The REALLY crummy thing right now is that almost everyone is killing off their midsize ladder frame SUVs. Trailblazer's dead, replaced by the Acadia. Explorer's going unibody. Sorento's unibody now. It's really just Nissan and Toyota building midsize SUVs in North America, and only the Pathy and Xterra are really very capable off the highway.
And that doesn't just suck for SUV buyers. It sucks for everyone. The marketplace is INUNDATED with near-identical car-based nonminivan wagony crossovery things. Manufacturers stick square styling on some of them to appeal to the "I want an SUV but won't take it off road" crowd, but in reality that square "SUV" is the same as the brand's softer styled crossover. Look at Ford. The Flex, Freestyle/TaurusX, and next-gen Explorer are ALL THE SAME THING. Do we really need THREE mechanically-identical midsize front-drive car-based crossovers from the same brand? And that's on top of the smaller, Fusion-based Edge. But NO LADDER-FRAME SUVS. AT ALL. What the hell? Another marketing decision from Ford I don't get.
Chevy's the same way. Replace the Trailblazer with Acadia/Traverse. Slot in the Equinox. Where's the UTILITY? Where are the workhorses? Over at Nissan, apparently. Where they're not afraid to rock class-leading crossovers AND trucks that do man-stuff when needed.
PoorManQ45 wrote:Someone needs to make a full frame mini-van. Combine that with all-wheel-drive. Throw in a V6 in the 280HP/250tq range and you've got a nice setup that should be able to tow a boat comfortably, get decent mileage, and get a little dirty if given enough clearance.
That's what the early Aerostar was. It was Ranger-based and took a page out of the full-size van book. But that was back when family sedans didn't weigh in over 2 tons and the Chrysler unibody approach was more appealing from production and economy standpoints, so Ford had to move to keep up. Problem with going ladder-frame today, production-wise, is that not everyone selling minivans today has a ladder-frame platform to build it on. Everyone's got a midsize front-drive sedan, though. Add a flat floor and you're set.
PMQ wrote:It seems the offroad aspect is simply a marketing point.
There are definitely plenty of morons driving SUVs who don't need those things. But that doesn't change the fact that there are and always--ALWAYS--will be people who genuinely do want/need and actually use those features.
