What do you drive?

[susanjoypaul]

The introduction commercial that Ford had for the rollout was very cool.

Yup, featuring Jimmy Chin in a Cyber Orange two-door with the Sasquatch package was a brilliant move by Ford.
Made me forget all about O.J.

[pw]

I drive the dear departed (discontinued) Xterra. Bought it new, now up to 138,000 miles. No significant mechanical issues, no breakdowns, some leaking brake line type things, mostly it's just been all the routine maintenance things. I like the engine, a 260 HP V6, plenty of power. I don't do that much off road stuff, I have sympathy pains with my vehicle if I do, but it handles moderate jeep roads well enough. I'd say - Yes, I'd buy another one - but that's not really possible anymore (not new anyway). From the looks of things, Broncos and 4Runners best options these days.

[Jay521]

2007 FJ Cruiser. Manual transmission. It’s got 284,000 miles on it and literally no maintenance issues beyond the normal (brakes, batteries, tires, etc.). I’ve owned a lot of vehicles in my life but my FJ is far and away the most dependable and reliable.

Can’t believe nobody else has mentioned the venerable FJ..

[Dave B]

Interesting decision on groupings, Explorer?

I didn't read the answers above me, but I bet it falls out like so:

1. Subarus - Because this is Colorado. IDK, man, I'm of the age that when growning up we made fun of station wagons.
2. Tacoma/4Runner - Because this is Colorado. Some have all kinds of fancy "overlanding" gear on them like (red) gas and (white) water tanks that will never get used. Lots of steel bumpers, winches that have never been unspooled, etc.
3. Other 4wd SUV - Xterra (hold outs), Broncos (early adopters), Land Cruisers (I don't care if the engine will go to 400k, all the little rubber and plastic bits sure won't), FJs (like Landcruisers but I like some people who drive FJs).
4. Jeeps - Because this is Colorado, and there are a lot of Texans in Colorado. Also, apparently, a lot of people who want to drive a complete piece of s**t because it gives off "rugged mountain adventurer" vibes while having absolutely no practical use.
5. Some beater sedan/hybrid - These people DGaF, just want to get where their going. Usually seen with bald tires and missing body panels.
6. Minivans - this is the "I'm too cool to care about what kind of car I drive, I just want practicality" Millennial who really really wants to look like they don't care about what kind of car they drive.
7. Other

[sfreytag]

All depends what trailhead and how rough the road is. Using this site's TH rating system:

5-6/6. If its a rough 4x4 trail, such as Lake Como, I'll bring the highly modified Jeep Cherokee XJ. Its pretty much a purpose built rock crawler at this point and doesn't do well on the highway mountain grades so I only bring it when necessary.

2-4/6. If its a high clearance 2wd road or easy to moderate 4x4 trail I'll bring the Ram 2500. Its pretty much my go to because most of the trailheads fall into this group. Very capable off road and has room for sleeping in back or bed. With the diesel I can get 20 mpg in the mountains so its also my most fuel efficient vehicle, despite weighing almost 4 tons.

0-1/6. If its paved or easy dirt road I will take my beater Cadillac STS sedan because why not arrive at the trailhead in comfort.

[HikesInGeologicTime]

I'm surprised "Subaru" wasn't its own category. I've had three Outbacks since I graduated college: a 2007, until some guy from Florissant needed to get across 24 come hell, high water, or my poor Dirtball; a 2015, until an elk decided to park itself in the middle of a different part of 24 at dark o'clock a.m. just as I'd dimmed my brights to avoid blinding oncoming traffic; and now a 2016, which I will take on extremely circuitous drives to avoid 24 at all costs because I need this one to become one of those ancient Subarus that's in the running to outlive the cockroaches.

I do sometimes have 4Runner envy when I see the comfy car-camping set-ups some of my friends have - there's just enough space in the back of Burrito, my latest long-suffering Subie, for me to stretch out all 5'6" of me as long as I don't go hardcore yogi with the stretching, but it is kinda tight - not to mention all the trailheads they can reach that I would never dream of trying to take poor Burrito up (helloooooo, South Colony Lakes!). But I do like that my gas mileage has the advantage for out-of-state road-tripping, and now that I'm in the post-fourteener/hardcore peakbagging phase of my life anyway, just about every trailhead I do want to reach is a 3/6 max on the .com's rating scale, so essentially the limits of Subaruability anyway.

[nyker]

Interesting decision on groupings, Explorer?

I didn't read the answers above me, but I bet it falls out like so:

1. Subarus - Because this is Colorado. IDK, man, I'm of the age that when growning up we made fun of station wagons.
2. Tacoma/4Runner - Because this is Colorado. Some have all kinds of fancy "overlanding" gear on them like (red) gas and (white) water tanks that will never get used. Lots of steel bumpers, winches that have never been unspooled, etc.
3. Other 4wd SUV - Xterra (hold outs), Broncos (early adopters), Land Cruisers (I don't care if the engine will go to 400k, all the little rubber and plastic bits sure won't), FJs (like Landcruisers but I like some people who drive FJs).
4. Jeeps - Because this is Colorado, and there are a lot of Texans in Colorado. Also, apparently, a lot of people who want to drive a complete piece of s**t because it gives off "rugged mountain adventurer" vibes while having absolutely no practical use.
5. Some beater sedan/hybrid - These people DGaF, just want to get where their going. Usually seen with bald tires and missing body panels.
6. Minivans - this is the "I'm too cool to care about what kind of car I drive, I just want practicality" Millennial who really really wants to look like they don't care about what kind of car they drive.
7. Other

this is funny, and probably accurate.

I realize I should have also included dirt bikes or quads. I've seen quite a few on trailheads over the years. Although usually it's a trailered quad from a huge enclosed trailer or on the bed of a big $90,000 pickup truck.

[Boggy B]

2007 FJ Cruiser. Manual transmission. It’s got 284,000 miles on it and literally no maintenance issues beyond the normal (brakes, batteries, tires, etc.). I’ve owned a lot of vehicles in my life but my FJ is far and away the most dependable and reliable.

Can’t believe nobody else has mentioned the venerable FJ..

327,000 on the '08. In another 21K miles I'll have personally driven it 300K.

[Will_E]

2007 FJ Cruiser. Manual transmission. It’s got 284,000 miles on it and literally no maintenance issues beyond the normal (brakes, batteries, tires, etc.). I’ve owned a lot of vehicles in my life but my FJ is far and away the most dependable and reliable.

Can’t believe nobody else has mentioned the venerable FJ..

Manual transmission

[Jim Davies]

I'm surprised "Subaru" wasn't its own category.

Same here. Our 2009 Outback is our fourth Subie station wagon but the first AWD. We replaced the clutch at about 120K and plan to keep it until it dies. We don't abuse it - in a few attempts up South Colony, only once was the road good enough to get to the trailhead, the other times we stopped before the nasty hill. I don't think I'd even take it up Stevens Gulch any more, although our past Subies and Corollas got up there several times before the road started falling apart all the time; on one occasion I burned out about half a clutch getting around the big pothole, though. I wish you could still park at the Grizzly Gulch intersection. Most of my driving is in my Corolla hybrid, since it gets double the gas mileage of the Outback. I'm generally OK with walking a few extra miles.

[blazintoes]

I drive a green Subaru

[nyker]

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