I can't be too much different than the majority of you guys having owned a 4wd for most of my adult life. Now that I've gotten a little gray around the muzzle, my idea of fun isn't winching my 6,000# truck out of two feet of mud, repairing a broken axle, replacing an ignition module in the middle of nowhere, scratching the hell out of a new truck or repairing sheet metal. Been there and done all that. It is a pretty hopeless feeling to be miles from any help with a disabled vehicle that you are depending on to get you back into civilization. I've wrecked my dirt bikes and had ATV's that failed, but those were not my primary means of getting back home. I like a nice capable 4wd as much as the next guy, but there is a limit to just how much off road stuff that most of us will actually use. The proliferation of wilderness bikes, dirt bikes, ATV's and UTV's tells me that a tricked out off road 4wd SUV or truck isn't a necessity.
Like you I have owned 4WD vehicles since I was 22 years old, and I am 68 now. I have had Toyota FJ40 LC, two CJ5, a CJ7, 4Runner, 1986 full size Bronco, a couple of Subaru's that the wife had and now has a Highlander, and my 2002 Super Duty. I also have been there and done as far as winching, digging, repairing, etc. and I try to avoid that at all cost today. My offroading is very mild compared to my younger years, but I do want to get home so I do require good off-road performance.
Now when I was a kid, back in the 60's, I tried my best to get my father to trade the old 1954, and later a 1957, 2WD truck for a 4WD since we liked to hunt. His response was always "A 4WD JUST ENABLES YOU TO GET STUCK IN MORE INACCESSIBLE PLACES", of course he had me and my brother to ride the rear bumper to get up muddy hills, to dig out of mud and snow, and to install chains so he could go to work. Looking back on it he may have had a point.
