SUV or Minivan in MI winters? (Detroit, Flint: debt, trip , lease)

[khfar]

We moved here from Dallas, TX, about 8 months ago. No one has 4X4 in Dallas - you just don't need it. Both of our cars were relatively new, so we didn't want to get rid of them and start all over. I was a little nervous when winter hit, but I have found that it's fine w/o 4WD. I drive an Expedition, so I'm pretty high off the ground anyway. And as someone mentioned, they do a great job of clearing the roads quickly.

My husband has about a 30 minute commute (we live in the northern suburbs) and he says that sometimes the highways are dicey, but I don't think a 4WD vehicle would help that. You're still going to slide in ice or slushy snow, regardless.

Also, we have a Toyota 4Runner, and have never gotten any flack for it. A lot of my neighbors drive foreign cars, I've noticed.

Good luck!

[cardwellave]

Honestly I wouldn't buy a car like that just because of the winters. It's really not that bad, and everyone here just sorta makes whatever they have work. It's not that hard to drive even a rear wheel drive car in the snow if you know your limitations. You don't see people all driving trucks here just because of moderately bad winters. Quite the opposite really.

I wouldn't drive a foreign car in Wayne County though. I swear I see more "Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign!" stickers (and now magnets) on cars everyday.

[magellan]

We drive a Honda Odyssey minivan all the time in the winter. It's great! And handles the snow much better than a Nissan Pathfinder 4x4 we used to have. You also can't drive 4 wheel drive faster than 50 mph on the highway anyway (with many suv's). You can't beat the roominess inside a minivan. They're HUGE compared to the inside of most suv's.

[Bluefly]

Whatever the perceptions are of foreign versus domestic cars, it's quite outdated and simplistic. A Toyota can provide more jobs to Americans from start to finish than a GM, depending on the car. It's a global marketplace now where parts and such are developed and manufactured and shared around the globe.

People who hold onto that dichotomy are holding onto a past economy that has ceased to exist for quite a while.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by magellan

You also can't drive 4 wheel drive faster than 50 mph on the highway anyway (with many suv's). You can't beat the roominess inside a minivan. They're HUGE compared to the inside of most suv's.

Have to agree with the size of the minivans, they do have more room than the average SUV. Do have to disagree with the speed limitations of a 4X4 though. Everything I own is a 4 wheel drive, 2 Suburbans, Jeep CJ-5, Ford Explorer. I have owned 4 wheel drive for a LONG time and never had to go slower than normal traffic. I had both Suburbans up past 65 today in 4 wheel for 40+ miles no harm done.

[dakwilk]

I'll probably be in Troy or Southfield.

[OhEdo]

Originally Posted by dakwilk

Oh, thanks for the advice. I assume people are really big on GM cars out there. Is there a stigma if you have a foreign car?

As somebody noted, not just GM but all the former big 3 (now dubbed Detroit 3) are in metro Detroit, so all three makes have their loyalists, not just GM. The one advantage of buying domestic in this area is that there a ton of dealers so you are never far from one and you can get great deals - it seems everybody in southeast Michigan is eligible for an "employee discount." I think the days of abuse for owning a Japanese or other foreign car are behind us, but in this area I don`t know if they`re worth the premium you pay over domestic, not to mention the paucity of dealers meaning service is more of a pain. Of course, the disadvantage of all this is that everybody owns American around here, so you tend to blend in with the crowd if you own a domestic.
Finally, to add my two cents, domestic cars have really closed the gap on the foreign competition recently - GM vehicles have won North America Car of the year 2 years running (Saturn Aura in 07 and Chevy Malibu in 08; both based on the same platform actually) and the Chevy Silverado won last year`s truck of the year award. And no, I don`t work for any of the Detroit 3 or their suppliers.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Bydand

Have to agree with the size of the minivans, they do have more room than the average SUV. Do have to disagree with the speed limitations of a 4X4 though. Everything I own is a 4 wheel drive, 2 Suburbans, Jeep CJ-5, Ford Explorer. I have owned 4 wheel drive for a LONG time and never had to go slower than normal traffic. I had both Suburbans up past 65 today in 4 wheel for 40+ miles no harm done.

May have been Nissan who didn't recommend it. You could drive as fast as you wanted in 2 wheel drive, just not in "locked" 4wd. It did have the option of full-time AWD.

Also, as far as dealerships go, there are foreign dealerships everywhere. There are at least two Honda dealerships in just Grand Rapids alone (maybe 3), two Toyota dealerships, and two Nissan dealerships. We've had no problems getting our cars serviced anywhere.

I'm sure there's even a larger selection in the D metro area.

[Coldjensens]

I have gone as fast as ** in 4wd. I did not know that there was any limitation, except obviusly in 4wd low.
(** I guess I had better not incriminate myself. Lets just say that I went very fast). I think that the limitation was on the older 4wd vehicles that you had to lock the axle to get 4wd. Some of them even required that you get out of the truck to do it.


We had a really hard time finding a Honda dealership when my visiting father n law's car broke down. We had to drive 30 plus miles.

When I was looking at trucks, a dodge salesman told me that I could use his uncles' employee discount. Problem was that it was still pricey and I have had terrible luck with recent dodge vehicles. Older ones were great.


There are some places that you will still get glares and/or comments for driving non-big 3. Workers are aware that the profit and engineering dollars still go overseas rather than staying in Michigan, and they do not know about Honda making cars in Tennessee, they do know that they don't make them in Flint so if you buy a Honda, it is likely to be detrimental to Flint or to Detroit. However I have a small British car and I never get anything but positive comments when I drive it. (Which is rare since it needs new valves - anyone know a good British car mechanic?)

[Cato the Elder]

In metro Detroit, the more upscale it is, the more foreign you will see - luxury European and Japanese - and I'd bet many work for the auto industry. Around Birmingham and Bloomfield, I've noticed that many husbands drive domestic while the wives drive foreign SUVs and minivans. It's like Granholm driving a Ford but I wouldn't be surprised if she had a Mercedes or Lexus stashed away somewhere. The more "downscale" tends to also produce foreign but Korean and low-end Japanese like Suzuki.

It's in the middle that you have a dominance of domestic cars. My biggest surprise is how quickly the latest domestic models hit the road in number. How long did it take for the new boxy Chrysler minivans to start dominating the streets in metro Detroit? 3 months? Combined with the number of teenagers I see driving new cars, it makes you wonder about how bad economic downturn actually is for the majority of the people. Either that or people are getting up to their eyeballs in debt.