Yaris sales hit new low...

[Onwrdigo]

I stand by what I say about Mini. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderful looking cars. But I worry for the guy getting the Countryman All4. "That" particular Mini has been rated the most "troublesome" of the whole line. But since he knows how to work on cars, maybe it won't be a big deal when it does something nutty.

Kudos to him for finding a first generation xB for his Daughter. Still have my '05. It has been the "best" car I have ever owned. And they are "great" snow cars even in automatic transmission guise.

Yea, being in Connecticut during winter is a big deal. Here in NC, we got socked pretty hard with a couple of storms in the flat lands this year (where having 4WD is not a necessity) and our mountains got nothing when those storms happened. My Yaris was home, I was in the xB, and it got me through beautifully when others, including some 4WD's were being stranded by their owners on hills on the side of the road. So it can simply depend on "driver knowledge" when it comes to weather. I went to college in the NC Mountains with a VW Rabbit. They never canceled class even in the worst winter storms. You "had" to learn how to drive in snow/ice no matter what kind of car you owned. So, again, it depends on the driver and "yes" severity of the overall storm and frequencies of the storms if you do or do not need 4WD.

Just being friendly here. I love cars that give little or no trouble. I think the guy would enjoy a new RAV4 4WD XLE far more than the Mini Countryman All4 and for less money. At a car show recently, one of those All4's had a sticker for $37,000'''' and according to the sales rep, it was not even the fully loaded one??!!. You can get a whole lot of reliable 4WD RAV4 for that kind of money and have some change left over for a top notch ski rack and new skis/equipment for the whole family to hit those great ski slopes in the Northern territory.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Onwrdigo

I stand by what I say about Mini. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderful looking cars. But I worry for the guy getting the Countryman All4. "That" particular Mini has been rated the most "troublesome" of the whole line. But since he knows how to work on cars, maybe it won't be a big deal when it does something nutty.

Kudos to him for finding a first generation xB for his Daughter. Still have my '05. It has been the "best" car I have ever owned. And they are "great" snow cars even in automatic transmission guise.

Yea, being in Connecticut during winter is a big deal. Here in NC, we got socked pretty hard with a couple of storms in the flat lands this year (where having 4WD is not a necessity) and our mountains got nothing when those storms happened. My Yaris was home, I was in the xB, and it got me through beautifully when others, including some 4WD's were being stranded by their owners on hills on the side of the road. So it can simply depend on "driver knowledge" when it comes to weather. I went to college in the NC Mountains with a VW Rabbit. They never canceled class even in the worst winter storms. You "had" to learn how to drive in snow/ice no matter what kind of car you owned. So, again, it depends on the driver and "yes" severity of the overall storm and frequencies of the storms if you do or do not need 4WD.

Just being friendly here. I love cars that give little or no trouble. I think the guy would enjoy a new RAV4 4WD XLE far more than the Mini Countryman All4 and for less money. At a car show recently, one of those All4's had a sticker for $37,000'''' and according to the sales rep, it was not even the fully loaded one??!!. You can get a whole lot of reliable 4WD RAV4 for that kind of money and have some change left over for a top notch ski rack and new skis/equipment for the whole family to hit those great ski slopes in the Northern territory.

. I think those of you who have been forced to deal with inclement winter weather for more than a weekend or week at a time can have better results in certain conditions with Front Wheel Drive than with AWD or 4WD. My experiences, for the most part, have been in the central and northern parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (especially near and around Lake Tahoe). Most of the people I know, and others just by acquaintance or observation, favor AWD or 4WD over FWD. However, these are mostly people who don't live there for the entire winter or year round (they're weekend/holiday/vacation/etc. people who live primarily in LA, Orange County, or the S.F. Bay Area). I lived in what is largely a ski town (Mammoth Lakes, CA) for almost an entire ski season, but didn't get to try driving around in the snow re a sad mistake...I locked my car key in the car . Nearest AAA contract station was over 50 miles away...so I was out of luck until my girlfriend (after the last snow) was able to make the trek from Orange County to bring me another key. I didn't really need a car while I was there, but it would have been nice to get the experience driving in that climate. The best job of driving I've done in snowy weather, amazingly, was behind the wheel of a FWD car (a Ford Contour) over Mt. Hood (Oregon) with chains on while driving from the Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort to Portland.

Re a reliable, small AWD or 4WD SUV, I like both the CR-V and the RAV4. I like the layout if the interior of the CR-V a bit more than the RAV4...I think the interior of the RAV4 is well thought out, but (in comparison) I feel a bit more thought went into the execution of the interior of the CR-V.

The Mini....ahhhh...the interior is what grabs me the most ( my favorite interior -- any current car at any price), but most of the rest grabs me as well. The car must have 'grabbed' CTScott as well, or I'm sure he wouldn't have purchased one. He bought it used, and I imagine got a deal he didn't want to pass up.