RideLust

Pro’s: Roomy interior, great mileage, confidence inspiring handling

Con’s: Skinny steering wheel, mass appeal styling, noticeable torque steer

Final Thought: A well executed crossover that offers good mileage, decent power and a great interior for a very fair price.

I’d heard good things about the Ford Edge but up until recently I had yet to actually drive one. This is a 2012 Limited Edition model with front-wheel drive and Ford’s 2.0L EcoBoost I-4 turbocharged engine that makes 240 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. It’s a crossover vehicle which simply means you’ve got a little car, truck and SUV DNA all mixed together in a nice well-rounded package. The week prior to my having this little gem I was driving around in an Infiniti FX35 Limited (tough life I know). The color was remarkably similar as was its interior room and amenities. However when it came to price there was quite a substantial difference. MSRP on the Infiniti was $52,445.00, whereby the Ford Edge Limited came in at an MSRP of $38,910.00 – a difference of over $13,500.00. Granted this isn’t a flat-out comparison mind you, but a simple question of value for dollar.

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Thumbs Up: A lot of content for the price.

Thumbs Down: Plastic upholstery, marginal fuel economy

Buy This Car If: You need a small SUV on a tight budget

If you’re shopping for a compact SUV or crossover, chances are good you’re looking at the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV 4. While both start at a reasonable price, by the time you add in options like a navigation system, they can quickly jump beyond the reach of a family on a tight budget. What if we told you there was another Japanese SUV alternative, with a modest sticker price and a seven-year, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty? Read More…

The Range Rover Evoque was designed to open doors for Jaguar Land Rover, and to attract new customers to the somewhat stodgy brand. For many American buyers, a Range Rover was nothing more than a way of telling the neighbors you made more money than them (and didn’t worry about details like depreciation or reliability). That may work in the suburbs, but it didn’t play well with young, urban hipsters, who Jaguar Land Rover desperately wants as customers. Read More…

Image: Jaguar Land Rover

The Land Rover Defender is known the world over as a non-nonsense SUV that will get you anywhere you need to go. Period, end of sentence. It has no luxury aspirations, but it enjoys a rabid cult following that ranges from British farmers through explorers and adventurers to well-off suburbanites who like to portray the image of adventure. The Defender will get you to the grocery store, even if you have to take game trails or forge your own path to get there; in fact, long after the human race has been wiped off the earth, giant cockroaches will probably be driving the last remaining Defenders, at least until fossil fuel runs out. Read More…

An Explorer EcoBoost at Ford's Proving Grounds. Image: Ford Motor Company

Americans don’t buy SUVs because we need to navigate rutted dirt roads on the way to the grocery store or our kids’ soccer practice. If you strip away the mystique, most midsize SUV buyers sign on the dotted line for the ability to haul up to seven passengers plus cargo in relative comfort. Some tow with their SUVs, but most buyers who regularly tow heavy loads also own a pickup truck, and guess which one gets tasked with towing the boat to the lake? Read More…

*Photo Credit: StupidDope.com

Over the years I’ve come across some pretty ostentatious vehicles, but this sucker takes the cake. This is the SportChassis P4XL from Freightliner and it’s the vehicle for those with severe insecurity problems. It used to be that the Hummer H1 was the biggest and baddest 4×4 you could buy, but compared to the SportChassis P4XL, the H1 is like a Tonka toy. What you get with the P4XL is basically a full-sized big rig with limited 4×4 capabilities, loads of interior cabin space and a footprint the size of Montana. For instance the P4XL has a 174-in. wheelbase, 100-in. width and is 264 inches from front to back – that’s stupid big. It’s also four wheel drive, but with a weight of 6.5 tons it’s not exactly fit for any real off-roading. What the P4XL does do however is make a statement by basically telling the world that you simply don’t give a shit about anyone or anything.
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Thumbs Up: Comfortable and feature packed, doesn’t ride like a truck.

Thumbs Down: The V6, though improved, could still use more power.

Buy This Truck If: You want a three row SUV designed for the (sub)urban jungle.

If you wanted to buy a Dodge Durango in 2010, your choices were limited to leftovers on dealer lots, since Dodge put the old Durango out to pasture at the end of the 2009 model year. It turns out that that’s a good thing, since it forced Dodge to start with a clean sheet of paper for the 2011 Durango redesign. Like the Ford Explorer, the Durango has graduated from a body-on-frame design to a unibody design, although critics have been far less vocal over the Durango’s switch to unibody than they were the Ford Explorer. The 2011 Dodge Durango gets two new engine choices as well, starting with a 3.6 liter, 290 horsepower V6, good for 80 more horsepower than the previous 3.7 liter V6, but with about 15% better fuel economy. If that’s not good enough for your needs, Dodge offers their updated 5.7 liter Hemi V8 that puts out 360 horsepower and 390 ft lb of torque. That’s down from the previous generation’s 5.7 liter Hemi V8, which put out 376 horsepower and 401 ft lb of torque, but highway fuel economy goes up by 1 MPG to 20. Read More…

The correct answer is 5,000 pounds when properly equipped, which is enough to meet the needs of 99.6% of Explorer owners per Ford’s own research. Coincidentally, that weight also translates to $2.3 million in one-dollar bills, when loaded onto an open trailer. As the narrator of the video demonstrates, the 2011 Ford Explorer also has reasonably good acceleration when towing 5,000 pounds, and can be equipped with trailer sway control to ensure that whatever you’re towing stays behind you.

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PRO’s: Great ride, wonderful handling, massive amounts of room for the entire family and or entourage.

CON’s: Cramped drivers cabin, only partially adjusting steering wheel, high price.

FINAL THOUGHT: A full size American built luxury SUV, that can hang tough with the world’s best.

It’s over 18 feet long, has up to 137 cubic feet of cargo space and with an interior that rivals most high end luxury sedans, it’s one of the nicest SUV’s on the planet. Meet the 2011 Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum, the Big Dog of American SUV luxury. When I first picked this baby up from GM’s Manhattan storage facility my first thought was – Dear God is this sucker big, but as you’ll see, its size can be very deceiving. The Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum makes no bones about its in-your-face styling and the fact that it dwarfs everything else in the SUV world. It’s a favorite amongst celebrities, athletes and or anyone who wants to make a statement. As for me, I was just amazed at how good it actually was for its size.
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Looking back at my own life, I can only think of two or three ex-girlfriends who’d want to see me dead. Of those, I can only think of one who’d actually go to extraordinary measures to pull it off, so I won’t be signing up to lease a new Land Rover Discovery 4 Armored SUV any time soon. Jacksonville has a high crime rate, but it isn’t that high and good situational awareness is enough to get you by.

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