Trading Up...TV Advice?

the bear II wrote:
Rent a pickup and see if you would like it as a daily driver. Keep it for a week and take a long drive in it. To me a fully equipped pickup is just as comfortable as an SUV

I agree with this even if you decide on a full sized SUV. You can never tell if a new class of vehicle is going to work for you on a test drive at the dealer, you need to live with it for a while. It could save you a lot of time, headache, and money. We ended up with a vehicle I hated for almost 2 years because I almost suggested we rent one first and didn't. My wife was sure it was what she wanted and loved it when we test drove it. After having it 2 weeks, she admitted she hated driving day to day so we ended up selling my vehicle to get her something else and I drove it for 2 years until we were better positioned to get rid of it. A couple hundred bucks renting would have been money well spent.

If you decide you are going to end up with a full sized SUV, I would definitely consider a short bed crew cab pickup also. With the luxurious interiors available with trucks now days, I don't think you will notice much difference in driving them day to day and in most cases, the pickup will be more versatile unless you need to carry more passengers than the pickup can carry. If you need more covered storage, you can always add a topper or tonneau cover, plus it is easier to carry things like bikes camping when you can just throw them in the back of the truck.