Thank you all for your input. You make some good points. Besides towing, this new vehicle would be for some road trips. I admit, when not towing, we've used the Pathfinder's on-demand 4WD at times when driving in snow. Just last month, my wife got stuck in the driveway and...since she rarely drives the Pathfinder, had to come get me to put it into 4WD and ease out of the driveway.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I like the ability to utilize 4WD when I want to. Maybe I see AWD as giving up some control. But that may be a good thing at times.
In general, I'm finding the new vehicles have a lot more "electronic black boxes," but maybe I just need to get used to it. I bought my wife a new Toyota Prius in 2008 and boy...that's one black box to me!
After reading some of the other posts I'm heading out to test drive a few vehicles today: Dodge Durango, Chevy Traverse, Nissan Pathfinder, and a Toyota Tundra. If anyone has thoughts on those...I'd love to hear them.
I was actually trying to avoid a pick-up truck because I wanted a vehicle that fits into the garage. Silly me!
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