Comparison Tests
Every Michigander -- hell, even the Michigoslings -- knows perfectly well what happens in December, and it was happening good and hard as 11 ute-lets single-filed out of C/D's parking lot onto Hogback Road. With heaters roaring and wipers whapping and good sense left back at the office where it couldn't interfere with the mission, we turned north, directly into the promise of eight inches . . . by lunch time. "More tonight," said the weatherman, "and more tomorrow."
Our destination? Boyne Mountain, where more and more and more snow makes the cash registers ring and the ski lifts groan with loads of happy downhillers. That's why others go to Boyne Mountain in winter. But not us. There wasn't a ski, or a board, or even a single-seater washtub on our equipment list. Instead, we had shovels. And snatch straps. We were going to Boyne Mountain in December to see if we could get stuck. Go anywhere, any time -- that's the SUV promise. Too often, it comes with a window sticker north of 30 grand, attached to a truck weighing more than two tons. But not this time. Can you get all-weather traction for typical-sedan prices, say $22,000 to $24,000? We rounded up every compact four-door sport-ute on the market for this adventure. The choices range from the senior-citizen Jeep Cherokee, which will be gone by this summer, to four models from three continents, so new they've yet to show their grilles in a C/D comparo.
The trend in SUVs generally, and in small ones particularly, is away from the class's off-road heritage and toward on-road traction. The older "part-time" systems require the driver to reach down by the tunnel and pull a lever to engage four-wheel drive. "Shift on the fly" is as good as it gets with part-timers, which means that you needn't come to a stop before pulling the stick. Such systems also provide a low range for creeping along in deep muck or when careful maneuvering is required. You must stop, or nearly stop, to engage that gear set. The newer entries in this class have "full-time" four-wheel drive. They're front-drive vehicles that automatically route torque to the rear wheels when the fronts begin to slip. There are no levers to pull, and no low range.
These full-time four-wheelers are intended for on-road use, although they have very reasonable off-road capability as we confirmed in our last comparison of bigger SUVs ("Designer-Ute Smackdown," December 2000); the full-time Lexus RX300 propelled itself through the same holes and hazards as the mud-loving Land Rover Discovery. Now let's meet the players. In addition to the square-edged Jeep Cherokee, the part-timers here are all "legacy" vehicles, which is the politically correct way of saying old-timers. They include the Suzuki-built twins, the Grand Vitara wearing the Japanese label and the Tracker, now badged as a Chevrolet following GM's summary termination of the Geo brand for 1998. The Korean-built Kia Sportage specializes in the one thing most buyers look for in a new car -- low price.
If you can imagine a truck shrink-wrapped into bicyclist's pants before donning cowboy chaps, hiking boots, and a pith helmet, that's the swagger of the Nissan Xterra. It's ready for anything! For newer thinking about what an SUV might be, look to the full-timers' class, which ranges from a barely disguised sedan in the case of the Subaru Forester to the semi-trucky looks and attitude of Dearborn's new pair, the Ford Escape and the Mazda Tribute. Toyota's redesigned RAV4 is car-based, but the result is a multipurpose runabout that defies classification, as does Honda's Civic-based CR-V. Then there's Hyundai's first-ever sport-ute, and from the name Santa Fe, you'd expect it to be clad in stucco instead of the swoopiest sheetmetal this side of Pininfarina. Now let's see how these 11 ute-lets fare when the going gets deep -- which are merely teeny . . . and which are the weenies?
