed. I will have to buy used and a cheap price is important.
>
> ANything would probably get better than my truck in gas mileage. It
> gets about 13 city or highway.
>
> I actually hate to part with my mustang. I have had it for 12 years.
> If I put it on cruise control I can average 20-21 mpg.
>
> Thanks for your help!

It is a pity that they do not sell many diesel vehicles in the US market. I
get about 750 - 850 km out of my 85l tank in my Landrover Series I
discovery. I would guess that the series two would be similar.

In addition I have a 3500Kg tow rating and space for seven at a push. I am
not too sure of the conversion factors, but the tow rating will be in the
region of 8000lbs and the fuel consumption generally works out around
10l/100km. I have no idea what that is in MPG, but I can tell you that is is
better than many small euro cars with Petrol.

Regards
Stephen

We have an 03 Ford Escape, millage is approx. 20 per gallon, just came
home from trip on Monday and was trying to see how it did, not that great,
my 87 F150 with 351 and headers gets better. But as far as a traveling car
it's great, very comfortable and back seating room is the most I've ever
had, was best man at a freinds wedding last month, he was thinking about
getting one, so I climbed in back let him and his wife take it for a drive,
I'm 6'1" he's 6'2", we had lots of room behind one another. In the snow it's
unslipable, got our first 6" snowfall last year, no matter where I went I
couldn't get it to slip, finally decided to try this road to a bowling
alleys parking lot, goes up 2 1/2 storeys in approx. 100 feet, no slipping,
and I can tell you we were the only set of tracks for that snowfall.

"Don" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> We have our second child coming and I am thinking of selling my 90
> Mustang and 89 F-150 to get something I can drive and take the kids if
> I want. (Know we go in my wife's 99 Malibu).
>
> I drive about 50 miles a day during the week. I have been thinking of
> a FOrd Escape or something used. I really would miss having a truck
> that I can haul things around but I have a trailer I could pull.
>
> Someone told me that there was not much difference in gas mileage
> between the "small" SUv's such as the escape and the "large" ones like
> the explorer or expedition. Is this true?
>
> Whatever I get I would like to get 4 wheel drive, something decent on
> gas, reliable and that I could either haul stuff in or pull a trailer
> if needed. I will have to buy used and a cheap price is important.
>
> ANything would probably get better than my truck in gas mileage. It
> gets about 13 city or highway.
>
> I actually hate to part with my mustang. I have had it for 12 years.
> If I put it on cruise control I can average 20-21 mpg.
>
> Thanks for your help!

Don proclaimed:

> We have our second child coming and I am thinking of selling my 90
> Mustang and 89 F-150 to get something I can drive and take the kids if
> I want. (Know we go in my wife's 99 Malibu).
>
> I drive about 50 miles a day during the week. I have been thinking of
> a FOrd Escape or something used. I really would miss having a truck
> that I can haul things around but I have a trailer I could pull.
>
> Someone told me that there was not much difference in gas mileage
> between the "small" SUv's such as the escape and the "large" ones like
> the explorer or expedition. Is this true?

Some truth to it... a smaller SUV with the typical bricklike
shape will have a lot of wind resistance. Plus some of the
more profitable midrange SUV's will have 5 and 6 speed automatics
to help with mileage...and can cruise at highway speeds at a
lower rpm, again helping cruise mileage.
>
> Whatever I get I would like to get 4 wheel drive, something decent on
> gas, reliable and that I could either haul stuff in or pull a trailer
> if needed. I will have to buy used and a cheap price is important.

...bummer, that would leave out the displacement on demand Hemi
powered Grand Cherokee that can get about the same mileage as
the older inline 6 at cruise speeds. Or the VW TDI diesel...
>
> ANything would probably get better than my truck in gas mileage. It
> gets about 13 city or highway.

Holy Carp. I can get 20-21 with a Jeep Grand Cherokee, cruising
cross country at 75 to 80 with the typical up and down of driving
from the west coast to Denver area. With the same engine, most
reports I see for the smaller Cherokee are 1-2 mpg or so lower,
mostly due to the more bricklike aero shape.


> I actually hate to part with my mustang. I have had it for 12 years.
> If I put it on cruise control I can average 20-21 mpg.

Yeah, I love a classic RX7...but the Grand Cherokee gets better
gas mileage under pretty much every driving condition.

Dunno what the mileage would be on the V6 Toyota 4Runner would be,
biggest problem I see with them is that the dealers seem to be
absolutely in love with them and price them at the top of the
range. Good little SUV tho... The Mitsu Montero Sport is
also nice, but a bit more trucklike.

A Jeep Liberty or Ford Escape new might not be that much more
than a fairly recent Toyota.

Mike Romain proclaimed:

> A Jeep Cherokee is a nice mid sized 4x4 with lots of room. We get about
> 24 mpg in our old 88.

I didn't know Canada had enough one-way hills to get that kind of
mileage in that old brick. I can only coax 21 out of a Grand,
perhaps due to my tendency to cruise at 75+ cross-country.