Big Truck in Midsize Package
We were somewhere around Keremeos on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.
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| My appreciation for SUVs has grown proportionately to the number of 'family vacations' my family and I have been on. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
However, unlike the book that opening line was paraphrased from, there was to be no Fear and Loathing in Osoyoos, and the only drugs in the vehicle were Contact C, Gravol and Children's Tylenol. The last couple of years, the word 'family' has attached itself to most of my 'vacations,' and in doing so has given me new appreciation for the ungodly patience my parents demonstrated on a number of memorable cross-country car trips. And in a Ford Falcon, no less!
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| There can be no denying that the new-for-2003 Envoy XL is a masterstroke in SUV design. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Car trips with toddlers have also given me new-found appreciation for sport utility vehicles, the benefit being on the utility rather than the sport. For a recent weeklong expedition into spectacular southeastern B.C., we packed up - and I mean packed up - a 2003 GMC Envoy XL and headed east on the Trans Canada Highway.
The Envoy debuted last year as a midsize sport utility from the company that lays claim to building the first SUV, way back in the Dirty Thirties. And while that assertion is open for debate, there can be no denying that the new-for-2003 XL is a masterstroke in SUV design.