pet connection

When shopping for a new hauler with sufficient size to hold the canines, kids and cargo, it’s often not appropriate to take the entire brood into the showroom and have them jump in and out of various vehicles for size-testing purposes. So how do you know what works best to fit your needs as a dog-loving family?

One answer comes from Belinda Forknell, Marketing Manager of Chrysler’s Global Electric Motorcar (GEM), which is celebrating its 10th anniversary by introducing a special luxury edition of the popular neighborhood electric vehicle. When Belinda and her husband were looking for a car to haul their two kids and two large dogs to grandma’s house and elsewhere, they decided to leave the barkers and whiners at home and instead did their own real-time, real-world testing.

“When we took our prospective purchase out for the test drive, we would pull into an empty parking lot out of sight of the dealership. Then we put the back seats down and climbed in from the rear on all fours, just like our dogs would do,” she said. “Then we tested standing on four legs, sitting on our haunches and laying down flat on the floor. Since our dogs are basically our same size, that gave us a good idea of how well they would fit into the vehicle.”

The car they eventually purchased? The 2007 Dodge Durango. “It fit everyone — the dogs, kids and cargo — just perfectly,” she said.

Unfortunately, Belinda insists there are no photos of their dog-size test drive. Darn!