What a big ... uh ... vehicle.
First off... this thing is huge... absolutely huge. You almost need binoculars to see the end of it if you are standing at the front. The inside, feels equally as large. Feels as if you could take a leisurely stroll for a few minutes and have dinner with the passengers located in the 3rd row. Of course, you'd want to make sure they are there for with a phone call.
Driving this behemoth takes some getting used to. While driving, feels as if you need to put one of those wide right turn stickers on the tailgate to warn others. U Turns... don't even think about it unless you are on a six lane highway or there is plenty of run off. Which brings us to a slight detour on the off-road ability. The off-road ability works good. In four wheel drive mode, it's unstoppable. And by unstoppable I mean, I couldn't find anything in Florida that could trip it up, curbs, sidewalks, mud holes, swap, gravel ... nothing, no problems. It almost feels at home on the off-road terrain (shame 1% if lucky will be taken off road).
On the highway... it's comfortable, but severely underpowered. Crusing speeds of 60 are capable, but much higher than that and you will find yourself lacking HP. How this beast is supposed to tow anything with the lack of HP is beyond me. Cruising speeds of 80 are possible provided you are travelling light... but be prepared for transmission downshifts should you encounter any sort of hill or overpass. With cargo... the transmission would probably send the RPMs through the roof trying to maintain it's speed and not crawl to a stop.
Brakes are suprisingly good for such a large vehicle. I expected the first panic stop to turn the braking equipment into molten steel followed by spontaneous combution of anything left anywhere near the brake discs/pads. Remarkable, numerous stops from 80+ were promising each time. Granted, fade was noticeable, but not enough to make you worry. All be it, I bet when they brakes do fail... you'll probably just plow through whatever you were trying to avoid anyway with little fanfare as aside from the brakes, I don't see much else slowing this beast.
Now... the best part. Fuel consumption. Considering most of the testing was done on highway miles... this vehicle averaged about 11mpg, I dare not attempt to drive this thing in the city... unless you decide to tow a fuel tanker behind you. Fill ups from empty require you to show two forms of identification and clarification to the gas station that you are indeed good for the money. Makes me want to think that even American Express would have a hard time letting you pump until it's full with this one.
I will say that it is comfortable and made long drives easy. If the gas tank didn't go empty so fast, I would be willing to bet you could drive this thing all day and not be tired. And... the off-road part... love it. Not once did I find myself wondering if I was going to have to climb out the window and wallow through near knee deep water or mud to call a more capable vehicle.
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