More vehicle woes. <sigh>

[tRidiot]

Rio Grande Gorge is on a highway with a normal bridge and cars passing. It rumbles and shakes a bit. I didn't like it, I got sick after walking on it.

The Royal Gorge bridge is wooden planks and while it is wide enough and probably strong enough, you can't drive cars into the area as it's all surrounded by the park entrance and buildings and such. I saw one park employee driving a golf cart thingy over it.

It shook, too, and seeing through the planks below my feet freaked me out. I made it halfway and came back. I didn't like it, either.

Gondolas across are free, the zip line costs $45. They shut it down before my kid could get his ride - I think he was bluffing anyways.

Back in Santa Fe tonight, going to some new hot museum/interactive exhibit hall art thingy called MeowWolf. Supposed to be all the rage, I dunno. We'll see.

You owe it to yourself to take a look at these:



We bought my wife a Telluride SX-Prestige two years ago and can't say enough good about it. We traded her '16 Lexus IS-300 F Sport AWD in on it and the Telluride is nicer in every way. I looked at a bunch of SUV's and none of them could match the Telluride. I was cross-shopping $60K+ rigs directly against the $47K Telluride and it wasn't just beating them for the money, it flat out beat them period.

The only one that came close was the Ford Explorer ST. It had much better power, better brakes , and a nicer infotainment unit, but everything else was a disappointment by comparison, not to mention it was $15K more. The only SUV I liked better in every way, was the Lincoln Aviator Black Label, and it was $84K.

The one knock I have on the Telluride is the power, which honestly isn't bad for a around town and long road trips. It just doesn't match my ZR2 for towing our boat. If they ever offer the Telluride with the 3.3LTT from the Stinger GT, I'll be trading the ZR2 in for one.

I don't think a new vehicle or even newer late model is in our immediate future. We can't afford that *****, much as I'd love to dream we could... believe me, I've been dreaming a lot this last week.

I'd have to get another job, and I just don't want to go back to working ER shifts to chase the money again.

 

[1shott]

If the dummy's would build a 3/4 ton, they would probably lead the market.

Whats knows so far about the 2022 tundra is the upgraded suspension, coil springs in the rear and 6 lug wheels. Leads a lot of folks, myself included that payload and towing numbers are increasing. There also appears to possably be a double cab with a 8ft bed.

 

[Parks 788]

You can always just rent a Tahoe or Suburban for long road trips while you work on getting your '04 Tahoe up to snuff for daily use.

1) Seems you have never rented a Tahoe or larger SUV for a longer vacation or road trip. When times are good you are paying $1200-1500 per week for a basic Tahoe to rent for a week. If you check now, most places you will be looking close to $6K for a week rental on a Tahoe or equivelent. Rental prices are nuts right now.

 

[Parks 788]

Whats knows so far about the 2022 tundra is the upgraded suspension, coil springs in the rear and 6 lug wheels. Leads a lot of folks, myself included that payload and towing numbers are increasing. There also appears to possably be a double cab with a 8ft bed.

The Tundras while nice and will live forever, they have a fairly mediocre interior considering what can be offered buy the big three truck makers and the while the tundra engine is more than capable of towing all loads well in its class it tends to get very poor fuel economy while towing compared to its competition.

 

[SiGArmed]

The Tundras while nice and will live forever, they have a fairly mediocre interior considering what can be offered buy the big three truck makers and the while the tundra engine is more than capable of towing all loads well in its class it tends to get very poor fuel economy while towing compared to its competition.

I get 13 no matter what I'm doing, lol. I dont need a bougie interior either so, Personally I'll never buy a domestic truck unless I grab a older 12v Cummins.

 

[GC7]

1) Seems you have never rented a Tahoe or larger SUV for a longer vacation or road trip. When times are good you are paying $1200-1500 per week for a basic Tahoe to rent for a week. If you check now, most places you will be looking close to $6K for a week rental on a Tahoe or equivelent. Rental prices are nuts right now.

Yes prices right now are an anomaly and not representative of "normal times" and nothing about my reply suggested that paying $6k to rent a Tahoe for a week was a reasonable idea. But even at $1200/wk for a Tahoe rental, how many rentals could he do and still come out ahead of plopping down $80k to purchase a new vehicle and then paying taxes and insurance on top of that.

 

[SiGArmed]

Yes prices right now are an anomaly and not representative of "normal times" and nothing about my reply suggested that paying $6k to rent a Tahoe for a week was a reasonable idea. But even at $1200/wk for a Tahoe rental, how many rentals could he do and still come out ahead of plopping down $80k to purchase a new vehicle and then paying taxes and insurance on top of that.

Got curious, bout $1700 for a week for a Tahoe from Enterprise at Will Rogers. Still, way cheaper than 80K for a SUV your only utilizing a small percentage of the year.

 

[dennishoddy]

Mileage on any heavy duty truck is commensurate on the conditions encountered on the tow.
Our 7.3 Superduty with 4:30 gearing and a 10 speed auto will get 11mpg with a tailwind towing 14K+ lbs but will get 5 mpg towing into a 40 mph head wind.
My diesel buddies towing the same weights report the same.
Combo city/highway without towing is right at 13.4 mpg.

 

[Parks 788]

Got curious, bout $1700 for a week for a Tahoe from Enterprise at Will Rogers. Still, way cheaper than 80K for a SUV your only utilizing a small percentage of the year.

I'm not going to disagree with your comment. However, when the OP mentioned he had a family of 5+ going on a raod trip for 10 days and traveling thousands of miles and spending thousands of dollars on hotels, rental homes/cabins, food, entertainment, and other costs you don't really want to be putting all these cost and expenditures on the line trying to make this trip happen in an 18 year old SUV. You're asking for a ruined trip. This doesn't account for the thousands of dollars spent throughout the year on trying to keep said vehicle on the road and hoping it will turnover each morning to get to work. if you drop $5K-$12K on the powertrain to make it reliable that's fine but you are sill driving around in an 18 year old interior, body and other components that have the propensity to take a chit on you. Do you need to spend $80K on a new Tahoe? Nope. No way!! But a good quality newer SUV to fit 5 people for a family vacation that still gives quality reliability year round may very well be worth the expenditure. Not everyone wants to drive around in a chit pile year in and year out.

 

[1shott]

The Tundras while nice and will live forever, they have a fairly mediocre interior considering what can be offered buy the big three truck makers and the while the tundra engine is more than capable of towing all loads well in its class it tends to get very poor fuel economy while towing compared to its competition.

I own a tundra, love it. For me the interior is exactly what I want and need in my truck, I do not need a lot of extra fluff so to speak.

As to fuel mileage, you do not buy a tundra based on fuel mileage, but with that said I can get 18-19 on the highway, drops to around 12 in town, with a combined of 15, thats about average with most full size pick ups.