After two weeks of researching, I and my wife decided to by a 4WD 2000 HONDA PASSPORT on MAR 27/2000. We decided to by this SUV because the way it looks, performance, and price. This SUV looks strong, sporty and beautiful. This SUV has a perfect size to us, I mean it is not too big to
have handling difficulty when in and out from parking space in the parking
lot and gas consumption for a bigger motor. It is not too small to have
difficulty to do a big job like pulling a boat, driving off road or on
heavy and thick snow. Yes, the size and the look are just right for my
wife 'a lady is moving in style with a SUV. I notices that a lot of
women are driving SUV lately. My wife convinces me to buy a SUV for fun
only because actually we don't need a 4WD SUV very much in North Carolina.
In North Carolina we just have a big snow in 3 or 5 years, not every year
or many times during the winter. Performance, this has a V6 motor with
3.2 l capacity, 205 horse power with 214 foot-pounds of torque. To me, this motor has plenty for hp and torque with it's size and for the whole SUV weight. It's acceleration is really good. The motor is very responsive, I
can feel the power when I depress slightly the gas pedal. The steering is
good, light and smooth. It is easy to handle in the parking
lot, but still not as good as a car because of it's size.. The steering is stable, no vibration with high speed on highway.
This SUV has 4 wheel disk brake and ABS, that is what I like about. I feel
confident with this feature when I really really need the brake in
emergency and when the roads get slippery.
This SUV is driven very close to the car but not quite, because it is a
SUV. The live solid rear axle and the weight of a SUV, it rides very smooth on road or with little bumps and dips, but with rough roads I have to slow it down if I don't want to feel the bumps.
This SUV uses a lot of gas as the others. That is what I expected before
I bought it, 17 miles/gal. It is still better for a V8 with 13 - 15 miles/
gal.
Price, this is the most important factor that leads me to buy it. 27500 for a 4WD EX L (with Luxury Package). It has all what I like as leather
seat, alloy wheels, full size spare tire under floor, 2 tone body colors, and more than what I need as power moon roof ( I don't want to open the
window when I drive because of noise), 6 disk CD changer in dash ( I don't
like to listen to music when I drive, this is one of the possibilities to lead to car accident, for me only). I pay about 2000 dollars for 4WD capability, I don't know when I really need it, but I feel good that I
have a SUV can do some thing that a 2WD SUV cannot do.
So far, we are happy with our new toy. I will up date after three months
when we have this SUV for a while and when we have a chance to drive it
to Cherokee mountain, find a jungle to go (just kidding), buy a boat
to pull, and take a long trip to Canada. I am waiting for the fun coming.