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Here in Montana,go to any parking lot,and over 75% ov the vehicles will be mid size SUVs or larger, or 4 door pickups. All will have studded snow tires.
My wife and I have a F-150 pickup, and a Ford Explorer. I love the Explorer in the winter snow conditions, where I turn the transmission dial to Snow and Ice to handle snow to perfection.To go down a steep or slippery hill, press the hill control button, and it adjusts the transmission and brakes to hold back and no problems keeping speed and control to make the descent safer and under control.
Want control over shifting gears, move transmission lever to manual and now only shifts gears as you push an up or down button.
I always carry a long tow strap, when out on 2 lane highways, and where it is 50 miles to the next town, and no cell phone service, and have pulled quite a few cars back on the road, instead of letting a family sit there and freeze. Only SUV I have had to pull out has been Subareas. Not enough clearance is their problem. A major reason we see few of them here.
A lot of install deer guards, to protect us from an average of $12,000 when you hit a deer (Montana has the second highest auto deer accidents in the nation living in the second largest state with only 1,000,000 people.
Eliminates or greatly reduces damage in a fender bender.
We are installing one on my daughter in laws new SUV this week. She is a social worker whose case load is small children up to the elderly within a 50 miles one way, and 100 miles the other way, and 50 miles north or south.
Twice this last week she put on 200 miles in a day, and came home after dark. The odds a deer will jump in front of her are to high not to protect her. Her supervisor had a deer total her car recently, and laid her up for a few days.
"2018 Ford Explorer exterior dimensions (autotk.com)
Overall Length
198.3"
Overall Body Width
78.9"
Overall Body Height
70"
Wheelbase
112.8"
Turning Radius
19.4 - 19.6"
Ground Clearance
7.8 - 8.3"
Looks to me like the Subie OBW has a higher ground clearance than the Ford Explorer.
As one who has towed out stuck high centered Ford Explorers (and even an Expedition, once, and Jeeps) with my puny low powered little 2001 and 2007 Subie OBW's on some of our county roads over the last decade …
I'm not buying your story of why Subie's aren't seen in MT.
per "blog.iseecars.com", vehicle registration percentages for the top 10 marketplaces for Subies:
Looks to me like Subie's are even more popular in MT than in WA, which is considered a "very strong" Subie market area. Wyoming doesn't even make it into the "top 10" markets and yet when I go to town … say WalMart or Sam's Club … I'll see more Subie's than any other car in the parking lots, including domestic SUV's or 4x4's. As an owner of a '96 Dodge Cummins 4x4 and a '99 Ford F-250 Powerstroke 4x4, I have ready access to such vehicles … and yet, on a snowy/icy road day here in SE Wyoming, I'll take one of my 2007 Subie OBW's any day as a better handling inclement weather road condition transport than the pick-up trucks. One of the key issues is the substantial weight difference between the Subie and the 4x4 pick-up trucks … when you're trying to get 4 tons of vehicle started or stopped, it takes a lot more energy to do so than the much lighter Subie. The trucks simply cannot match the Subie for starting/stopping on slick, icy, surfaces. Nor will the Subie hydroplane on wet surfaces as readily as the pick-up trucks can do when the roads are melting/wet.
The Rocky Mountain region is one of the strongest marketplaces for this brand of car, and while I'm not familiar as you are with MT car ownership … you'll see more Subie's on the road and in parking lots in CO and WY than the larger SUV's. Especially on icy road conditions, the Subie AWD system blows the doors off of 4x4 pick-up trucks … without the need for studded snow tires, too. We've never run any but "all season" tires on our Subie's and never been stuck, even on our poorly maintained county roads in Wyoming.
As well, for a long time, the joke was it was almost considered mandatory to "buy a Subaru" when newcomers arrived in Colorado. Bob Bahne owned a Denver Subie franchise from the beginning of the marque in Colorado and it wasn't unusual for him to sell over 100 cars/week even back in the early days of their AWD offerings. And he was just one of the franchise dealers along the Front Range or Denver metro area.
Subarus have gotten a lot better. I know several people who live in the high sierras and they had Audi’s and jeeps. They prefer the Subaru. Audi’s can get pricey on maintenance as they get older.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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(6) Subies all adjacent in the parking lot in WA this morning.
Oregon similar. (Very good market, as MANY outdoor people who have a 'light' footprint / vehicle size)
Good place to find rust free earlier versions, but resale and mileage is usually high.
I still prefer AZ / TX / CA (retirement centric communities) for finding low mileage, non-rust vehicles
Subies is very capable (I miss the 2spd transfer case of 1980's), I find them quite light weight +/-, but a minus for me (high wind and freezing rain = slippery, even wearing studs x4)
I'm having trouble placing what you call "Open Deck" in a Boxer engine.
I love Subarus.. but I think every one I have looked at (except for MAYBE a 2000 we never got past looking at, due to size issues) had the dreaded HG issue.
I should also say anything with a manual transmission. Nothing like being able to rock it back and forth out of a sticky spot to get back into the action. Works with semis most of the time. So a stuck, 4x4 or AWD with the manual option should work the same way.
That's why I'm definitely looking at a used, 70's or 80's era Chevy or such with 4x4 and a manual. Less of a glorified limo than my current 2016 Silverado. But since I don't drive that often except for long distance trips, this would be good and easy to take care of for those times I might need it. And less sleepy of a vehicle too.
I should also say anything with a manual transmission. Nothing like being able to rock it back and forth out of a sticky spot to get back into the action. Works with semis most of the time. So a stuck, 4x4 or AWD with the manual option should work the same way.
That's why I'm definitely looking at a used, 70's or 80's era Chevy or such with 4x4 and a manual. Less of a glorified limo than my current 2016 Silverado. But since I don't drive that often except for long distance trips, this would be good and easy to take care of for those times I might need it. And less sleepy of a vehicle too.
If you get a 4x4 with snow tires stuck, rocking is not going to get you out. It is hard to get stuck so you have to be basically buried.
I’ve been stuck while plowing, only thing that’ll get you out is a shovel or someone pulling you out. Shovel has worked fine so far.
Last time I was in mtns west of Denver I commented that I wanted to own a Subaru dealer or at least shop that only works on them, easy money.
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