Opinion; From my favorite utube car reviewers
I’m with him on the first two, but the Flying Hunsman doesn’t do it for me.
It looks more like a ww2 vehicle then an off roader. But that is point. It will go where ordinay 4 wd can’t While carrying much heavier loads as ww2 vehicles had to. That, plus you have the option of getting a true 4 wd without having to power the front wheels. A great tow vehical too. I’ll take one and sell it before it needed tire replacement.
Yeah I dunno, probably unlike a lot of car guys, I’m just not impressed with fast. I mean who needs to go faster than 100 anyway. So anything above that is just wasted. Around here I don’t think many people would be interested in a six wheeled car or truck either. Maybe the folks that live on a mountain and need to cross streams and fields to get home but really for most people?
I think it’s just an attempt to show how far car makers can go. On,y those with money to burn will actually buy such cars, but hybrids, off road and " regular" cars do not have to be as bland as they are. There will be practical features taken from each like there have always been in dream cars. Where you would normally have to tow a trailer, a six wheel pick up could tow or deliver for a contractor, a much heavier load then you can imagine. An ambulance or emergency rescue vehicle in six wheel drive would awesome too. Imagine picking up groceries for the family brood and not worrying about some one cutting you off in the parking lot.
Part of it may be that I’m not a truck guy. I’m more into sports cars. As a farmer, I’m sure that trucks are more your cup of Texas Tea, @dagosa.
Sports cars to me are vehicles with less then 8 inches of ground clearance. They are all impractical and hard to climb in or out of. If all you can do is drive a car on a paved road it can only take you where some one else wants you to go.
It’s purely and totally a matter of taste. Personally, I love sports cars. Always have. Especially the old British Leyland ones. The last time I got into one was ten years ago, a Nissan 370Z (350? I’m not sure now what number they were up to). It was comfortable. But I doubt of I could squeeze into any sports car now. Although perhaps a LaFerrari… they have the dihedral doors the opening of which comes up to a center beam in the roof, so it’s a drop-down entry process. That might work.
Anyway, I’ve never personally cared for uber-macho vehicles that look like the driver is invading a hostile country. Interestingly, the most common vehicles actually used in many of these countries in conflict is the Toyota pickup. Go figure.
Don’t get me wrong, I like driving a friend’s Miata for the afternoon on the mountain roads around here when he stops by to look for a reason the wring it out. Another has a Mustang v8 that’s a real hoot…in a straigjter line. So I get a fix now and then. I just can’t bring myself to buy anything so limiting. I drive down the road in the vehicles I have and know I can tke a left turn anywhere where there is no road or a feeble excuse for one to either avoid trouble or the maddening crowd. Many owners of these vehicles are not macho types as they appear, they are freedom of movement lovers, even if they can’t experience it as often as they would like.
The are "sports cars " of a different type.
Our environments are very different. The largest obstacles I need to negotiate are speed humps, unlike your rutted roads. We enjoy different lives and make our worlds as comfortable as possible. That includes aour choice of vehicles.
A sports car represented in the motor show means the only sport you can enjoy is driving the car. I sold a v6 2wd Toyota with a lot of life left because I needed 4wd, Sold it to a young man who took the truck, put a sun roof in, lowered it, put performance tires on it and used it to haul his “other sports”: his trail bike or an ATV or down hill ski equipment. In the summer, I keep sailing equipment and golf clubs always at the ready in the back. The newer trucks go like heck and handle decently and carry all your other “sports at the ready”. Those are real "sport(s) cars. 4wd are great for hunting, fishing, skiing…you name it !
Hunting, fishing, skiing… Are those things I will ever do? Nope. No need to buy a vehicle that goes places I have no need to go. Instead, I value efficiency, comfort, value, looks, ordinary things most people value.
@MarkM. I am not saying that one is better then the other. What I am saying is, ordinary things that most people value can also include what a truck will do for you. After all…the biggest seller year after year is the Ford F-150 name plate. They, along with Toyota trucks tend to hold their value as well as Most sedans and sports cars. What they lack in efficiency they make up for in practicality. They sell so well for the vary same list of reasons you give for your preference. We aren’t far apart. When I lived in tiwn. Our two family cars always included a truck then too…but it also included a sedan…usually a Corolla. I would spend most of the summer driving around with my canoe on top, read for any water excursion. Of course…we live in a state with 3400 miles of coast line and more lakes then you can imagine. It often depends on where you live…
In the old days, if you wanted to pull a boat, a camper, go fishing, move your sister, haul brush, etc. you just used a regular ole station wagon. You could even get a 4x8 foot sheet of plywood in them. Now to do the same thing, you need a pick up or an SUV. Seems to me the station wagon was the better deal and was also perfectly fine for going to church in.
I think there is a misconception out there that automobile industry does not make large station wagons. They have never stopped. They are now taller and more box shaped then before making them more practical. They just call them SUV s and minivans. Some have frames and some don’t. People have been buying these things for many years thinking they were getting something special when all they were getting is just another version of the station wagon. Now, when some didn’t like the look and wanted something more carelike, they bought four door hatch backs. Still station wagons…just like the Outback and the Volvo Xc which over the years morphed into SUVS by getting boxy too. Station wagons never left us; just the name.