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I’ve driven it to upstate New York, and down to Lake Whitney in Texas. There is no vehicle I’ve found (and I’ve owned every American SUV type vehicle there is excluding Jeep products) thats better for long distance driving, comfort, or reliability - which is a direct contrast to Consumer Reports ‘ratings’ which after reading I’ve realized is politically based. (It has to be, I own one and none of the ‘negatives’ they cite have come up at all).

There's some truths that consumer reports simply doesn't take into account. First of all, CR is politically motivated. They hate anything domestic, or not perceived as "Green". You can tell with the incredulous voice of their article writers when they, with great distaste, report that the highest rated car for consumer satisfaction in 2005 (I think; it could've been 2006) was the C6 Corvette.

Car companies do different things better. Granted, I think most import companies have an edge against domestics in compact cars and family sedans. However, I think the domestic makers have a significant leg up in trucks (which includes SUVs) and a huge leg up in sports cars over imports. I once had a 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix that had been severely abused by its previous owner and carried the bad reputation of 80s GM products. Nevertheless, I still squeezed 140k miles of it before it became untenable. Frankly, it should've been in a junk yard when I bought it (that's what you get when you buy a car for $1,000) but it continued to hold up even after the poor treatment it received. The same year vehicle was noted for its low cost and for going about 200k miles before it became more trouble than it was worth. And it was darned fun to drive too.

Most vehicles whether Japanese, Korean, or American, will last pretty well if you take good care of them. You can abuse and destroy anything. The one exception I list is European cars. The newest crop of Mercedes and Volkswagens are notorious for poor build quality. My friend's fiance had a VW New Beetle that went to crap at a bare 98k miles, and she had taken good care of it.

Yep. Bottom line is you have four basic types of vehicle owners.

One is oblivious about the vehicle. Treats them with the same attiude I do with regards to tap water. Its always going to work, I don’t have to do anything but ‘turn it on’.

Second, the ‘beat the hell out of the vehicle’ types, that take any vehicle off road...and then complain when it breaks down, or gets stuck somewhere. They don’t even KNOW how to check the oil level....but can’t leave a stop sign without burning off 800 miles of rubber from the tires, races to the next stop sign and crushes the brakes to avoid sailing through...leaves the vehicle running no matter how long they might be in a store buying beer and cigs...you know the type. Oh, and they have their stereo on, setting the volume at the level so high the the windows two hundred yards away shake from the reverb, and naturally they have all the windows down....

Third, the driver that spends more ‘quality time’ with the vehicle then his or her family. Vehicle always looks show room great, always serviced to the mile or date, waxed weekly, kept under a tarp in a garage that looks cleaner than the average hospital O.R. (chuckle)

And the last group, those of us that understand its a machine, requires regular maintenance, and like any other machine it will break if you abuse it.