How Much Ground Clearance Do You Need?

We had audi sedans and wagons for the 25 years we owned at Gore and we never felt the need for ground clearance. Since the A4 based all road wagon was too small for my family, we migrated to a VW Touareg. Now that we mostly ski in VT, we are happier that we have some ground clearance. The snow is deeper and at times, not plowed. I would also rather be driving a truck based suspension on the many dirt roads we now drive on in VT. Your ground clearance needs can only be answered by you.

Some cars/suvs that have AWD that have not been mentioned:
Buick Regal sedan and TourX wagon. These are somewhat full sized at about 193 inches long.
Ford Fusion awd
Kia Sportage
Mitsubishi Outlander
Hyundai Tuscon and Santa Fe
Dodge Challenger/Charger
Chrysler 300 awd
Chevy Trax/Buick Encore
 
I love my VW Alltrack. It rocked in some fairly deep, unplowed snow upstate this winter. Plus, I believe it is the only station wagon available in the US that comes in a manual!
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I think it's pretty easy to make the argument for using a truck as a daily. They're reliable and you can get a lot of miles out of them.

The biggest problem I have with modern SUVs is that the engines and trannys fail prematurely. This is because they are under built to reduce weight, and theoretically increase fuel economy. They put in small engines that rev at high RPMs and run close to water for oil to produce the power necessary to move a vehicle of their size. Those engines won't last nearly as long as a truck. Trannys aren't built to last either. The tranny on our Traverse shit the bed at 130K miles, meanwhile we have two POS 90s GM pickups both with over 200K miles still going strong. Ive talked to a lot of mechanics about this and they all say modern crossovers/SUVs just aren't made to put on the miles. Trucks are just built to last. Really anything with a longitudinal drivetrain will last a lot longer. My buddy drives a Chev Tahoe which is basically truck, and he's at 320xxx miles.

If you want a small SUV that's fine, just plan on trading it on after you put a few miles on it.

My Nissan 4 banger gets 29 MPG at best and meanwhile the new GM 1/2 tonners get like 27 (i've driven them, it's not joke) so if you can afford to have a vehicle that you know will last a long time, and keep you safe in whatever life throws at you, get a truck. No fault there. 1/2 tonners (1500s) are really designed as daily drivers for the most part anyway. It's when you start driving a 3/4, or a dually as a daily that it gets silly. But if it sets your pants on fire, drive whatever you want. I have a 3/4 ton chevy with a 454 that I drive just for fun sometimes.

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Nissan is the daily.
 
Get a sedan or hatch w/ AWD, snow tires, and a roof rack/box for your skis. I drive a Subaru WRX hatch and I have never had any clearance issues. Drive it through tons of snow all the time for powder days. Any road I couldn’t get it through I would probably need studded tires for anyways. Ground clearance is more important for off-roading than for snow.

Highly recommend any Subaru. An Impreza hatch would be pretty ideal for the city as well.

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I grew up in Brooklyn and live in Manhattan.

Haven't had snow tires because I just can't deal with storing tires PLUS some winters there is little snow and my wife drives a lot on cleared roads (highways) so all seasons are our thing.

We've had two Subaru wagons with AWD over the years, plus some Nissans with front-wheel drive. Every winter I'm very happy with the Subaru a few times - typically getting through an icy driveway on a trip or just driving in and out of a snow-covered parking spot here in the city. What would take more digging with the Nissan is faster with the Subaru. We were on a vacation recently where it was very hard for another family with us with a FWD car to get out of the driveway one morning (all season tires and FWD). With our car it was easy.

The current Subaru is an Outback with a few inches more ground clearance than the Nissans and earlier Subaru Legacy. I'm not sure that's important.

I think the OP would be happy with an Impreza or Outback. We got an Outback which is longer - we usually put the skis inside with one of the seats folded down. Parking is perhaps little harder, but where we live in Manhattan overnight parking is pretty easy. And my wife takes it out in the day.

I don't think a big truck is not right if you're driving/parking a lot many parts of NYC. If there are a lot of kids around (common in many part of the city) front and rear visibility is really important. Backup cameras help. I wish/hope some of the bigger trucks had front-facing cameras too. Actually I wish all vehicles did, but especially big ones.

Lastly, could we all please avoid a certain slang term for transmission - it's also a really offensive slur in another context. I know that's not what's meant here, but it's so bad to even read it.
 
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Great Abyss - second the subaru fans here. If I were picking one car for what you want and you want to go green, think about the subaru crossteck hybrid - gets clearance but then probably roof access height around a large sedan, and lower than almost all SUVs.

Driving around Brooklyn you will be mostly on battery for the one Target and Costco I know about in Brooklyn, and when you want to get to the mountains, as Camp said, you will have the 8.7 clearance on basically an Impreza hatchback body, so easy access with the clearance. FYI, highlander/typical SUV will be around 8.0 inches.

Summary - clearance will almost never be an issue. I did the Brooklyn to Catskills and occasional 'daks for years in my 2011 honda crv which only had 6.7 inches of ground clearance.

My one concern with the impreza (have '14 hatchback awd with like 18,000 miles) - the front end sticks out a bit, so you can ding the bottom of the bumper going down hilly driveways.
 
jt10000 said:
Lastly, could we all please avoid a certain slang term for transmission - it's also a really offensive slur in another context. I know that's not what's meant here, but it's so bad to even read it.
Click to expand...

Huh? What are you referring to?
 
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