Suvs are they Worth it
Absolutely they are worth it, if you have a legitimate reason for owning one. I drove a Ford Villager minivan for 10 years before I bought my current SUV, a Honda Pilot. Typically, I am one of those car buyers that purchases the car outright knowing I will drive it to its death or until it is too expensive to resuscitate. That's what happened to my Villager. It was going to need over $2,000 dollars of repair and even the mechanic told me it would still be a 10 year old car with 10 year old problems when I was done.
Each winter in my minvan, I would slip and slide as I traveled through the snow and sleet. Somehow, when we went house hunting to buy our house in New Jersey, we managed to pick one with the steepest driveway in town. Winters were a thrill for my son in the backseat. In order to go up the driveway, I would have to accelerate to get a "running" start and even then I often only made it up the driveway halfway. The tires would smoke and burn as I applied the brake but they couldn't hold and I would slowly slide down to the street level.
Sitting entirely upright in my Villager was difficult. I am one of the tallest women amongst my friends and even sit taller than my husband due to my elongated torso. The top of my hair was always sucked up to the roof of the van from static electricity. I couldn't lower the seat or sling it backward due to my own back trouble that requires me to sit fairly straight.
Still, I loved my Villager, it was smaller than most minivans making it more gas efficient and it was easy to park. Many women I know, and men, wrestle with the "image" of driving a minivan vs. driving an SUV. Vans look suburban and SUVs look cool. No matter how car manufacturers have tried over the years to snaze up minivans in order to compete with SUVs, they still ended up looking like over sized loaves of bread with wheels. And as the size of minivans increased, the gas mileage decreased; in the end, both became pretty comparable in cost to drive.
Getting back to my failing Villager, I traded it in for partial payment on a Honda Pilot. I was sad for about a day until I realized that I finally could move my head freely in the SUV. In my Pilot, I actually have about 3 inches of head space even with the seat positioned in the upright position. No more static head, no more back strain. Hallelujah.
But the best part about my Pilot is driving it in the snow or that slippery icy rain we get in the east coast complete with black ice on those really cold days. Driving up and backing down my driveway is a breeze once I put my Pilot into the 4 wheel drive gear. No more "dashing in the snow" repeatedly trying to get up my driveway or sliding into a sideways position as I slip down threatening to roll us all over; our driveway is so steep.
Not everyone "needs" an SUV. I wrestled with my lack of consideration to the environment from excess gas use and my contribution to global warming. For 10 years, I convinced myself that I didn't need an SUV, my Villager was just fine and for the most part it was. Now that I own my Pilot, I still plan to drive it until it dies or cannot be resuscitated. Only in my SUV, I won't be clutching the steering wheel and feeling that uncomfortable adrenaline rush each time I approach my driveway, wondering how many runs will it take for me to get up it this time?
