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Are you strictly looking for a car, or would a truck also be considered? Do you take passengers with you?
With all the snow, and getting out of the city for fishing and hiking trips, I think you're going to need 4wd at the minimum, and AWD would be better, assuming you get off road at times. For the safety and usefulness of what you want to do, and where you will be at, I would just deal with the slightly worse gas mileage for AWD. It will cost maybe $5-10 extra for that once a year trip and will be a lost safer and more useful on a daily basis.
Another vote for Subaru. They have some pretty cool wagons, that would give you plenty of room. Otherwise what about something like a Chevy Tahoe. Not the greatest for gas, but roomy, and will get you there.
I love my Kia Soul - I will be trading in my 2nd one for another one in December. Not sure how they would be in the snow as I live in Florida. My son is 6'4" and never complains about the car being too small for him to drive.
My advice to the OP is to somehow get in touch with some of the residents of the town he is moving to (over at the Canada forums), and see which automobiles are most widely used in that area.
The Subaru Forrester hits a lot of the same rough weather/rural roads high points as its Outback sibling but doesn't quite have the same cult status. Would look into one because your money would likely go further than with an Outback.
My advice to the OP is to somehow get in touch with some of the residents of the town he is moving to (over at the Canada forums), and see which automobiles are most widely used in that area.
Based on used vehicle listings from that part of the country, F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, Sierra 1500, Ram 1500; some Corollas, Civics and CRVs, RAV4s, Ford Escapes, Dodge Journeys...
A Chevy Tahoe seems overkill, if I decide to go for something really geared to going in the bush, seems like a small truck would make more sense (less expensive)?
Test drove a new Outback and it's my favourite out of the cars I looked at so far, although looks like the older models that I'd be buying are rather different.
The CR-V is also at the top of my list.
Also found a Dodge Journey SXT for what seems like a good deal - $14,000 for a 2012 vehicle with 30,000 miles, 6 cylinders, no accidents, and appears to be well kept (only FWD though). The salesman said 30mpg which from what I'm reading online is BS.
Still haven't gotten a chance to look at the Kia Soul. How's the paint on it?
Based on used vehicle listings from that part of the country, F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, Sierra 1500, Ram 1500; some Corollas, Civics and CRVs, RAV4s, Ford Escapes, Dodge Journeys...
A Chevy Tahoe seems overkill, if I decide to go for something really geared to going in the bush, seems like a small truck would make more sense (less expensive)?
Well defiantly can't go wrong with a full-size 4x4 truck one thing they do is hold their resale value well and chained up with decent M&S tires and some weight over the rear axle will get you most places in Winter.
A Full-size or even compact ford Ranger/Mazda B-Series will do great in most rural town cities But a late-model Full-size truck in Extended and Crew Cab (Ford, Chevy/GMC and Ram) will be comfortable on long road-trips/drives into other towns or major cities due to their longer wheel base and more luxurious/better equipped/optioned cabs over the Ranger/Mazda B-series with a smaller cab and shorter wheel based which gives compact trucks a rough ride.
would also say a small V8 would get as much or the same Fuel economy as large V6 in most PU trucks and having the extra V8 torque and horsepower for climbing in elevation and passing is nice thing on esp. rural two lane roads when you need it IMO OP
the add in the high resale vlaue and easy of finding parts for a dmestic truck is why a 1/2 F-series. GMC sierra/Chevy silverado 1500 pr Ram 1500 would be my choice.
Other honorable mentions are the Ford/Mazda B-series, Toyota Tacoma, Dodge Dakota with a 4.7L Magnum V-8 or the older 318ci (5.2L) Magnum V8 and Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon with the 5.3 Vortec V-8 (would avoid GM's Inline 5 cylinder engines)
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