Quote:
Originally Posted by wjohn
I recently purchased a '90 Dodge Dakota 4WD since I needed a truck. My '90 Civic hatch is great but just doesn't quite cut it when I need to haul much of anything. I didn't really want 4WD, but other than that it was everything I wanted - V6, manual transmission, 8' bed, and 2,000 pound payload package. After 6 months of serious searching I figured I wasn't going to do much better. At least it has 3.55 gears instead of 3.90s.
|
Here's a situation where I don't think the "buy a trailer instead" suggestion is going to work. The Dakota is just starting to feel the load by the time a trailer-equipped Civic is at the outer edge of its capacity.
I heat with wood. I have a truck, mostly because I had the truck long before I ever owned a car. In the fullness of time I have acquired a Forester which could tow a ton, and under that paradigm I could get a LOT done with just a car and a trailer.
But if I just had the Civic hybrid? According to all the manuals, you can't tow with a HCH at all.
For the longest time I've been tooling around with passenger tires on my truck. The one time I fitted LT tires, my mileage took a big dip and stayed there for the next 30,000 miles. I was very glad when those lossy donuts wore out. You might consider passenger tires instead, if you can find them in the right size. If you never go offroad and don't often load up to the limit of the chassis, you might do very well.