"Chenz759" > wrote in message
...
> Hello,
>
> I'll be in the market for a new car in the next few months and
> I'm thinking about a 4x4. Since I'm a 20K+ mile per year commuter,
> I want something that is comfortable and fun to drive, gets decent
> gas mileage and is under $30K. I do a fair bit of surf
> fishing, so I'd like to get something I could drive on the beach.
> That's about the toughest off roading I'd be doing besides maybe
> some rough, sandy fire roads in some of the local state parks.
> No real off roading or rock crawling.
>
> The Escape seems like it might fit the bill.
> It has a manual center differential that can be locked but it
> doesn't have a low range. The last time I owned a 4x4 (15 years ago)
> I always drove the beach in low range, I never tried high range.
> (BTW, the beach I'd be driving is Island Beach State Park in NJ.)
>
> Does anyone have any experience with this vehicle?
> Think it could handle this kind of driving?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> VI
> How
>

Get an '03 Izusu trooper, they've stopped making troopers in preference to a
new platform made in the USA instead of japan, but the last of the '03s are
going dead cheap, sure theres not going to be any resale 5 years in the
future, but if you by one to keep they last forever, are reliable and can do
anything you ask them to. Far more than the Escape.