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ha, ha! I enjoyed reading the thread because I myself will never be caught dead driving a minivan, ever! I have a family, with one child, and another on the way, but will never own or drive a minivan. I like the Honda Crv SUV, smaller, cool, SUV. I also like the Honda Pilot, and the Acura Rdx, but they are gas guzzlers and the Acura is too expensive. If I had to get another SUV for the family it would be the cool Honda Element. Plenty of room for children, surfboards, and beach stuff, and a cool looking vehicle instead of an embarrasing minivan! ha! I don't mind seeing a mother driving them, but I feel bad to see any man driving one! ha!
I agree with you 100% and was enjoying your post until I saw the crossovers you described as being "cool SUV's". Id be equally embarrased to drive in those as I would in a minivan, lol.
Personally I think in 2013 the SUV market is pretty slim in its choices. Even though very refined the only brand new SUV's I could even see myself shopping for would be an Expedition, Tahoe, Sequoia, 4Runner, Armada, maybe a couple others. The rest of them have become to girly with shifters on the dash , low ground clearance, to aerodynamic, too many car like features, etc.. A couple years ago you could buy a nice Explorer or Escape, a Blazer, Commander, Pathfinder, Grand Cherokee and several others that were nice little SUV's.
Todays market has essentially turned these nice liitle SUV's into somewhat bigger, uglier cars that are more suited for the highway than anything. If we are speaking of these types of SUV's (aka crossover) than yes perhaps they are sportier than a minivan. With that being said I would drive a minivan over one of these crossovers because the basis of a minivan has not changed, whereas these "SUV's" are trying to be something they are not.
Not sure about sportier, but we ended up choosing our SUV (2009 Kia Borrego) because it had the right combination of features along with the ability to seat seven. The Borrego can tow 5000lbs and has high and low range 4WD rather than AWD, which you can't find on a minivan. The Borrego also has decent ground clearance and will take a 32" tire. We do a lot of camping, towing, and off road driving with our kids so that was important to us. Ideally I would love to have an E350 van with a 4WD conversion, but for now, the Borrego was a much cheaper option.
Well in that respect sure. I don't think that everyone out there is aware of that. I see plenty of slow pieces of crap being driven like sports cars in the left lane after true sports cars.
And that generalization can be said of any type of car. It has more to do with the idiot behind the wheel as opposed to the car he/she's driving.
I've never know anyone to think that the "S" in SUV stood for what the car can do vs. the activities it allows its occupants to participate in.
Of course, in this day and age - these categories seems to be more marketing terms than actual vehicle class. Its not just SUVs now, its luxury SUV, sport SUV, small SUV, SAV, etc. And the SUVs that weren't really SUVs became Crossovers when the gas crisis crapped all over the SUV market. You also don't call them wagons (which some are) because you don't want the associated childhood image of the family trip sitting backwards in a Country Squire.
You wrote 'out handle'. Have you tried to autocross that SUV at all? I've seen regular cars 3 wheeling on very aggressive turns safely. Have you pushed your SUV like that all?
The SVT lightning is pretty fast on the straights too but its quite laughable in autox (handling). Ive see it many times.
Oh and we (non-bmw racers) beat those M cars in our local BMW autox everyday...theres one with a basemodel mini cooper that blows everyone away lol
Again you missed the word "most" not all lol
I didnt buy this to autox. You and your minis can win that all day with no care from me lol
When I had the Lightning, it was not bought for autox either.
I guess this seems like a contest to you GTRdad, so you can win. Im not trying to win any arguement here with you at all. It is funny how you defend the Mini so much though!
The bigger point is, there are SUVs out there sporty enough to even have this conversation and not have it sound completely ridiculous. With minivans, not so much.
I've never know anyone to think that the "S" in SUV stood for what the car can do vs. the activities it allows its occupants to participate in. Of course, in this day and age - these categories seems to be more marketing terms than actual vehicle class.
True. When my daughter was born, I drove a Ford F-350 4WD regular cab pickup that my wife I drove all over the place from the logging roads of Maine to the State Forests of New Jersey. We wanted to continue that lifestyle, so though we had to get rid of the truck we wanted something that could tow a reasonable load and had true selectable high and low range 4WD. We immediately started looking at the Ford Escape and quickly were turned off by it's unibody construction which limited towing to 3500lbs, and it's lack of a true 4WD system. After a lot of searching we ran across the Kia Borrego which is a body on ladder frame design with true 4WD, which is why it only lasted one model year in the US (it continues to be sold overseas)-it is built like a small truck and, to an extent, rides like one, but for people who are used to trucks, this is not an issue.
