Help/advice - "hiker car" needed??

[bignslow]

So, you (and many others) are trading day-to-day performance and sacrificing gas mileage and money all in the interest of having a vehicle that will allow you, on some occasions, to drive a very small handful of miles on the Caribou Valley Road* in order to go...

walking outdoors?

*Really, there aren't all that many other rough roads that hikers commonly access in New England. Maybe a few more in western Maine, some of which are long enough to indeed require driving.

But the Caribou Valley Road is what, five or six miles at most?

This is what I grapple with when thinking about my next car. I do ~22k a year (mostly to/from hiking) and I have a hard time justifying ground clearance & AWD for the less than ~20 miles I might need it per year.

2WD and snow tires has been good enough for me so far. I just bought chains so I can attempt Corey's road this winter (if the gate is open and conditions are good)

I've been very happy with my 03' Hyundai Elantra hatch. Made it up CVR in summer as far as the steep hill 1/4 mile before the AT. It has all the fancy seat folding like the Subarus/SUVs (I can't sleep in the back at 6' but I bet my wife could (~5'4"). I can fit 4+ gear for hiking, I can fit 2 people and 3 bikes, or 3 people and 2 bikes inside.

 

[DougPaul]

The penalty for permanent AWD in some vehicles (such as my '02 Outback) appears to be pretty small--I get about the same mileage as my prior 2-wheel drive car.

my awd durango with the 5.7l hemi actually gets better mileage than my 4l 2wd/4wd jeep grand cherokee did.

Should I have mentioned that the my Outback gets ~28 mpg on the highway?

Doug

 

[Chip]

Should I have mentioned that the my Outback gets ~28 mpg on the highway?

Doug

If you did, I'd counter with the fact that the Durango gets 20 mpg highway towing a boat, uphill, with the AC blasting, with 7 passengers and gear for 3 nights camping ! HA !

Sadly the Grand Cherokee only got about 17 mpg.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Here's another gotcha many wouldn't think of with the AWD. If you need a tow, you need a flatbed, not a wrecker. My wife's Subie's alternator died on the east side of Moosilauke in winter with no cell coverage. It took > 6 hours to get a flatbed there - I got to stay with the car while she & kids were picked up by a sympathetic local family with kids and warmed at their fire and fed chocolate chip cookies.

Tim

 

[DougPaul]

Here's another gotcha many wouldn't think of with the AWD. If you need a tow, you need a flatbed, not a wrecker.

I just looked up the towing recommendations for Subarus:
* Manual transmission AWDs can be towed with all four wheels on the ground, but not two wheels on the ground.
* Automatice Transmissions:
- Automatic transmission and CWTs: <31mi at <20mph with all wheels on the ground
- automatic 4 and 5 speed transmissions: never

http://www.cars101.com/subwarr.html#towing behind a motorhome

So, it depends...

Doug

 

[Mike P.]

I'll be looking next year & will likely just get a newer Forester than the 98 I have now.

For others with a Subaru with less than 150K on them, as you approach 150K, look at getting the gasket replaced. Mine went at 159 & I managed to blow the engine. The tow truck operator & a friend knew exactly what was wrong when I said how many miles I had. (Sadly only the schmuck owner didn't realize it. I can't blame thecar for owner stupidity)

I'm about 50K on engine & 210K on the rest & everything else is pretty good for the mileage. They are pretty hard miles, I may have some of granny's gray hair but no miles to church & back. (well a few but it's fast since we're racing to get there on time)

As for braking, find yourself an standard, between my Mazda PU 4x4 (forget that for mileage & repair $$) and the Subaru, winter braking is easy, I almost never do it. It's called down shifting, the Forester & the 4x4 (especially with the front axle engaged) just about came to a complete stop by just shifting. You can't drive 65 & throw it in 2nd or 3rd but then if you think stopping is going to be an issue, why are you doing 65?

My hardest thing will be to find a decent 05-08 Outback,Forester (I'd beg for a Baja but is just 05) that is a 5 speed. For $7K, you should have some Subaru choices.

 

[Nessmuk]

I know it is out of the OP's price range, but for anyone contemplating a new Subaru, as a member of Leave No Trace, you are eligible for a considerable discount on a new Subaru. I have both an Outback and a Forester that I purchased through that program.

As far as needing AWD, my old FWD car just didn't make it where I live. I am in the heart of lake effect country off the east end of Lake Ontario. Although the town snowplows are very efficient, I frequently am faced with either going to work or coming home to a foot or more of snow in the road, so high clearance is critical. Plus my driveway is up a steep slope. What a joy to have a car that will easily crawl up the snowy driveway instead of having to leave the car at the bottom until I get the tractor with snowblower out to clear the driveway. I will never suffer with a 2WD car again.

