Road warrior justice needed

I have a large truck because I had the cash (85 percent of it) to buy it -- and wanted it. It is much larger and more roomy than the small truck I had, which leaves room for future expansion, if you know what I mean. It is much more comfortable, drives better and rides better than my old truck.

And I don't ask anyone to be OK with it, save Mrs. TBF.

And where's the waste. My old truck -- a freakin' S-10 -- got 24 MPG at best, with its four cylinders. This one gets 21 MPG with eight.

Don't knock it 'till you've tried it.

 

I buy organic, local groceries. I'm planning to put solar panels on my house. I subscribe to Mother Earth News. But I need my Jeep.

After all, 2MC, what do I do when I'm pulling a boat, hauling two buddies, all our gear and two Labrador Retrievers for our yearly duck-hunting trip?

 

Trust me, aside from the need to kill animals, Inky is the biggest hippie I've ever known.

 

Dodge Magnum R/T: 345 horsepower, 21 mpg, 3800-lb towing capacity, 0 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds and a quarter mile in less than 14.

Station wagons haul stuff. That one hauls ass, too.

;D

 

Hey, I only kill them if they're good eating. And I practice catch-and-release when I'm fly-fishing, so it's not like I'm killing everything in nature.

2MC, the Magnum only gets 1 mpg better than my Jeep but has less ground clearance for when I'm off-road. Otherwise, I'd consider it because they are pretty sweet. I guess I could redneck one up by putting a lift kit under it, but that's too much work.

 

I was going to recommend the Ford Escape Hybrid, but I wasn't sure about the towing capacity.

 

My father's dealership doesn't carry Ford, so I have to get something from the Chrysler family to get it at dealer cost. And I'm talking the real dealer cost, not the advertised dealer cost when they're having a sale.

 

Diesel Jeep, then. The Grand Cherokee will be getting the same CRD engine this fall that it's already been getting for years in Europe thanks to the new ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel.

 

Trust me, that's been on my radar screen for more than a year. But the hybrid Wrangler is the one I'm really wanting to see.

 

In Toronto, I'd put the odds at 1 in 100.  And that's being optimistic.

 

As a friend of mine once said, the only off-road those things have seen is their driveway.