Road Test: I Eat Suv's For Lunch!

0.cached.png

By David A. Kaplan

See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.

"Say, Len, are you sure that stop sign is supposed to bend over like that?" I gently ask my instructor as I lurch forward in this 16-ton, 40-foot-long Country Coach RV. It's probably nothing, Len tells me, but to be sure, we stop and get out to take a look. Sure enough, I'd scraped the sign by taking the corner too tight, etching a mark of Zorro on the side. I might've heard the collision, except for the 13,500-BTU air conditioners blowing, the washer-dryer running, the Bose home-theater system pumping and my passengers chortling at my enthusiastic use of the air horn. Who knew that anybody with a basic driver's license would be allowed on the interstate at the helm of a $347,520 equivalent of a Greyhound bus? RVs are all the rage, especially among boomers. Last year more than 250,000 were sold. There is little rental market for the behemoths, which tend to sell to RV veterans. The Intrigue is lavish and clever (it's got a camera on the back with a screen on the dash) and sleeps four comfortably (at rest, the sides slide out three feet for extra living space). For a week or a year on vacation, it's a home on wheels. If you can avoid running into things.

TIP: This king of the road is so large it deserves its own gift shop. Short of that, consider the optional hot tub.

Read More on News