 

[TEO]

Should I have mentioned that the my Outback gets ~28 mpg on the highway?

Should I have mentioned that my Civic gets 37-39 m.p.g. on the highway?

 

[MichaelJ]

I know it is out of the OP's price range, but for anyone contemplating a new Subaru, as a member of Leave No Trace, you are eligible for a considerable discount on a new Subaru.

Members in good standing (for at least 6 months) of the Mount Washington Observatory also receive a discount on new Subarus.

 

[Quietman]

Don't disregard a front wheel drive mini van if you need cheap transportation and something you can camp in. i know it's not cool, but you make the vehicle: it does not make you.

I currently have 3 96-99 Caravan/Voyagers, and the most expensive one cost me $1,500. I buy them cheap, fix them up a little, then drive them till they drop. Very comfortable to sleep in, and they can haul a lot of gear. And with my VFTT stickers on the back windows, I'm cool!

 

[andrewb]

I have been following this and have a few thoughts to add:
My Corolla has had absolutely, positively NO issues with winter driving. In this car for 3 years now I have commuted to and from work daily, gone skiing and winter hiking on a very frequent basis and never have been in a situation where 4WD would have made a difference. My one close call was when I locked up my brakes (I do wish I had ABS though). I strongly believe that's all you need: ABS - but even then, somehow I have managed to survive.

One time, in a friend's Corolla, we encountered an unplowed Zealand Road and his chains DID save the day. I may add we saw an SUV parked at the bottom, while we made the entire road so from that day on, I am a true believer in the greatness of chains!

Even in a Corolla, gas is still my biggest auto expense and I get 40 MPG. I spend more on gas than even the loan I am paying off for purchase of the car. Imagine if I only got half that milage -- $250 would magically ballon to $500 ... right into big oil's pocket!! 20 MPG (or 28) is simply unacceptable for a whole variety of reasons BUT (to stay on topic) most of all to someone on a budget, you can't expect them to burn 20 MPG at $3.00 per gallon... they'll never get to go out and hike, which is why they bought this specialty car in the first place. So it actually is a very difficult question -- which car to recommend -- but I do say gas milage needs to be a key piece of data in the decision. If you do opt for a behemoth, the only way to justify using it to go hiking is to constantly carpool. Then with a second (paying) occupant, the price to operate becomes more reasonable.

 

[andrewb]

Before anyone asks, I spend $250 a month on gas but actually am maintaining someone else's car too (which is the behemoth) and that car sucks up most of the gas in my monthly budget.

 

[Nessmuk]

I have been following this and have a few thoughts to add:
My Corolla has had absolutely, positively NO issues with winter driving. In this car for 3 years now I have commuted to and from work daily, gone skiing and winter hiking on a very frequent basis and never have been in a situation where 4WD would have made a difference.

But you don't live where I do. The front WD car I referred to in my above post was a Chevy Prism, the same car as a Corolla with a different name plate. A great car, and it did as well as I could hope in relatively "light" snow (light for this area). But with fwd only and low clearance it is no match for 12+ inches of lake effect snow. If it made it that far at all on my road, it frequently got left at the bottom of my driveway several times every winter. In the past 6 years that has only happened once with my Subaru, after more than 2 feet of snow was dumped during a single 8 hour work day.

 

[hikerbrian]

Without weighing in on any of the tangential issues raised above, I love my Honda Element, '06 EX-P, standard transmission, AWD, mostly because the only money I put into it is for gas and for an oil change every 10k miles. It's REALLY cheap to own. I get about 24 mpg with the variety of driving that I do. I have laid the seats down, put Thermorests on top, and slept soundly overnight at a trailhead more than once - with my wife and 6 month old sleeping right next to me! As someone already mentioned, it's got some blindspot issues, but it also has a tight turning radius and can be parked about as easily as a Civic. I checked the value on Edmund's a couple of months ago though, and private party sale is like $13k, so I don't know how far you'd have to go back to get into your price range. We're a one-car family (I walk and take the train to work), and for the variety of outdoorsy things we do, and for various house-related projects, we would have a very difficult time doing without the space that a small SUV or wagon affords. And the Outback was out of our price range.

 

[Raymond]

Gave up on wading through all five pages of posts, so I don’t know if anyone already mentioned this or not, but go to your local library and look at the April issue of ‘‘Consumer Reports.’’ It’s all about cars, and there is information near the back on used cars to look for, arranged by price, and also used cars to avoid.

That will give you a good idea of what you can afford, and may save you from making a mistake.