Mom and Dad saved up and bought an ‘86 Astro, two-tone brown-and-tan with two rows of bench seats. It sat eight, although those in the way back got little-to-no ventilation (maybe that was a feature, not a bug). It served us well, including the summer a few years later where Mom and Dad bought a used pop-up tent…

Thanks. I was. How’s the outward visibility?

1. Why can’t you get the PHEV version with a middle bench seat?

Wow... that horrific outward visibility specially from the back seat. Reminds me of getting in the back of the Chevy cop car at the elementary school fair back in the 80s.

Ooh... thin pillars and low beltline: heaven.

“Hail ants.”

Came here for this. My brother and sister have had five Subarus and 14 head gaskets before the two of them.

x2. You can still get them on the base Suburban and Tahoe.

Willys Jeep with the D18 transfer case has entered the chat:

Outward visibility for win.

Excellent outward visibility - thin pillars, low cowl, low beltline, etc.

Except Porsche and Jeep customers.

They are against any changes to street design away from typical suburban planning as supposedly it inhibit fire trucks. So bulb outs, narrowing, and traffic calming are all a big no.

Also, why don’t the safety regs include some minimums for outward visibility? I get the rollover requirements, but there is a tradeoff.

San Francisco is a pretty walkable place at a mere 7 by 7 miles. The second-loudest group to scream against making streets safer for all after the NIMBYs is the fire department. It makes one wonder how other cities (e.g. Oslo) do it.

How much is the electric range of the PHEV version?

Yup. Especially on that street in that neighborhood.

So he drives around most of the time with legendary, unmatched towing range, waiting for that moment when he can use it.

It’s impressive that the Cruise car actually pulls over there on Clement and gets out of the lane. Most of us human drivers on Clement don’t even bother (moving over). It’s a total mess.

How do you like the 45e?