The time has come to buy my wife a new vehicle. We are considering mid sized crew cab pickups with small beds, 1/2 ton crewcabs with small beds, Subaru Forester, and KIA Sorento. Started out leaning toward PU but evolved toward SUVs Forrester and Sorento. Looked at Dodge Pacifica and other cross over SUV thingies but a bit pricy and maybe a bit big. Laughed at Avalanche transformer toy. Looked at various brands but lean toward the Forester and Sorento.

Anyone with experience with a Sorento? I drove one and was favorably impressed. Good power, comfortable, fairly quiet, and fantastic waranty periods. Extending the full coverage bumper to bumper waranty to 100,000 miles is not very expensive. Looks fine, and seems to be a lot of vehicle for the $. The downside is I have no experience, first hand or otherwise with any of their vehicles except seing them go down the road. I can get over the idea of driving a car whose spelling invites the interpretation of Killed In Action.

I also drove the Subaru Forester and Baja. Forester is roomier, has better ground clearance, handles better, costs less than Baja.

Subaru does well for the size of its 4 cyl opposed engine. Good power with little vibration and strain. The Sorento has larger V-6 and is clearly more powerful but gets less fuel economy which is a consideration due to our remote location and need for considerable drive for shopping etc. Still, either is possible.

AND I'm open for sugestions re other choices. Our requirements include 4 doors, seating for 4 or more adults (with legs attached) cargo area like a SUV or station wagon or a small pickup bed. Must be smaller than Suburban and that genre so as to be easy to manuver and park.

What say?

Pat