Best vehicle for our family

My family is going to be getting a new car sometime soon and it will tow the boat in my sig, but when it's not towing it will be a regular family car. I didn't put this is the towing section because we're not serious about any of the choices yet, I'd just like to get an initial opinion of the market. I would like to get a crew cab pickup, but we were also looking at the Durango and other crossovers/ small SUVs. So out of these, which would would be your favorite and which would you throw out? I left out a bunch that didn't seem right (too big or not enough towing) or explained below.

F-150 Crew V6 Eco
Chevy Colorado Crew
Chevy Silverado Crew
Chevy Avalanche
RAM 1500 Crew (never been in one but the second row legroom looks awesome)
Dodge Durango
Toyota Tacoma
Toyota Tundra
GMC Acadia
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Land Rover?

I would put in the Ford Explorer but the third row is worthless (tried it at a dealer). Honda Rideline feels cramped in the second row (first hand experience in friend's ridgeline). The Nisan Titan is massive and the Frontier has the worst mileage in it's class. Normally I wouldn't even include Land Rover from the reliability standpoint, but I've heard that they've gotten much better since 2008. The Silverado, RAM, and Tacoma are probably too big.

Right now my favorites are the F-150 and the Durango.

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Not the Chevy Colorado Crew. Its got uncomfortable seating, tiny box, and expensive.



The Tacoma is too big, but the F150 isn't, confused. ?????????

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My brother loves his Colorado and my wife loves her Acadia ... I hate the headlights on the Acadia (have to remove the wheel and wheel well to get to the headlights for replacement - can you tell I just had to do that?).

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I do not know the "Total" weight of the boat, trailer and gear that you will hauling, but I am guessing that by your choices your good with a 1/2-heavy half ton truck.
If you are hauling long distances in hilly country and rough road conditions, you may want to step up to a 3/4 ton.

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I'm confused as to what you are looking for. Do you need a third row seat or not? What is the weight of what you will tow? Are you concerned about mileage when it is a daily driver? Are you seeking only 2012 or used as well? I don't care for the crossovers because you get a unibody and in the case of the Acadia a much less powerful engine than was in the more capable suv it replaced but the mileage is as bad. I've had two 2011 Acadia's (one 2wd and one AWD) and they were all around disappointing at best given their cost. Since you asked, I will say I (in the conditional) would throw all pick up's out as not practical for us and then go Land Rover (only because they ar slightly more prestegious but depreciate like crazy), Jeep Grand Cherokee (cause they will never stop making them and the newest redesign is finally decent), Dodge Durango (a not as nice version of the Jeep), then Acadia (because they are severely overpriced, the 6 speed is sucky, the mileage is egregious and they have a low tow limit when considering their overpriced entry point).
Money has to enter the equation as well which should narrow your choices.

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I have a bit of Ford bias, mainly because I've been obsessively hunting for the right deal on an F-150 Ecoboost for a month now. But it's hard to go wrong with that truck. The EB is a phenomenal towing motor with a diesel-like flat torque curve from 2500 RPM to redline. I love the interior, it's got a massive back seat in the 4-door version, and you won't have problems getting 20 on the highway if you don't have a lead foot.

If I didn't have a particular need for a well-equipped pickup though (the Maxum pushes 6500lb fully loaded), I would buy a loaded Grand Cherokee. The interior is AMAZING, it's a great-looking vehicle, and Chrysler is putting the 3.0L diesel in it for the 2013 model year, which is rated at 28 combined MPG.

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I'm Ford guy too and so from that list would probably start with the F150's.

But I'll also throw a rock in the pond for the often-left-out-of-mind E-150. We LOVE our big ole' van. It'll tow anything, and we can have 8 people on board with 2 dogs and still have about 200 cu.ft. of cargo space. Look like the Clampets moving to Beverly

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I have the best towing vehicle . . . It's paid for . . .

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I have a 2007 Toyota Tacoma double cab sr-5 off-road 4x4, the back seat is comfortable even for regular sized people, tow rated for #6,500 and I get 17.5mpg, regularly! More on highway (20-21mpg). Bought her brand new in April of 2007, now about 97k miles have replaced front pads and rotors, 2 sets of tires and 1 set u-joints, otherwise no issues! Great truck for my needs; however, towing my camper I could use a few more ponies!!

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Flynny said:

My family is going to be getting a new car sometime soon and it will tow the boat in my sig, but when it's not towing it will be a regular family car. .

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Okay, so what type of vehicle is most family friendly for the 95% of the time that you aren't towing anything? That's really the key, IMO. Your boat doesn't require huge towing capacity- anything that'll tow 5K lbs will be more than enough to pull it, and anything on your list can be equipped for that.

My .02

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I used a 2000 durango for years. loved it for an all-around vehicle. fuel economy absolutely sucked. the similar year Jeep Grand Cherokee is similar vehicle (same driveline), however just a tad bit smaller body than the durango.

Now the Jeep and Durango are the same uni-body vehicle.

