I had pretty much figured that I'd need to change up the TV. I told my wife that unless she wanted to go to a full van it'd probably be back to an SUV (we're not pickup people :-)). We used to have a Jeep Grand Cherokee and the last 6 months I owned it (just under 100k miles), I had to replace the rear deferential, front deferential, rear axle, and V8 engine (it blew a rod). After that, we got the Dodge Grand Caravan since it was the only minivan at the time that had AWD and we sometimes need that where we live. However, I made sure that I got the extra warranty on it and I was glad I did. It definitely paid for itself and we've got around 130k miles on it now, so I'm getting ready to replace it anyway. We had the AWD go out last year and we debated about replacing it.
I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that we'll end up going back to a SUV that won't get as good mileage as I'd like, but that will be able to pull what we need. That's what we get for living up in the mountains :-). I just started looking online this weekend to try and figure out what's best. Bill, since I noticed in your signature that you have an Explorer, I was looking at that too. I'm also considering a Honda Pilot, Nissan PathFinder and Toyota 4runner among others. Still trying to figure out what seems best for us.
If anyone has any opinions, I'd love to hear them. I'd prefer something that has a decent maintainence record.
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