What Do You Drive?
 

Ok, so this is a bit different.

I live in the very hot Arizona desert, and my AC just went out. Yuck! Luckily it's cooler here now so I have some time to get a replacement car.

I'm in the process of car shopping and I'm trying to figure what I should get. Being a full time Commercial Video guy, and a part time Independent Filmmaker, I'm trying to figure out what vehicle would best fit my needs for equipment and all that jazz.

So, I'm just curious what everybody else is uses to haul their gear, and why they use what they use.

I think it's pretty relevant to being productive in our industry.

Looking forward to all your responses!

2007 VW Rabbit (aka Golf). This is my third one now. They have a surprising amount of cargo space inside when you fold down the seats - I haul lots of stuff around in mine. The new models were completely redesigned last year and actually have a few inches more room than the old ones.

I feel fortunate to have two rigs I can use: one is an older Tahoe, which easily carries everything I own (including my little 6’ crane and 8’ lengths of PVC pipe for a track dolly). In warm weather when I don’t need everything I put the top down on my Mustang GT and can toss in a surprising amount of gear. For Arizona heat that’s the last thing you’d want, but it helps me put a little fun into schlepping gear. That's my least favorite aspect of video.

Good luck in your search for something "cool!" :)

I drive a '97 Town and Country minivan. I got it as a free hand-me-down from the in-laws, and when we got it last year, it was still in perfect shape (they hardly ever drove it), but after a year in my hands its been pretty beat up. But I use it for all my work transport, becuase it is exceptionally comfortable (when they bought it they went all-out for the extras) to drive, has plenty of room for all my gear including several cases of lights and several lengths of dolly track that didn't fit in my older car. All of the passenger seats are easily removable if I have to pack more or less gear for whatever is needed for a given shoot.

It also has an alarm and heavily tinted windows, so I feel pretty safe leaving my gear in it if I have to be away from it for a few moments while it is loaded up. (Driving around in the San Francisco metro area, I sometimes have to leave it on the street for a minute or two so I can run into an office to get my access approval for a shooting location, so having folks walking by not being able to see the gear inside the van helps me feel a little better about this, especially since it passes as a regular suburbanite transport instead of some type of industrial media truck.

I've been in that Mustang. Its a sweet ride.

-Jon

Yeah, that was so fun! Next time you come up here, Jon, we’ll put you behind the wheel and take ‘er up the mountain.

Reading your other post I was struck by the different needs for different areas. I don’t have to worry nearly as much about someone stealing my stuff!

Toyota Corolla hatchback. Very Reliable car!

Stelios

Have a 2000 Isuzu Trooper. Very spacisous and rugged, has been on a number of jeep trails up in the canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado, up over Tincup Pass, without any problems. Lousy gas mileage though :(

I got 3 to choose from

Mazda MX6
Landrover Discovery
Isuzu Trooper

Honda element, I got this thing for my video business. It is very flexible gets good gas milage and comes in all wheel drive. You can make the seats into a full bed or fold them up to hall big stuff or take them out all together.

I used it to shoot a documentary in New Orleans after Katrina. I pulled a small trailer with all my tools and sleep in the element. There was no gas so you had to bring your own, good gas milage was a must.

Jeep Grand Cherokee here, big old 5.2 V8, all wheel all the time and all the power I need (or don't need).

For family trips it's my wife's Tahoe - plenty of space.

Jeep Grand Cherokee as well. V6, horrible gas millage but it hauls everything with no problems, 140k strong.

A Toyota Supra....youd be surprised how much i can fit in it. i also have access to a mitsubishi pajero.

Andy.

Mitsubishi Outlander, 4 door "crossover" (small) SUV. Hatchback type rear door, folddown seats, "privacy" screen to hide what you have in the back without the rear seats folded down.

Ford Ranger extended cab pickup with lockable "Foldacover" bed cover. Excellent for carrying lots of gear.

But beware, many bedcovers are not waterproof.

Best Small filmcrew vehicle - Honda Element
 

With TINTED windows.. I park this thing even in sketchy NYC neighborhoods with 50K of video equipment in back.. no one can see it.. and it is the most beautiful minimalist design you could hope for. I bought mine about 1 year ago and have been shooting a documentary all over the east coast (Me, NH, MA, RI, CN, NJ, NY, WA, MD).. in some really unsafe neighborhoods..

I can't think of anything that would draw less attention, be less likely to be stolen, and easily carry hundreds of pounds of gear I have better.

I bought mine about 1 year ago off of Craigs List, cost $18K with less than 5K miles on it.. a new one at the time was 24K, and the dealers were selling used ones with 40K or so miles for about $22K.. so I LOVE Craigs list..

There are times when being UGLY is a real advantage...

Brian

Jeep Wrangler 97 - I don't have any back seat - so I can lug all my equipment. Go anywhere do anything!

