Even with the most adept of off-road vehicles, journalists are seldom urged to take them off road outside a controlled environment, meaning without a professional off-road driver in the passenger seat.
We were passing the time checking out the interior of the just-arrived Kia Spectra5 waiting for a friend to return from a convenience store errand.
We sat and marveled at the profusion of airbags in the hatchback. It took more than one hand to count the little Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) buttons situated front and back in the Kia.
We get on average about two winter events a season in eastern North Carolina. As luck would have it, there’s been some type of vehicle in the driveway that delivers torque to all four wheels during most of these foul-weather occurrences.
We could just as easily be in possession of a sports car.
Now with gas prices reaching (unadjusted for inflation) record highs in 2005, the large numbers on a new vehicle’s window sticker will probably take on added importance to buyers.
The playing field wasn’t level in the fall of 2003 when the all-new mid-sized GMC Canyon and its sibling, the Chevrolet Colorado were introduced, the first new mid-sized General Motors pickup trucks in many years.
In fact the Canyon/Colorado at that time were the first all-new trucks in the mid-sized segment in several years and were competing against more “mature” models from the industry.
We’ve spent considerable seat time behind the wheel of the Ford Escape since the small sport utility was introduced for the 2001 model year.
All of our test vehicles came with the very responsive 200-horsepower V-6 engine. That engine put the Escape at the top of its class, ahead of the popular Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, both with 4-cylinder engines.
