Isn’t it funny how most of the enthusiast commentors on this website are driving imports? Not as many domestic driver’s cars or not as many noticed by TTAC readers.

My wife is frugal and practical first because our budget requires it. She isn’t a hard driver but her enthusiasm is there. Her vision is poor-ish so she won’t take chances but she is patient when I do (sans children in the backseat). We’ve got a ‘65 Beetle (2.0L Type IV motor) and a ‘78 VW camper (2.7L Corvair implant) and she’s eager to help work on them when we can. When we were first married I had a nasty hand injury and she rebuilt the van’s engine for us… I knew I got a good one!

As for the SUV vs Minivan for a growing family: you NEED neither. Our CR-V has been great for 147K miles and a good fit. We also put two kids in car seats in the back of the Cabrio and make 2 hour trips on the interstate comfortably with plenty of overnight bags. Leave the full sized stroller at home please! Umbrella stroller only need apply.

The only hit against the Cabrio is putting the youngest in his seat. With the top up it is an awkward manuver but consider that on a trip you do this manuver only occasionally. Maybe 4 times a day. A sightseeing trip would not be comfortable with all of the in and out to see stuff unless the top was down… Once the kids are able to climb into their seat (our older child) its not a problem. The CR-V has been wonderful allowing us to carry the four of us plus some luggage and our dog in the wayback on her bed. Once a year or so we’ll have enough stuff (holidays) that I wish we had a larger vehicle (kids, dog, luggage, and gifts). During the summer we just load the bicycles on our open 5×8 ft utility trailer (instant pickup truck).

I want to build a small wooden closed top trailer for distance/wet weather travelling which will keep everything dry and safe.

I could buy such a thing but I want to build one…
We DON’T want to drive a thirsty monster 365 days a year and need the extra space 5 times a year.

A reader commented about aggresive female drivers in the largest SUVs. I more often notice the empty and largest SUVs – that is Excursions carrying one small female. She likely dropped off a couple of kids but even in the school pickup line I seldom see more than two kids getting out of these behemoths.

Ideally we would have a 30 mpg Eurovan turbo diesel but our ^&*#% government and it’s &*#^@ lobbyists want to keep us in monster domestic SUVs. I’ve considered buying a gas Eurovan and putting an imported Canadian sourced VW diesel into it.

We’re done with SUVs. I grew up riding in them (S-10 Blazer/70’s Landcruiser) and owned one now and we really want sporty wagons or hatchbacks or convertibles. Interestingly all of the best candidates for us are used imports. I won’t give the domestics any of my money until the mangement and the UAW stop mismanaging their companies b/c I feel we’ll get a substandard vehicle after the beancounters strip out quality to meet a lower build cost/average price point b/c of their higher management/labor/legacy costs.

Lastly most of the women I know are normal drivers who never took the opportunity to drive at the limits of their cars. The ones I know can drive fast but with little understanding of what to do if something goes wrong. Driver’s Ed would help. Parking lot/backroad hoonery would help… Drifting through curves, near limit braking, understeer/oversteer, etc.

What has been typical of former girlfriends (not my wife) has been girls with very poor driving habits b/c no one tried (or maybe they wouldn’t listen) to teach them how to drive well. One girlfriend would accelerate to 5mph above the speedlimit in her 80’s Civic and then coast to 5 mph under the speed limit. Then repeat a thousand times. Note that these were not smooth transitions either. I had visions of new CV joints and transmissions. Would NOT take any suggestions or criticisms positively. It was junk at 130K miles. Not a girl I could afford to keep for long. Another just let her vehicle fall apart around her. Dirty. Rusty. Noises. The truck I mean… Another would just go from gear to gear with zero finese. Went through clutches and U-joints often. Never avoided holes in the road either. Junk in 80K miles. In every case I saw traits about the car ownership that also showed through to their personal life as a whole – or I wanted to…

When I was 26 I saw a video of Walther Rohrl in Group B rally – it was a revelation!!! Driving that equally reqired mental and physical agility coupled with fantastic nerve! Worlds were opened to me in that moment. My enduring passion for felonious speeds and high speed agressive maneuvering on serpentine country roads was formed instantaneously. There was no “nurturing” or instruction involved.

My point is simply that owning a quasi-sports car means nothing. The level of enthusiam is determined by how far one will go to cultivate their ability to maneuver at speed. I have come across many people with fast cars and very, very, very few with the nerve to drive them. Those people are posers.

