Subatomic Power

That's a great question! The problem is that we live in Calgary....which means that we can switch from a beautifully warm sunny day to a brutal snowstorm and a temperature drop of over 30 degrees within hours. And during THAT, we have to often drive kids to/from various lessons and sports. A car just doesn't often cut it this close to the Rockies - though many may disagree with me. I looked at a Range Rover in Calgary and was shocked at the price. The properly configured vehicle cost about $180,000.00 with tax and not every one of the nice options available. The monthly lease cost for the RR came in at over $3000 per month, which was more than I was willing to pay.

Besides, my friend bought two new RR's for each of his twin boys for them to attend University (they drive in from a rural property). Each of them had a terrible experience with their RR's - as each of them spent at least 3 of the 1st 12 months in the shop while they had to drive rentals. The problem with the RR's appears to be that you need to buy two of them - one for home and one for the shop (or parts).

I need reliability, and the British don't seem to have that reliability problem licked yet. Perhaps Tata motors will bring some good things to RR. I really didn't like the Porsche Cayenne, as the lower models are really cheap and plastic looking. The Audi's look nice on the outside, but I found them to provide a terribly uncomfortable driving experience.

ColoML550

Not to ding you but I live in the Rockies here in Colorado. We get some pretty good winter storms here as well. I too have kids and stuff we need to do. I drove my BMW 740 all year round. Tires are the key in my opinion. Yes, AWD is better but I only got stuck once in 12 years in the BMW (Not lowered yet) and that was about 100 yards from my driveway in a blizzard. I did drive the BMW over Berthoud Pass (11,000ft) last winter in 8 inches of snow. Not much slower than AWD's and I made it. Traction control and ABS helped of course.

schorert1

I drove my kid about 1000 miles a week for hockey, and for a goalie we needed the space of an SUV. We had to be safe in any conditions and an AWD suv always worked great for us.

Now that she's off to school, I'm rethinking my AWD SUV stubborness. My road is impassable due to snow probably 10 or 20 days a year (meaning I can't get up the hill in front of my house without awd)...so why am I limiting myself to AWD for that 7% of the time I MUST have it, especially when I have a beater F250 in the driveway.

interesting to hear about someone living in snow country with a RWD high horsepower car...sounds like ice racing to me.

ColoML550

Before the ML I did have a Toyota Sequoia. On the REALLY bad days I'd drive that. I'm born and raised in Colorado. Back in the 80's my first car was a 1976 Camaro. Think about that for a minute! a 16-year old driving that in the winter - no trac/ABS back then. ...and I'm alive to tell about it!

I need a little variety in my cars. I think I'd personally get tired of having 2 of the same car. It seems like today you can get about anything with AWD.

Subatomic Power

Undoubtedly true about snow tires. I've never owned a set before. $2000 each to put them on the ML's, but apparently indispensable for winter driving. I put a set on my daughter's Cruz for her for University. I think that they make a huge difference. I grew up driving a '69 Malibu with bald tires through the winters here in Calgary. Problem now is that the population has swelled from 250k to over 1.5M - and they all seem to drive crappy minivans with bald tires! ;-).

MB needs to come out with electromagnetic cushions that stop oncoming vehicles. Or an optional missile launcher.

schorert1

well, obviously you're missing an elegant solution...for the same $2k you you could get yourself a cheap minivan with bald tires...then you don't have to worry about who you hit, or who hits you.

Subatomic Power

But I'm a Mercedes owner now (or almost).....so the crappy minivan with bald tires needs to have massage seats or I would be incapable of driving it.

Seriously though - the winter driving in Calgary can get super nasty. Last winter, we had 3 ft of snow overnight on the driveway with super slick ice underneath. Actually, much of the winter seemed to be like that in recent years. I'll have to send the global warming alarmists a memo on that.

I think that the traction control on the ML's on the "snow" setting must be remarkable. I have that feature in the Escalades and I am almost incapable of spinning a donut in my cresent as is my time honoured custom in nasty snow. The sales guy told me that the ML's are unreal in terms of deep snow/ice performance, especially with the snow tires that Mercedes recommends.

jtorrebl

I remember rr were terribly unreliable. I thought they would have improved by now. We had an Audi q7 and my wife got really tired of the stiff ride. ML drives much nicer

Subatomic Power

We test drove the Q7 in Phoenix recently, and I was really surprised at the really crappy ride quality. The salesperson called it "road feel", and she was surprised when I scooted under the vehicle to check out the suspension system. It looked to me lie the Q7 only had a couple of crappy leaf springs in the back. Not at all what I would have expected from Audi in an expensive car like that. I was also disappointed with the Cayenne, which had a similar poor quality ride that was sold, again, as "road feel". Acceleration in the Cayenne was okay, but not even close to the ML63 or even the ML550. I was again surprised. .

schorert1

I was cross shopping the SQ5 and the ML(well, the ML I had owned in the past)...The SQ5 is a great vehicle...but definitely not worth the $63k price tag, a price tag that no audi dealer will budge on because they're so "rare". they seem to confuse low production numbers with high demand.
Anyway, the whole interior and ride said "volkswagen" to me, not "porsche"(which is where it's priced). The thing that pissed me off was no motorized/memory steering column. not one q5 I looked at had it.

Subatomic Power

I suppose that this is one approach to marketing strategy. I have a friend that bought a Q7 in Phoenix to drive around at his house down there. After only a week, he had had enough and now he's getting rid of it. His explanation is that he got sold on the "story" of the thing as well as the external looks. I must agree with him that the Audi's have a great exterior appearance. I think that the cars are probably quite nice, but their large Q7 is really a disappointment. I think he's looking at an ML now.