A grill guard or cow catcher or whatever isn't going to do you a lick of good if that deer jumps or if you hit a taller animal like a moose. It's coming through your windshield whether you like it or not. I don't see how a grill guard protects the passengers in the slightest. It would only protect the front end of the truck itself. Unless I'm missing something.
9 times out of ten those grill guards that people mount to their cars are purely cosmetic too, a couple small 10mm bolts through the fenders and front bumper is all that holds it on. I know I installed one on a land Rover last month that didn't fit quite right so I bent it by hand.
I don't hunt, I don't do anything involving plywood. My cars go out of town perfectly fine.
He's the only one that thinks its something required to do. It's not. Hard for me to say now since I own all pretty damn nice cars but I drove a miata as a daily driver for several years, I tooled around in a conversion van for a while since I got it from my parents and didn't want to pay for anything at the time. It was fine. Nobody refused to serve me at restaurants, etc.
Deer in the hill country are like dogs. A lot of them weigh 80 pounds which is part of the reason they have the highest density in the US of deer.
So your neighbors wouldn't say anything amongst themselves if you traded in your Land Rover, E class Merc, or whatever for a Crown Victoria or beater pickup and parked it in your driveway?
Well one of my neighbors drives an old pickup. Another one drives like a 12-13 year old highlander. The single mom two doors down has like an old sentra. There's plenty of high end cars too but people drive what they drive, what do I give a shit? The single mom has a kid the same age as one of mine, I don't tell them to stay away from the plebs, they play all the time. Who cares? People make too big of a deal out of it.
Ahh, well I figured you lived on Bordeaux, Beverly drive, or similar. You can't even drive a beater down those streets without the Highland Park police tailing your ass.
Nah the name brand streets like Beverly you pay too much for the lot just to say you live on Beverly. I will say I live north or south of Beverly less than... 6-8 streets.
I just got a 2016 Honda Pilot EX-L (AWD). Paid $37.5k out the door for mine, so a little higher than you are wanting, but we really like it so far. Ton of really cool safety features, such as the side-view lane camera and Honda Sense if you want it. Also has 3rd row seating that an actual adult can sit in, wouldn't want to do it for a long road trip, but anything under an hour or so is manageable. If you dropped down a couple of trim packages and/or went with a FWD version that might be closer to your price range. Depending on how big your 3rd child is, them in the third row plus your two car seats in the middle should fit everyone comfortably. The middle row slides back and forth which should allow you to get them in and out of the third row pretty easily but not quite as conveniently as a minivan.
Thanks I'll try one out, would be same payments if I did a straight trade with the Cadi, just hate giving it up.
True, he said 3 kids, 2 in seats... full car seats or boosters? and 1 rear facing child seat baby holder- those things take up SOO much room... then there is your standard child related crap that you are wondering around with, stroller - or strollers depending on age, at least 1 for the baby? those things take up the standard back room of your "mid/small" crossovers- or your 3rd row crossover back with 3rd row seat up. Do you actually want to have a place to put your groceries and or whatever you bought? don't think of going to ikea!
I have 3 kids and an X5 and it's never full of crap. Only one of mine is in a car seat though.