I'd like to upgrade to the 2008 4 door wrangler so I can have 2 1/2 times the space. The old two door 97 doesnt hold much space really and my company is growing.

Regarding the Element - glad to hear you guys like yours. I looked at one a few years ago when I was car shopping and passed on it. The 4wd version was pricey and (to me) a 2wd SUV doesn't make much sense. But what really surprised me was that the VW Golf was rated to carry more weight!

New Nissan Pathfinder with 2.5 liter diesel; I get 31.5 mixed miles per gallon with it, even better on highway...

VW (Winnebago) Rialta
VR6 engine gets 19 MPG
Onboard battery system with 3000 watt inverter gives me all the 60 Hz power I need for computers, monitors, etc.
Lots of storage for equipment and a great portable editting studio.
AND, I can take a nap while waiting for people to get their sh_t together.

Kia Sorrento. I have full hitch set up to pull a pop up trailer for travel, and haul gear. I can load a self built 8 foot boom, and lots of other gear with seats down. Very happy with this rig.

Toyota 4Runner

although for years I drove a Corvette. Just enough room for a full size camera bag and a set of sticks wedged between the seats. :)

Drive
 

I got 07' CRV , great car, looks nice and can haul good amount of gear and more importantly it has an MP3 player jack in the center console, right next to an AUX power jack. mileage is good.

Although I don't own one, I saw the new panel side version of the Chevy HHR at this year's state fair. I think it's the perfect vehicle aside from only having seating for two. The rear doors pop open from the inside though for easy access to cargo. It may be my next vehicle.

Right now, it's still the 2001 Chevy 3500 4x4 crew cab. It's really every vehicle I could need on one set of wheels.

-gb-

We have a 2001 Suzuki Swift, a three-door hatchback. Its pretty amazing how much gear you can pack in it. I've had friends with SUV's struggle to fit in what I can put in my car easily. The gas mileage is great, around 50mpg. My wife and I use it for windsurfing as well, so we put a lot of miles on it. Gas mileage goes down to 40mpg when we put our boards on the roof. If I had to replace it, I'd look at the Honda Fit. The way the seats fold right down into the floor allows for a lot cargo space.
I think in America we're a little unaware of just how expensive gas is going to get. Been hearing on the news and reading on-line that $3 per gallon gas will soon be considered cheap. In Canada, they're certainly getting up there, as they're already over $4 dollars a gallon. When we first started going to the Gorge windsurfing, a lot of people with larger cars just laughed and said they would never drive such a small car, no matter how expensive gas became. Gas at that time was about $1.40 per gallon. Now, honestly, we've had people come up and ask us all about the car, how we fit the gear in etc. One guy acutally got heated when he asked my wife what kind of gas mileage we got and she told him 40 mpg. He called her a liar and stormed off. People think our car is so small, but if you go to other countries, especially in Europe, you realize how over-sized many of the cars in America are. But then again, they pay even more for gas than Canadians, I think up to $6-7 dollars per gallon. One question I have for all you SUV people out there is, at what point would gas prices make you think of switching to a smaller, non-four wheel drive car? I've met people who say they don't care if gas is $20 per gallon, they are just never going to give up their SUV. I also get bewildered by these people who claim to "need" four-wheeled drives, but then put over-sized low profile racing tires on. Um, not the most ideal "snow" tire!

Another vote for the Honda Element.

Which I consider the best light production vehicle I've ever owned, hands down.

I replaced my Astro Vans and Suburbans with one years ago and never looked back.

If you look just at the specs, it has more than 40 cubic feet of cargo space which is more than anything but the Excursion. (I was always disappointed with how little cargo room the Suburban and most "SUV's" actually have accessible without the major hassle of removing seats - on the Element, they fold up with carabiner clips for light loads or remove pretty easily for full cargo access.)

Under $20k - Over 20mpg - Lots of usable space plus all the goofy Element stuff (the tent accessory which is an excellent talent field changing room or "switch from the tailgate" setup - lots of 12 volt outlets - easy upper rack installation) - and best of all - YES, you can hose the sucker out after a long location shoot.

Oh, and Boyd - 95% of my production is in town - so 4wd is pretty useless. I'm totally happy with 2wd AND the mileage is commensurately better.

My solution until I find something better.

For me a SUV (or in this case a real 4x4 with low gears & center locking differential) is a "must" as we have still 4 kids (out of 6) at home and 4 dogs, so a 7 seater is a minimum. Nice for boat trailer towing, too. Sometimes the video gear also fills the car quite nicely. Also we get several months of snow & ice, for which, even with studded tires, having a four wheel drive is a benefit and also a safety issue, I feel. My wife drives a 2.8 liter diesel Jeep Cherokee (Liberty in US I belive) and the oldest daughter has a Kia Picanto.