I know the Dodge Ram 1500 crew cab is comfortable, and it will pull your boat just fine

I assume your looking at dealer new (2012) vehicles.

you dont mention the size of your family. if you have 4 - a truck will be fine. if you have more, you may want to have the sUV with the 3rd row seat.

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Since the Jeep Grand Cherokee adopted Mercedes ML designs and technology it seems to be a very good machine, but. . .

My MLs cost $2,000 to $4,000 in maintenance every year I had them. Has the Jeep adopted that reliability as well?

A Ford F150 4 door with the eco-boost V6 looks awfully good.

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What's more important, family use or towing? I take it that the boat is an 18 foot outboard so it probably weighs less than 3,000 lbs. The F-150 crew cab is huge. I had a 2001 and it was a good truck, towed well and fit everyone and their brother easily. Gas mileage was not too good and I didn't need a truck that big 95% of the time so it was replaced with a Tacoma xtra cab. The kids complain about the back, but the only time they're in it is on the way to the lake. It tows my 20 foot boat just fine. A Tacoma crew cab would work well if you want a truck that's not enormous and doubles as a family hauler. Another option is the Toyota Forerunner if you want an SUV. Since you are considering a Land Rover, a BMW X3 or X5 might be considerations.

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I've a couple friends with the F150 with the Ecoboost and Ford really toubted the mileage as good and it simply isn't which is as I expected. I also struggle a bit with all the fuss involved having to use so many extra parts in a 6 cylinder to get attain the power in that engine. I see these second owners of these these f150's as having to shell out a bunch of money in supercharger repair.

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Thanks for the input guys. I do love the F-150, but I don't think I could justify buying a vehicle that large for our purposes if the mileage isn't that good. I was hoping it would be a bit better.

I thought I mentioned this in the first post but right now we have a 2001 Sienna and a 2002 Sonoma. The Sienna is a great car for moving people, but not much else. The truck is a great car for hauling stuff in the bed and we used it to tow our old boat (little 16ft bowrider) but it's becoming extremely unreliable. It only has 81K, but already has gone through a transmission and transfer case due to a fluid leak, plus countless other repairs. It's to the point where once one thing is fixed, the next thing breaks. It hasn't been in perfect working order for months.

So there the problem, replace the van with a multipurpose SUV, keep trucked but also have to deal with the truck's problems. Or replace the truck with another gas eater. The Durango is an attractive option if we were to replace the van because of it's spacious third row (The Grand Cherokee, although very nice, has no third row). But a vehicle like the Chevy Avalanche or Honda Ridgeline would be a nice replacement for the truck with two full rows and a bed. All of the trucks get the same mileage though:
(City Average Highway, from fueleconomy.gov)
2002 Sonoma: 14 15 18
2001 Sienna: 17 19 23
2012 Grand Cheorokee, V6: 16 19 23
2012 Durango, V6: 16 19 23
2012 F-150 Crew, Eco:15 17 21
2012 Avalanche:15 17 21
2012 Ridgeline:15 17 21

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Get a four door diesel dually!

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I'm going to go out on a limb here and attempt to defend the LAST vehicle in the list you posted in the OP there - Land Rovers.

I've got to start of by reiterating the fact that the OP mentioned the vehicle will be a FAMILY VEHICLE when not towing - so anyone who mentions a diesel dually is smoking crack. I've driven many - yes they're badass and will pull stumps out of the ground, but they're not very practical when taking the family into the local movie theater parking garage on a weekend.

In your list, I feel like the Rovers are the only vehicle that offers impressive towing capabilities (nearly 8k lbs) while offering uncompromising safety, handling, and luxury. The Jeep GC would fit the bill in that respect too - however the Rover is the only make in your list which offers any sort of "exotic" appeal, which is kind of nice when shelling out your hard-earned $$ on a new vehicle.

All rovers have self-leveling 4 corner air suspension standard and a 7,700# tow rating; an option which would put you at nearly $45k out the door for a V8 Grand Cherokee with similar suspension options (which they directly copied from the rover Terrain Response dial system anyways). Granted the rover would still cost more, but I can at least handle the price for a european luxury SUV.

Back to the family vehicle usage; when I looked at the RRS I checked out the then-current IIHS safety report that had just been issued. For all vehicles 05-08, after accumulating 1,000,000 passenger-miles only 7 models on the road had ZERO DEATHS, TWO of those were Land Rovers - both used the same "Integrated Body Frame" hybrid frame system, the LR3 and the Range Rover Sport. Look up the youtube video where they hitch 3 SUVs and rigging gear to an LR3 then lift it up with a crane and hang the weight through the chassis EDIT: here's the official vid. The stability and suspension systems are first-rate, I simply can't say enough good things about the engineering behind it. For a 5,500lb SUV to handle like a sports car (even while towing a boat weighing just as much!) is rather incredible.

I can't tell you too much about the rest of the vehicles except that I was vastly disappointed in the quality control of a 2012 durango rental I drove for a week (ironically, while my range rover was in the shop ) fit and finish sucked, lots of squeaks and rattles - the shifter ALWAYS jammed while trying to put it into park, worthless rain sensing wipers and park distance control.

