I bought this vehicle because in New England there's a lot of snow. Here's my thoughts. The vehicle is unstoppable in the snow. That's a good and bad thing. I can hardly peel out on the snow and ice in 4 wheel drive. Jokingly I've told people I'd make it up some of those hills no problems. Sure enough it does! This helps because I live in the 2nd hilliest city in the U.S. Now... the bad part about "unstoppable". There are times when I go DOWN hills during snowfall with both feet on the brake pedal and I can't stop. Often, by the time I reach stop signs I'm going faster. I've learned to run into snow bankings, run over lawns & bushes (of which case the 4x4 really helps you evacuate the premises before the owners can get a lock on your license plate), shut the car off, and downshift and let the engine scream. Dealer says this is normal behavior for ABS. My friends old Isuzu stopped in 20 feet. As a result, only if I absolutely must even in the slightest of snows will I actually take it out during a snow storm defeating my reason for buying it. Dealer says he can't disengage the ABS or he'll be breaking the law.

I think it gives a nice, smooth ride. The back seats are the most comfortable seats I've ever been in. I'm talking, throw the lazy-boy out and put these in your living room. I've learned a trick with them also. If you recline the front seats all the way, and adjust them front to back, you can adjust how far back the back seats fold down. So.. if you're in the drive-ins or watching a sunset or activity you can pop open the back and stay there with the seats semi-reclined. Bring pillows and blankets. If it starts to rain you can just close the bottom half and open the glass. It does an excellent job of shielding you from the rain.

Gas mileage is absolutely horrendous. It showed something ridiculous like 26 highway, 21 mpg city when I bought it. Since day one I've NEVER gotten more than 14.4 mpg highway!

The dealer has been very good with the repairs. Within 100 miles I had bolts coming out of the engine. At 1,000 miles I had a windshield wiper stop moving. There was some bracket missing on my bumper and evidently caused the bumper to lay flush against the paint. As I went over bumps and the like the bumper would shake a little and scrape the paint off where ever it touched. I noticed the bumper had worn through all layers and exposed bare metal. They had a professional paint shop fix it. Looked like they put the missing bracket on and stuck touchup paint to the bare metal. Very poorly done and you can easily tell there's no primer or anything sophisticated done to the repair. I've brought it in three times over the brakes and their inability to stop in snow, they said being unable to stop was "normal" for ABS. I had my UV joint go 3 days before my warranty expired which they took care of... and now 4 front ball joints have gone 2 months after the warranty costing me $1,100 in repairs. Nice... since it seems that every thing that has a ball-bearing on the thing is blowing I think they either didn't lubricate them from manufacture, used the wrong stuff, or didn't put enough.

Electrical is awesome. The CD-Player is first rate. Sunroof does not like to close in the winter. My passenger pop-out window has had a small leak since day 1 during heavy rain storms. Taking corners always seems to "chirp" the tires. It also appears to always have some slight constant heat. If it's 50 degree's out, you'll have to open a window slightly because you'll be roasting even though you have the heat & fans shut off. AC works great!

All in all, I wouldn't buy this vehicle again. The bolts coming out of the engine within 100 miles was a tell-tale sign to me that quality was compromised. I don't know how well the touch-up paint on bare metal will stand the test of time. The feel is awesome, it's incredibly comfortable, nice ride, gas guzzling, and I LOVE the way the 2 Dr looks, if it weren't for the quality & ABS I'd really love this vehicle. DO NOT get one if you care about a sibling and want them to have a 4wd so they'll be safe in the snow. Key word being snow. This vehicle in snow is waiting to kill you. It is only a matter of time before you'll run into a point trying to stop where you can't switch lanes, can't find someone's lawn to run over, or there's no sidewalk. Good thing these things are built like a tank and I got the heavy duty 4wd package. Once trying to stop in snow and I realized I wasn't going to in time I was forced to steer over a very high curb. I thought I had whiplash I hit it HARD! But, not a scratch... just 3 slow-leaking tires after that, a mob forming to get me, and perhaps the blown bearings I talked about earlier.