The milage (well over 30 mpg) I get is great considering the size & weight of the car, diesel here is about 1.15 €/liter = 6,35 $US/gallon by the way, gas well over 7$/gallon (fuel tax is pretty high, and car tax 100% + 22% VAT on top, list price for a basic Pathfinder is 83000 $US...). The price does not affect me much yet, but it is certain the fuel price levels will double or tripple in not-so-distant future. Oil production is not growing with demand and every 10% increase in demand with fixed production doubles the prices... Thank you China...

Ive got a 93 Isuzzu trooper. WOW! I love this baby, especially usefull for the northern states that get lotsa snow and ice (like the winter storm warning occurring on my tv right now :(

Can take 2 cams, 6 lowel lights and cases, steadicam, whole damn studio with me and still have camp gear and seating for 3

Havent done it yet, but later I'm taking the smaller of two collapsable rear seats out, and having a cage installed to hold equipment. Theyll have to take the whole damn thing!

OK, Mr. Allen's thread here has me thinking Ill start another one based on security, vehicle and studio. Ill check and see if one exists, even if its not mine, look for it!

i've got two cars right now, a mazda mx6 which i'm trying to sell, and my newer car a toyota corolla, I'd say anything sporty in not practical. Dealing with a 2door car was a hassle for many reasons, thats why I switched to a 4 door car.

Also in my opinion, if you have your own videography business, a classy car is better. When I showed up to jobs in my mx6, I feel that stereo-typed me in a sense, lol. Suv's are good, but hard on gas, vans are great, but alot of people consider van's "mom cars" Hope you find something to your liking!

The Millennium Wardrobe
 

"She'll make the Sainsburys Run in 3.2 Parsecs"

"You came to the shoot in *that*? You're braver than I thought"

Yup, a Volvo 850 T-5 - 0-60 in 6.5 secs, legendary 'portable black hole' Volvo carrying capacity, totally ignorable in a car park, no 4x4 stigma in London, the most comfy car I've experienced.

More importantly, four people, two camera kits, laptops for all, and an interview lighting kit.

Yes, it's a bit of an old crate, but it's a reliable old crate that's practical and fun to drive that I don't have to worry about when left in a car park.

Suv
 

I have a SUV (Super Utility Vehicle) ! We have a F 250 super crew 7.3 l diesel. We film outdoor hunting TV and we need a ton of gear for our trips, so the f 250 gets the call. it also gets 20+ MPG weighing in at a slight 9,000lbs. room for 5 adults up front and all the gear you need in the bed!

2006 Scion Xb. Oceans of room inside, huge cargo space, small outside, great gas mileage, built by Toyota. It's the perfect car. In 2007, Toyota messed it up, though, by giving it a longer wheelbase, less headroom and a bigger, less fuel efficient engine. They took a brilliantly designed crossover vehicle and made it just another middling mini-SUV.

Most of the time, though, I'm driving my 30-year old modified 10-speed hybrid bicycle, pulling a Burley trailer for my gear.

A '95 Ford Explorer mainly - great for humping scuba gear around + I live in a rural area where it comes in handy. About 160K miles on it.

When I get around to fixing the speedometer on it, an '85 Mercedes Benz 300D with >220K miles on it.

Here's another Jeep Grand Cherokee. '93, 6 cyl., original engine and third transmission. On its way back from the Moon with 270,000 miles. Headliner sags a bit but still a great vehicle for hauling gear.

05' Ford Focus
You'd be surprised what you can fit in those things

04 Ford Focus zx3, lots of room and I average 30mpg.

2006 Honda CR-V

Lots of room for me + my gear.
Great gas milage as well. ~34 mpg highway.

'91 Toyota Land Cruiser with 251K miles
Perfect for hauling gear :)
It's the company "car".

Most of my work is single camera interviews, so a DVX100, tripod, mics, laptop, and other odds and ends, plus an overnight bag; fits quite well into the trunk of my 1990 Mazda Miata.
Last week my interviews took me to Panama City Beach - top down in FL in January. This is a great job. :-)

I drove an '88 Toyota Land Cruiser (pre-yuppie version) for 230,000 miles. I could haul anything with it and pass anything but a gas station. It got 14 mpg on a good day. As my equipment got smaller, so did my vehicle. Now it's a Scion XB, a 2005, and I've got about 52,000 on it now. Averages 35mpg on the highway and I can haul everything I need on a shoot (with the exception of a Western Dolly, but I did take a Spyder dolly and Flextrak OK).

'98 Explorer
 

w/138K.

I'm w/Boyd...4WD during a Jersey winter can be a lifesaver if you're far from home and have to travel either the Parkway, Turnpike, or any of the suburban stretches of any of the interstates.

Considering a new ride though, maybe a minivan-like thing, so it's comfy if you need to drive client(s) around, but roomy to haul gear, while being indiscreet in the parking lots.

BTW, am selling son's '02 Wrangler if anyone's interested. (He got himself a used Tacoma).