As a light SUV, it is a no frills cargo carrying machine... period. When you get inside the light SUV, it's spare interior gives no illusion that it is designed for very minimal. It almost begs you to wonder if the steering wheel and guages were optional with the purchase.
Twist the key and the engine fires to life and idles a bit high at just over 1000rpm. However, power output is great for a light SUV. When you mash the go pedal, it is very reminisent of the old 1980's Ford Mustangs as the front left corner of the SUV lifts up into the air as the chassis twists trying to motion itself forward. Power is abundant all the way up to highway speeds making driving on the highway easy. Steering will get you where you need to go, and the brakes... well, they leave lots to be desired as fade is apparent after the first attempt to haul it back down from those highway speeds. As note on it's highway potential. The SUV seems quite at home on the highway. Crusing at 80-85 is quite comfortable... however, there is a barrier somewhere just north of the 90 marker. It is not an engine power barrier, however, it is an aerodynamic factor. When you find that magic number which varies depending on wind speed and direction, you'll think that the mighty God himself has decided to reach down and try to shake the ever living soul out of you. Seriously at that speed, I was beginning to wonder if a) I was going to travel backwards in time or b) the parts that were bolted down with cheap screws were about to become road side debris.
A marvelous feature of this SUV was the extremely functional air conditioning. It goes from super hot Florida weather to ice cube in mere minutes which is quite a feet. Don't like your passengers? Set the A/C to max cool and point the vents at them... they'll be frosted over in a matter of minutes.
Cargo capacity is quite abundant with the rear seats up. Fold the rear seats down and you have enough cargo capacity to store enough materials to weigh the SUV down to the point where movement would cease to exist.
Overall... for the 15k SUV, it does its job rather well.
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