[Big Dave]

I’d done pickups both ways and unless I get a major bite by the outdoors bug, I wouldn’t have another 4x4. If I lived in upstate NY, I might reconsider.

I had a 83 K2500 and after 305,000 miles I realized I had about 3,000 miles on the transfer case and if I hadn’t done some recreational four-wheeling in Colorado I would not have had more than 500 miles on it.

For a full-sized pickup 4x4 entails a half-ton of machinery with all that entails. You get stuck with a top-heavy poorly-handling vehicle.

Like Frank Lee, don’t get me started on the marketing department.

All this said, there are a handful of situations where 4x4 earns its keep. Deep snow. Here on the frozen steppes the ISP gets by just fine with Crown Vics, excellent tires and good training but when it really snows (once or twice a year) they rely on commandeered 4x4s. Boat ramps. My old GMC saved a guy who got his Caprice’s rear tires on the slimy part of the boat ramp and was sliding into the water.

I keep a foot in both the ecomod and pickup truck camps. Most of the truck guys I view as poseurs. My metric is simple: Is the truck dirty and is the paint scratched. If so, maybe you have a use for 4x4. If not you are a poseur. I’m no more shy there than here about airing my opinions so you can just imagine the reaction. They tell me my truck is “gay.”

I like the little Dutch three-wheel adventure in hydraulics. No doubt in my mind that really big MPG requires tandem seating.