SUV in CANADA

Author
Discussion

lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Thursday 7th August 2008
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Morning all

Just settled in Canada and am now looking to get my hands on an SUV. Main requirements are 7 -8 seats and must have a decent sized trunk when all seats are being utilised and the other key requirement is that it must have decent off road and towing ability ( skiing, hunting,fishing,boating weekends etc) trips are already being planned. Been looking at the following Chev Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon XL so any advice on these or other suggestions greatly appreciated

TIA

TIS

219 posts

204 months

Thursday 7th August 2008
quotequote all
How about the following:

Chrysler Aspen 5.7 HEMI
Cadillac Escalade (Okay not great offroad but bloody lovely)
Cadillac Escalade ESV (Okay not great offroad but bloody lovely)
Hummer H2
Audi Q7
BMW X5
Ford Expedition
Ford Excursion
Saturn VUE
Mercury Mountaineer

If it was me id have a Chevy Tahoe, set of 22's with Nitto Terra Grapplers for off road capabilities.



sawman

4,963 posts

237 months

Saturday 9th August 2008
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GMC acadia looks nice to me as does the buick enclave which is essentially the same car. The dealers are having a tough time selling some of these big trucks at the moment with the gas price rises.

But do you really need to carry around all those seats all the time - car rental is very cheap compared to uk so you might be better to get something more modest and then rent when you need more space

btw the toyota rav 4 comes with a 7 seat option in canada as it's longer than the uk model.

good luck with the move by the way! where have you wound up?

s

lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Saturday 9th August 2008
quotequote all
Hi sawman

Settled in Mississauga. As for the seats, we will be a 5 man family including the little guy in a car seat plus two tall teenage sons. So in all likelihood, at least 6 of the 7 seats will be used most of the time. Plus we already have family booking time here with us ( the first scheduled to arrive in November ) and then pretty much full time till December 09. Does the RAV 4 have decent trunk space with all the seats in it?

sawman

4,963 posts

237 months

Sunday 10th August 2008
quotequote all
I think the rav has a little space with 7 seats up but not enough to chuck a suitcase for example. I forgot to mention the jeep commamder which is 7 seater and a pal of mine runs a ford freestyle, which is now called taurusX it has all wheel drive rather than off road style 4x4, but they rate it pretty well for carrying family (they have 3 kids). Another pal of mine has a toyota sequoia (sp?) which is proper big and off roadable. If you are more concerned with space than off road duty there are a number of people movers with AWD, have a browse of autotrader for more clues: www.autotrader.ca

Hope you are finding your feet in canada, Welcome!

s

ws6

420 posts

247 months

Friday 15th August 2008
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TIS said:
If it was me id have a Chevy Tahoe, set of 22's with Nitto Terra Grapplers for off road capabilities.
Another vote for the Tahoe

ZZR

913 posts

258 months

Sunday 24th August 2008
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Small point, but if you are going to have 6-7 people plus a trailer won't you risk being overloaded? Wouldn't it be safer to have a towing vehicle that takes 4-5 people plus trailer safely and then another vehicle?

ws6

420 posts

247 months

Tuesday 26th August 2008
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to towing capacity of my tahoe is 8800lbs with 7 adults - the Suburban is 10,500lbs with 9/10 adults - more than enough

Edited by ws6 on Tuesday 26th August 10:37

lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Tuesday 30th September 2008
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Hi All
Well it is done, bought a Yukon XL 2004 model and must say very happy with it. Took a little bit of getting used to in terms of size and length but waht an awesome bit of kit. Will be doing a few mods over the next few months, easy things like tires, CAI, HIDS, etc.
Looking forward to the first trip up to Blue Mountain in December, towing my newly acquired Arctic CAT

MrVelox

2,974 posts

194 months

Wednesday 1st October 2008
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Excellent vehicles those are. I would strongly suggest getting XM or Sirius if you plan on driving a lot, well worth it. Not sure if your 04 has XM from the factory or not.

lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Wednesday 1st October 2008
quotequote all
Nope no XM, but a sirius set up is on the cards as is getting the onstar all set up and working, looks like onstar is a fantastic system to have.


MrVelox

2,974 posts

194 months

Friday 3rd October 2008
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OnStar is nice to have, if you have digital OnStar tho.. the older ones used a North American version of Analog and no longer work, which sucks. An 04 ought to be digital though or upgradeable to digital.

Sirius is nice, if you miss BBC R1 you'll have it on Sirius.


lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Tuesday 14th October 2008
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Looks like I do have the digital onstar so that is good. This SUV is a great piece of kit, however I am struggling to find aftermarket parts here in Canada in particular HID's, DVD systems etc. So if anybody can point me in teh right direction, much appreciated.

MrVelox

2,974 posts

194 months

Wednesday 15th October 2008
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HIDs don't always work as well as you might think in DOT headlamps. Check your owner's manual, your truck ought to use 9006 Low beams, just grab a 9006 HID kit from eBay for $100-200 or so and you're done.

As far as a DVD player goes... Best Buy, Circuit City..etc.

lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Thursday 23rd October 2008
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Need some tire advice. I suppose the question is do I fit winter tires or do I fit a set of all terrain tires? Any advice greatly appreciated. As I have said earlier whilst the majority of my driving will be on city streets, there will be numerous trips into the snowy hinterland for some winter fun.

MrVelox

2,974 posts

194 months

Thursday 23rd October 2008
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First,

What size is she running..? 265-70-17s? And what Tyres are on there now? As far as places to buy Tyres, www.tirerack.com

It's been my experience (albeit living a bit further south than you) that good All-Season or All-Terrain 4X4 Tyres do fine in snow, you want Winter tyres more for the ice. We rarely get more than a foot of snow at a time own by NY City tho... usually only 4-6" at a clip.

I did manage to get through 18" of Unplowed snow in an Escalade with nothing better than stock Goodyear Wranglers on it.

lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Monday 27th October 2008
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Hi there

Yip I believe that those are the tire sizes, will check out the website. Aas this is my first winter here needless to say I have no idea as to what to expect! Have been told anything from 6" to 4' so playing the seeing is believing game at the moment. The Yukon has a set of Firestone A/T's on it at the moment with good tread depth accross the whole surface, so may just try it for a while and make a call as we get into the depth of winter. I suppose I could always invest in a set of chains for the heavy stuff when heading out skiing etc.


MrVelox

2,974 posts

194 months

Monday 27th October 2008
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If they have deep tread then you should be fine.. Bridgestone Dueler A/Ts I assume?

uk_vette

3,336 posts

211 months

Tuesday 28th October 2008
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For me the F250 King Ranch ticks all the boxes I have !

lenandsons

Original Poster:

1,317 posts

240 months

Friday 31st October 2008
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Hi

Nope not Bridgestones, Firestones according to the side wall. I have been informed that A/T's are not all that great on ice, this was however from my local Midas store, so may be looking for a sale. I reckon that I will hold off till the first realy icy conditions and make the call then.

Wwas very interested in the Ford 150 King cab but the fact that I have 5 passengers to carry around was a drawback and when I then add the stream of visitors coming from accross the pond, the big SUV was the winner