2007 Audi Q7 vs. 2007 Cadillac Escalade, 2006 Infiniti QX56, 2007 Lincoln ... - Car and Driver (blog)
It's summer, America is on vacation, and Mt. Rushmore draws the Pace Arrows, Palm Aires, Bounders, and Born Frees from across the land to clog the roads of South Dakota's Black Hills. President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace came by train to Rapid City in 1927 for a three-week getaway. Seventy-nine years later, your reporters have arrived, but there'll be no water slides and Stuckey's stops for us. No, we're on a fact-finding mission: Does the traditional American-truck-based SUV have a future. Gas prices are stuck stubbornly at three bucks per gallon, bombs are exploding in the Middle East, the stock market is shuddering, and normally optimistic Americans are having doubts: Is our cheap-fuel way of living coming to an end. If it is, the truck-based SUV is an endangered species. First thing on a July morning, upon awakening in the hospitable town of Custer, South Dakota — about 15 miles southwest of Mt. Rushmore — we hustled out into the sweet morning air to see what vacationers are driving. Here's what we found in the Comfort Inn's parking lot: 20 SUVs, 18 cars, 14 minivans, and 10 pickups. If the SUV is the king of our roads, as the parking-lot count suggests, then these five are the kings of kings, the top models from Cadillac, Lincoln, Audi, Infiniti, and Mercedes-Benz. Source: www.caranddriver.com