The new explorer drives nice and will probably get the best mileage of anything you listed above - it's also a sharp looking vehicle, but isn't without faults. The shape is similar to my range rover sport - however visibility is half as good! For example, the rear seat headrests on my range rover are contoured to the seat-tops so that when they're pushed against the seat, they don't block your view. I didn't appreciate this till I rented a new explorer and the rear headrests PERFECTLY blocked my view out the 3rd rear window!!!!

The park distance is also a complete joke on the explorer. It goes something like this while in reverse.. *backing up... backing up... backing up...***CRUNCH**** ...beeeeeeeeeep.

Please note that the above crunch was a snow bank that I was using for testing in Colorado. My rover starts to beep slowly at ~4-5' and beeps solid at 1'. Yes I know they're "different" vehicles, but my rover is also 6 years older so they don't have an excuse here.

For the record, I managed to get 13.4mpg towing my Donzi for the first time this weekend - I was very impressed! (The 2012 Expedition 5.4 I used to get the boat only managed ~10. 17 UNLOADED on the highway, cruise control. What a joke!) On the return trip unloaded, I had her up to 23mpg @ 65mph on the highway. City/traffic is pegged at 14 though, obviously due to the immense weight of the rovers and their IBF frame. Unfortunately this also takes a toll on brakes, suspension bushings and tires (especially if you don't keep the thing aligned!!) but I'm an honest guy and want to give you the full story on these things.

All I can say is to go for a test drive. It took me 5 minutes to get frustrated with the Durango, while I remained very content with the explorer after a week. Then again, I was grinning ear-to-ear after 15 minutes of driving the rover lol. Have them take you on the rock course at the dealer lot.

edit: here's that IIHS PDF which has some interesting reading http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4605.pdf

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TorchedGT said:

I've got to start of by reiterating the fact that the OP mentioned the vehicle will be a FAMILY VEHICLE when not towing - so anyone who mentions a diesel dually is smoking crack. I've driven many - yes they're badass and will pull stumps out of the ground, but they're not very practical when taking the family into the local movie theater parking garage on a weekend.

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Sir, the phrase "smoking crack" is way overused and not very insightful on your part. I have never done drugs, and while you don't know me personally, you may want to take a look at my posts and realize I am a reasonably intelligent person. What you may also not know, is that my post above was part of an ongoing joke that is spoken of often in this forum when discussing proper tow vehicles. While I am not interested in having a battle of wits with you, I'm sure others will agree that you were out of line with your choice of words directed at me. Labeling a person (even in jest) as a drug addict, shows your lack of social couth and self control. Please show some restraint if you cannot use better judgment; or better yet, try to see the humor in things that you may misinterpret as serious.

Good day.

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Silly Seville said:

Sir, the phrase "smoking crack" is way overused and not very insightful on your part. I have never done drugs, and while you don't know me personally, you may want to take a look at my posts and realize I am a reasonably intelligent person. What you may also not know, is that my post above was part of an ongoing joke that is spoken of often in this forum when discussing proper tow vehicles. While I am not interested in having a battle of wits with you, I'm sure others will agree that you were out of line with your choice of words directed at me. Labeling a person (even in jest) as a drug addict, shows your lack of social couth and self control. Please show some restraint if you cannot use better judgment; or better yet, try to see the humor in things that you may misinterpret as serious.

Good day.

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..I need to lighten up? Ha. I'd advise you to at least pick someone's brain a little and attempt to understand what their actual intentions were before writing a mini essay on the usage of TWO words which you took grossly out of context. I apologize if that's how you interpreted my post, but I actually believe we were joking about the same thing (and yes I picked up on the sarcasm in your post).

So no, it wasn't in any way directed at you - I was entirely joking while covering the negatives of
full size trucks in every day life and touching on the fact that everyone in the tow forum indeed states that you need a diesel dually to tow a jet ski and that it wouldn't surprise me if this thread took the same direction.

Also, the English professor tone was a little over-the-top by the way. At least for someone trying to school me on having a proper sense of humor. I also don't understand how, on one hand, you're telling me the phrase is overused as a joke, yet on the other hand you're telling me I'm somehow implying someone is a drug addict?!

Anyways, no hard feelings.

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We had a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 4.7 V8. We really liked the vehicle for hauling the family and towing the boat. With AWD, the mileage was horrid (14 all the time no matter what). It had some issues I didn't feel like dealing with at 98k miles so I upgraded to a 2006 Grand Cherokee Limited with 47k miles and the 5.7 HEMI. The HEMI is friggin' awesome. It's gets the exact same horrid mileage but HAULS BUTT!!!!!

Having said this, I still prefer to tow with my old '90 Chevy K1500 truck. It doesn't have as much power but wins as far as "not knowing the boat is back there". So if you could get a 4 door full size truck getting similar mileage to the SUVs, you may prefer going that route.