2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor Limited Winter Road Test

Some Things Really Do Live Up to the Hype of Marketing

It's been almost a year since I first test drove Mitsubishi's new Endeavor sport utility during a sunny Southern California week. Not only were the SUVs available at that time preproduction examples but the paradisiacal surroundings hardly offered the opportunity to experience anything that remotely resembles a Canadian winter.

Although I drove the new Endeavor almost a year ago, I finally had the chance to test it in more demanding conditions. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

Those from afar that know me will laugh at this last comment, being that I reside in Canada's "Hollywood North." But as mild as our winters are, and despite rows of palm trees along our beaches (imported just for replicating L.A. in the many movies and TV shows filmed here), Vancouver is not California.

This became grossly apparent after a major dump of a white crystalline substance (no jokes about our fair city's drug trade needed thanks) that made it impossible to pull my rear-wheel drive Lexus LS 430 out of the garage. It wasn't that there was anything particularly wrong with the car, but shoeing a

After a major dump of snow in Vancouver, the Mitsubishi Endeavor tester I had got a lot of road time. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

car with 18-inch run-flat summer tires in the middle of winter is a bit ludicrous no matter which side of the country you're from. As I was told, the Toronto-based PR department didn't think Westerner's would need all-season tires - go figure? Have they never heard of Whistler?

It was Lexus' loss - as the car sat in the garage for the remainder of the week - and Mitsubishi's gain. The Japanese company's always accommodating Canadian communications director Sandy Di Felice made the arrangements, and within a few hours I was mobile once again.