I’m well aware of the dif betw data and anecdote. But since I wasn’t reviewing an RCT… The various twin studies have established a strong genetic component to risk aversity or lack thereof. I don’t know how that genetic component correlates with testosterone, but it would be very interesting to find out. If you know of anything, stick it here or email me at motorlegends@aol.com.

They’re kind of split over the muscle car versus Lexus choice, though…hmmmm…funny that Mercedes doesn’t register as a premium brand with them, though.

Redbarchetta:
But the new Evo X is sooooo sexy. I know it’ll fall apart around me, that’s what leases and extended warranties are for. As for our LGT… well, I have a laundry list there. Dangerous tires, dash rattle, stinky clutch (though adjusting the way you drive helps), ECM burned out (there’s a recall now to fix a relay but ours was probably one of the first to go), bad fuel injectors… and each time it’s needed fixing it takes forever b/c Subaru always has parts on backorder. I love the car, don’t get me wrong, but man, it’s spent more time in the shop than the ford focus we owned.

Not to brag, but my girlfriend can recognize most cars on the road at night just by their taillights or headlights, well before I can. Damn my night vision.

Yeah, TeeKay. My family of origin–3 kids– spent two months driving around Europe in a ‘65 Peugeot 404 wagon, a car that was probably a bit narrower than a Subaru Legacy, similar size also to Volvo S70. We also drove across the country once in a ‘50 Studebaker two door coupe (before my sister was born, and my brother and I were 4 and 6, but we had a BIG airedale who sometimes hogged the seat), and twice in a ‘57 Chevy wagon (again before my sister). You don’t need an SUV, but if it’s really a lot of room you want, you should be shopping for a ninivan, not a stupid urban vehicle.

I’m definitely risk-averse and come from a risk averse family. My parents put seatbelts in the ‘57 Chevy in ‘61; we had the first Peugeot stationwagon in France with rear shoulder harnesses (my father showed the people in the factory how to install–it was a simple topology problem) and I was one of the first bicyclists with a hard shelled helmet (I bought Bell serial # 7022 in ‘75.) Nonetheless, I’m over 50 and my testosterone is through the roof (had it checked a couple of years ago). I have loved cars since I can remember, all the way back to age 2. My brother on the other hand never had any interest in cars whatsoever. He liked baseball, which never interested me. He still doesn’t get excited about cars.

My best friend was the practical type until he bought a used Nissan SEX 240 in the mid-90s, an impulse, as he had been looking at Camrys. He loved the thing to his complete surprise. But the SEX had more than its share of troubles, and it seemed to attract bad driveres, who crashed into it. Someone finally totalled it when it was parked. Now he’s lost interest in cars and puts his energy into astronomy

>>Then again, around here (redneck state) girls would go for a 5.0 fox body or a camaro before a Miata. Most of them are trapped in Corollas or Civics or Accents, though.

Three women I know have Miatas, one a cartoonist, one a college professor, and one is my seventy-something neighbor two houses up.

Redbarchetta:
Amen to that. I love our LGT, problem-prone as it had been. Not sure what to get in 2 years when the lease is up… maybe the Evo X…

Has anyone else noticed all of the really big SUVs (Excursions, Suburbans, Navigators, Escalades, being driven very AGGRESSIVELY by women? Tail-gating, weaving in and out of traffic, cell-phone clapped to ear, rear seat occupied by a baby in a child safety seat. I hope they know what they’re doing?

I’d have to disagree with you Megan on the need for a minivan unless you have 3+ kids. For your average daily schlepping? No a wagon or sedan or hatch will work just fine. But what happens if you want to take a grandma along for a day trip or go on vacation? Or if you want you sister-in-law to come with her 1 or more children? If you occasionally need to haul more than 5 in any combination of under 10 or over 50 years old the minivan is the way to go. My wife’s Odyssey gets better mileage than her previous Subaru Outback while entertaining the kiddies with Dora the Explorer. Before I even get to the van the doors are open waiting for kids to be plopped into car seats.

I fought tooth and nail against the minivan but have come to love it. When you want to hit a nail you use a hammer not a screwdriver and the mini van is the right tool for the job.

You want to have a reasonable kid schlepper and fun too? Get a Subaru Legacy GT wagon or an Audi S4 Avant. You are still not going to fit two kids under 5 and everything you need for a beach vacation without leaving something behind or putting a carrier on the top.

the good news is that i can fit into an RX-8 as long as it doesn’t have a sunroof. now i just need to getout of the rust belt.