I didnt buy this to autox. You and your minis can win that all day with no care from me lol
When I had the Lightning, it was not bought for autox either.
I guess this seems like a contest to you GTRdad, so you can win. Im not trying to win any arguement here with you at all. It is funny how you defend the Mini so much though!
You didnt buy that to out handle other cars you mean. You probably thought it can do everything and overpaid for the placebo effect. It's OK though, everyone goes thru the same and only realizes it when theyre actually tasked to perform. There are still alot of folks on the internet who just never gone out yet and still patting their backs for the mere purchase of their vehicle. Now thats funny. We race with a few guys in their Mclaren, Corvettes, Cayman and all the nice exotics but I think none of them would say they bought the cars for the SPORT part. more like Shopping-Utility-Vehicle part
*Most* cars will out handle your SUV, even Honda Civics, even non-M cars. You definitely would not out handle sportier cars let alone sportscars with that piggy SUV. I picked (not defend lol) the mini because its under the BMW banner and its the 'lamest'. but apparently its not 'the lamest'
You didnt buy that to out handle other cars you mean. You probably thought it can do everything and overpaid for the placebo effect. It's OK though, everyone goes thru the same and only realizes it when theyre actually tasked to perform. There are still alot of folks on the internet who just never gone out yet and still patting their backs for the mere purchase of their vehicle. Now thats funny. We race with a few guys in their Mclaren, Corvettes, Cayman and all the nice exotics but I think none of them would say they bought the cars for the SPORT part. more like Shopping-Utility-Vehicle part
*Most* cars will out handle your SUV, even Honda Civics, even non-M cars. You definitely would not out handle sportier cars let alone sportscars with that piggy SUV. I picked (not defend lol) the mini because its under the BMW banner and its the 'lamest'. but apparently its not 'the lamest'
See my post above-I always thought that the "Sport" in Sport Utility Vehicle meant, a vehicle meant for folks who are into outdoor pursuits such as hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, biking, kayaking, canoeing, etc... Said vehicles were meant to be capable of handling rough roads/moderately difficult trails in their stock configuration as well as be able to carry or tow the equipment needed for such pursuits. For example, one of our favorite lakes to go to for the day is at the end of a very bad road at the top of the Kittatinny Ridge in Northwestern NJ. 4WD is not mandatory, but it helps. Adequate ground clearance IS mandatory, and more than once we've helped folks out of a jam who were trying to get there in a low to the ground car, and on occasion, a minivan
You didnt buy that to out handle other cars you mean. You probably thought it can do everything and overpaid for the placebo effect. It's OK though, everyone goes thru the same and only realizes it when theyre actually tasked to perform. There are still alot of folks on the internet who just never gone out yet and still patting their backs for the mere purchase of their vehicle. Now thats funny. We race with a few guys in their Mclaren, Corvettes, Cayman and all the nice exotics but I think none of them would say they bought the cars for the SPORT part. more like Shopping-Utility-Vehicle part
*Most* cars will out handle your SUV, even Honda Civics, even non-M cars. You definitely would not out handle sportier cars let alone sportscars with that piggy SUV. I picked (not defend lol) the mini because its under the BMW banner and its the 'lamest'. but apparently its not 'the lamest'
You're making the rest of us MINI owners look bad with this insulting behavior.
Again, the SPORT in SUV is in outdoor sports, no MOTOR sports. So equating it to SPORTS CARS is a fallacy. That being said, cars like his SUV will actually work a lot better than you think, but you've bought into the MINI hype (and compared to original Minis, the new one is a piggy itself, but you have no problem with that, I'm sure...). You talk about him overpaying for the "placebo effect," when we could be said to have overpaid for a small hatchback just to get the MINI hype and "lifestyle." So I wouldn't be throwing around any "overpaid" insult at others, when it could be leveled at us, as easily.
*Most* cars will out handle your SUV, even Honda Civics, even non-M cars. You definitely would not out handle sportier cars let alone sportscars with that piggy SUV. I picked (not defend lol) the mini because its under the BMW banner and its the 'lamest'. but apparently its not 'the lamest'
... I don't think you have a clue what you're talking about, frankly. You think most cars are going to beat an X5M around a track? LOL
Here's an X5M beating the 2005-2010 M5 (that's 500hp and 380lbft for those playing at home) around a track, and that M5 would in turn be able to beat a LOT of cars. It certainly won't be beat by a Honda Civic, and if it's a track that has any straights of decent length, even the fastest Mini, the coupe, won't beat it either.
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