Dilemma in the house of Rep...

[replicant_008]

Well, I chucked in the current job and my new employer has offered me a company vehicle. The way it works is that I can get whatever I want and I lose some of the cash component of my take home pay to cover the costs of the lease, fuel etc - but I get unlimited use of the vehicle.

So I shortlisted a few vehicles to replace the Mondeo ST and the short list basically came down to two... with opposing philosophies.

The first contender which started off in pole position was the Honda Accord Euro. It has a 2.4 litre 4 cylinder VTEC engine with 140 kW, 5 speed auto, leather interior, heated seats, walnut dash, sunroof, dual zone climate ie all the fruit. It's sporty to drive and the steering is very direct and it's a looker. The downsides were its a bit tighter than the Mondeo in terms of legroom and shoulder room especially if I had three folk across the back seat. The other major drawback is that although the boot is big enough the opening is quite high and ain't that big and I'd have trouble getting my dive gear (especially the big waterproof tub that carries the BCD, regulators, dive computer, fins and exposure suit) in and out. This isn't an issue in the Mondeo because it's a liftback and the other thing was that you can't see any of the corners from the driver's seat (unless I had the head out the sunroof)....

The second car in the run-off was the new Ford Territory. Yep, I ended up looking at a 4WD SUV... after a long history driving sports oriented cars here I was looking at this AWD and wondering what the hell I was doing even looking at it. It's got the Ford Falcon drivetrain - which is a good thing with a 182kW six with DOHC and VCT, four speed auto and the control blade indy rear end. It's got it's own wishbone front end and a different chassis. So I jumped in and went for a drive - thing was, I liked it. It doesn't drive like a car but it's close and for something that was 2 tonnes - it felt smaller and lighter. But that wasn't the thing that really surprised me.

The advertising says that there are 32 storage areas in the Territory and having been in advertising I kinda wrote it off as gimmicks. But there were some real world clever stuff. Like the double sided floor in the luggage area - carpet on one side and plastic on the other. A well under the floor to store wet gear (like my wet suit or my sailing gear or even my golf stuff), a lockable drawer underneath the driver's seat for my laptop.. real clever touches...

Now the only thing that real troubles me is... there's this nagging feeling about the environment - I'm going to running around in a medium sized SUV - commuting to work every day and spending the weekends lugging gear off to my sundry outdoor pursuits, towing a boat etc. The green part of my conscience keeps saying to me... this is all wrong how can you go from a relatively efficient high tech machine to a big bluff SUV no matter how practical...

[MagicRat]

Interesting dilemma. Although I am near the front of the line to condemn the effite urbanite in an SUV, I have concluded that if I was to have only one vehicle, it would be a compact SUV. For some years in the '80's a Cherokee was my sole vehicle.
They are very useful and versatile. As you are putting it to work, don't feel guilty about it. You need it for it's versatility, and not as a fashion statement.

[lazysmurff]

spending the weekends lugging gear off to my sundry outdoor pursuits, towing a boat etc.

there you go, no reason not to have it. like magicrat said...as long as your using it and is not a fashion statement

[Oz]

Accord. No question. Next.

[TankMMC]

Get the Accord + buy a cheap second hand Terrano or Surf for the times when nature calls

Also, what about a new shape Legacy?

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by TankMMC

Get the Accord + buy a cheap second hand Terrano or Surf for the times when nature calls

That defeats the purpose of the debate. The limit realistically is one vehicle, due to money and opportunity.
If money were no issue I would get a Diablo and a trailer.

[replicant_008]

Well magicrat hit it on the head - I don't want to have two vehicles nor was I offered two. Work has offered me one company vehicle and the capital tied up with the Mondeo (which I own sans finance) is earmarked for knocking a chunk off the mortgage and doing some home improvements... and maybe a trip somewhere.

The Accord is a nice piece of kit, it goes as well as the Mondeo and it's a lot more luxurious inside but there's that element of practicality that the SUV serves. If there was a choice of having two vehicles then I'd have a SUV and a clubman racer but I can't and don't want two cars in the garage for me (unless I can get the GT40 replica started).

Besides which now that I don't have to pay for the gas maybe I can be inspired to take a few trips to ski this year or take someone I care about on a road trip to some places I haven't seen in a while.