New Chase Vehicle!!

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Below are some pics of our new chase vehicle that we will be using from now on. It is a 1999 Nissan Pathfinder and is in great shape. We got a good deal since it had hail damage on it. It is very suitable for chasing with 4 wheel drive and a tank like exterior. We will certainly be sampling a few more cores and be able to manuver through dirt roads better than ever before! After a somewhat awkward chase season this past spring driving a different car (a Ford Escape) rather than the Chrysler 300, we hope to start new with a new car and new equipment as we will be using only GR3 starting next chase season and I plan on building my own dashcam mount as well. Bring on 2009! LOL

 

[Jim Leonard]

Michael.
I like those baseball hail dents on hood. You can really go through a intense core now. I had a car in 1999 the hail not only left big dents, the hail took some paint off too.

 

[Skip Talbot]

You can't buy your war wounds... you have to earn them. Looks like a great chase vehicle, and should make quick work of anymore pheasants too.

 

[Mark Farnik]

Excellent choice, Mike!
Random automotive factoid here - what you have there is actually the last of the second generation 1995-1998 Pathfinder body style - it carried over into '99 until a redesigned body came out halfway through the model year, so you have the earlier of the two '99 body styles. And yes, I'm a total car geek. Could you tell? Lol.

Nissan Pathfinder's are among the most bulletproof vehicles you can buy on the market today. If you treat it right and keep up on maintenance, you'll get at least 200k out of that 3.3 liter V6 and 300k out of the powertrain and body.

The two things you will definitely miss going from the Escape to the Pathfinder is the the comfort level of the ride and, most of all, the fuel economy. The Escape's a car based, unibody frame where the Pathfinder is an old school, truck based body-on-frame, so you're going to feel the bumps, rough pavement and occasional trees, two by fours and telephone poles a lot more harshly than you did in the Escape. The difference in fuel economy is definitely where you'll really feel a harsh jolt, at least to the old wallet, per say. Where your Escape was pulling off over 30 mpg highway, get ready for fuel economy numbers similar in nature to those you used to get with your 300C. I.e. 19mpg on the highway. Of course, the Escape only has high range AWD with non-lockable hubs, and the Pathfinder has a low range transfer case with lockable hubs, which makes the trade-off in fuel economy much more palatable.
Particularly when you find yourself on a greasy dirt road after a heavy rainstorm...

One recommendation I have is that you purchase a cold air intake for your Pathfinder. The 3.3 V6 is slightly underpowered at 168 horsepower, which can get quite doggy hauling around the Pathfinders 3960 pounds. A friend of mine used to have a '96 Pathfinder 4WD, and after he installed the cold air intake, it had significantly more power and he went from 16 mpg combined to almost 18 mpg combined and up to 20 mpg on long road trips, so for around $200, it would be a worthwhile investment that would pay for itself fairly quickly.

Once more, congrats on your new ride! I know you'll enjoy it...

 

[Darin Brunin]

I've been shopping for a new car and almost bought this Dodge Avenger last week with some dings...

After much deliberation I decided to go against it and start clean. Finally, tonight I drove home an 08 Ford Focus which should make the fuel bill on chases a lot easier now.

 

[John Erwin]

After much deliberation I decided to go against it and start clean. Finally, tonight I drove home an 08 Ford Focus which should make the fuel bill on chases a lot easier now.

I rented one of those a few weeks back on a trip and was very pleased with it. I'm not normally a Ford person, but the Focus was very comfortable, nicely styled and felt quite capable on the highway and for city driving. Real-world fuel economy seemed to be quite good. I think they did a good job on it.

 

[Darin Brunin]

I have never been a Ford person either but the Focus won me over for several reasons. Compared to other cars similar to it, I have 4-5" of clearance above my head and that's huge considering I am 6'6 and could barely fit in the Cobalt for example or even some smaller SUVs. Getting 35mpg instead of ~15 in my old Jeep will be an awesome change and the 'Sync' system in it is very impressive.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I just bought a new chase ride as well, I looked at the Focus, but ended up going with a Mercury Milan for size reasons, the Milan is just like the Ford Fusion just a little more loaded Mercury Model. So far I love the car, decent gas mileage smooth quiet ride, and the Microsoft Sync thing is pretty nice, Plus I got 17" rims which really boosts the clearance, but unfortunately they don't spin. The car doesn’t even have a thousand miles on it and it's already seen hail on two separate occasions, and amazingly it survived 1" and remains dent free...

Couple Pics...

http://www.severechase.com/6-20-08.html