pet connection

When you find a great DogCar, you stick with it until it no longer serves your purposes.

Then you start shopping.

For dedicated DogCar reader Patti, of Northern California, that’s exactly how she and her husband, Joe, made the choice to purchase a vehicle that accommodated their desires along with the needs of their dogs.

Here’s Patti’s story:

I did NOT plan to replace my 1998 Grand Caravan dogmobile just yet.  It ran well most of the time, aced the most recent smog inspection, and had lots of room for dog crates and training gear.   But things started to fail.  Important things like turn signals.  The cost to repair far exceeded the blue-book value of the car.  And so we started looking.

Joe is a car fan.  He’s had a subscription to Car & Driver since he was twelve.  (In fact, most of those back issues are still sitting in his mother’s basement.)  He LOVES reading reviews.  He’s been reading van and small SUV reviews for a while, trying to choose our next dog car.  Since he started field training, gas prices have gone through the roof, and the 140 mile round trip to the training grounds at Denverton was costing us a LOT.   I sent him a pointer to the DogCars.com, and we began to seriously consider what car would fit the bill.

Here was our requirement list.

1. We needed something could carry at least two dogs and our training gear.
2. It had to have seats with good lumbar support (our backs aren’t what they used to be.)
3. It had to have good ground clearance (for those dirt roads at Ornbaun’s.)
4. We preferred a four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicle.
5. Gas mileage had to be better than what we we getting in our Grand Caravan.
6. It had to provide good ventilation, for those days when we are at a training group all day.  Rear windows that open, lift-gate, sun-roof.  With our crate fans and sun-screens, the dogs should be comfortable, even in hot weather.

The Honda Element provided all of these, and is really cute when parked next to the (GMC) Yukon XL.

It’s fun to drive, as well.

We’ll probably pick up a luggage rack for long trips, and we will spend a weekend building a platform so that we can put two side-by-side crates in permanently, with lots of storage underneath.

Thanks, Patti, for providing the “Elements” of how you came to your DogCar decision.

Photo: Patti’s pup Molly enjoying the family’s new Honda Element.

Happy travels!