I'm a tard. [insert sarcasm] Is your second job busting lounge acts for singing "Kung Fu Fighting" (which is offensive to certain nationalities)? [remove sarcasm]
A prospective buyer might not always be using trails. Sometimes you gotta go where no one has gone before. If there is no trail, its trail rating would not matter. How else would Chevy of given one of its SUV's the name trailblazer? Obviously, they intended it to blaze the trails that jeeps would later be trail rated to follow after. Now granted, driving on already blazed trails is easier, and if one person blazed a trail to somewhere, they probably had a reason for it, if someone else wanted to go to the same place where someone had already made a trail, using the already made trail makes sense. In that case, trail rating might be a potential issue to the prospective buyer of your Landcruiser. I guess you have to pick what you want to do - drive on an already made trail, or make your own. Depending on the prospective buyer, your Landcruiser not being trail rated may not be an issue at all.
You know Andrew, you are right. I guess I was looking at this the wrong way. I think about it like early pioneers, like Lewis and Clark. Often, as the expedition moved, there would be a small party (sometimes only one) that would go ahead of the group and try and spot the best possible route, or rather, find the best possible path to travel. So, even before a there could be a Trailblazer, there had to be a Pathfinder. If you're not a pathfinder, you are a follower.
update - friend of mine just changed from the local nissan dealership to the crysler jeep house. we talked last night about the whole trail rated thing. he said that the only reason that the other makes don't have the trail rated badging has to due with torque in the lower gears and something he said about the suspension. so there's not a lot of difference but there defanantly is some differences.
Husker I think your on to something with the Trail Rating on the Jeeps. But have more info involving the Jeep Rubicon. Was told by a good friend at a 4wd shop. Nissan, Hummer H2, GM, Ford all showed up at the Rubicon Trail only the Jeep made it through. And was certified Rubicon worthy.
why surprised? They aren't trail rated and won't be probably any time soon. Thats the hole point. If you need something that will get you through about anything youll need to stick with stuff that's trail rated.
*sigh* Just go buy a Jeep then. Enjoy it and quit cluttering up FChat with their marketing and propaganda. Regards, Andrew.
If you need to go where there is no trail do you need to take something other than a trail rated jeep? I am just saying, If it is trail rated it should stay on the tail becouse that is all it is rated for.
Great point. Why isn't there a street rating, and why are Jeeps street rated? Guess I can get cheaper off road use only tags, sweet.
Well for one a car doesn't have to be street rated because it's just pavement. SUVs have to be trail rated because driving on the street is not always possable. The whole thing about the rating is it says the vehicle is better equipped to take on certain off road challenges whereas the other vehicles are not. Therefore because of that no street rating is even needed.
one more thing i would add. if you are hauling around a bunch of kids and are trying to get through some serious mud or a hail storm, and you have a wreck and one of the kids get hurt or worse yet killed, you might get sued by one of the parents if you weren't driving a suv that is trail rated because then you might not have the accident.