Today I was driving home on the highway and in the next lane is this new (not even a plate) Honda Civic hybrid sedan. I tell my wife it gets 50+ mpg (I think) and she's impressed. I look at my avg fuel info display and it says "17.2" . I'm driving my '06 Explorer.

Then I got to thinking... I go into town usually about once a week for some shopping and today was typical. We went to a pool supply place and bought a box of 4 one gallon bottles, and a big bucket like container of some powder.

Then we went to Lowes and I got 3 large bags of sand (it's for me to begin my front porch paver job - I'll need more sand later) - these bags are heavy. I also got a few other smaller items and 2 cases of 24 bottles of water each as they were on sale.

Then we went to the super market and got about $200 worth of groceries.

I folded forward the "60%" part of my rear seats to make a flat space for the groceries.

I say all this cuz as I was looking at the Civic Hybrid I thought it might be nice to own for the gas mileage, but there's no way in hell I was doing all the shopping I did today without filling every nook and cranny (and seat) with stuff, not to mention the weight. My Explorer behaved identically to when it's empty.

I'm not saying an SUV is right for everyone, but I am saying a 'green' sedan isn't.

 

I know exactly what you mean!!!!

I got my 4runner 3 or 4 weeks ago. I just bought stuff from IKEA today that couldnt fit in my IS350 and I was too cheap to rent a truck or use delivery service. But I get 21mpg on my 4runner and I got something like 18mpg on my IS.

 

Yes, I enjoy my GX. Yesterday, I picked up a plug aerator for the lawn, 6 - 25 lb. bags of grass seed, 10 large cinder blocks and a couple bags of concrete. If I tried to put that in any civic, the rear springs would no doubt break. I also enjoy being up higher in traffic for visibility and for me its much easier to get in and out of then a low car.

 

I agree bitk.

Try 2X 15gal king palm trees i wish the rear window on the gx could roll down.....arrrgh.
How about a 4'x6' mirror? And a 50" plasma tv.
I agree, I got tired of stuffing my gs and having to make multiple trips.

(But a minivan can haul more than that..........sssssshhhh )

 

That's it and why I ended up selling it (my GS). It was fun but didn't make sense to me to keep it around to drive very rarely.

Yeah but it can't tow, or go on rough ground, or ...