Hey, it really has been a year since we returned to punching time cards and reading copy for a living. The days do seem to go by quickly when you are a daily wage earner.

We thought two weeks of doing nothing except driving around on a whim would rejuvenate our eyes tired from a year of reading excellent copy on a flat screen computer monitor.

Friends in the industry helped us line up two sport utility vehicles, Isuzu’s Alterra and Ford’s Escape, and a pickup, Toyota’s Hilux. One after the other, of course.

It’s the perfect set-up to compare the benefits of driving different kinds of utility vehicles.

The Alterra was the first to be delivered. Has a year of commuting to work in cramped shuttles and dingy buses changed our perspective of things? When we first saw the Alterra, we thought it was positively dowdy compared to Toyota’s Mr. Pogi, the Fortuner. Now the Alterra seems pogier. Or are we just tired of seeing the Fortuner all around us every day. It seems every other SUV on the road is a Fortuner.

But we must say the Alterra has a lot going for it aside from the obvious pa-pogi chrome effects. While it is rather longish and feels heavy to drive in traffic even with the all the power features, the ride isn’t as harsh or pickupy.

It takes a little getting used in cramped mall parking spaces but rear parking sensor helped. The 3-liter CRDi diesel engine pulled and pulled even with the automatic transmission and 4WD power train. Although we really didn’t go much past city limits to test off-road capabilities, still its on the highway where the Alterra is most comfortable.

While the driver’s seat felt just right for our wide but flat butt, the same didn’t seem true for the second row seats. The middle passenger should feel uncomfortable with his butt raised an inch or two from the other passengers beside him.

The Alterra entertainment system allows the driver the opportunity to listen if not watch pirated Lynyrd Skynyrd DVD concerts or to plug in your iPod. But the iPod connection looks like it was added as an afterthought through a cut-up glove compartment.

If your family is into 5.1 surround sound entertainment, the Alterra should be the family ride if you have a driver who has the patience to read through the manual. The entertainment system is not that intuitive even though it does have a remote.

Moving over from the Alterra to the Escape emphasized the refinement in interior trim, ride and nimbleness of Ford’s compact SUV.

It’s a totally different experience driving the Escape on a daily basis, even if just taking the kids to school early mornings or our favorite roommate to work and back late at night.

The test unit was the Escape NBX with the smooth 2.3 DOHC gasoline engine that is mated to 4WD. With the difference in gasoline and diesel prices getting smaller, we can now understand why there are still many driving gasoline powered compact SUVs.

The Escape interior is as spacious as the Alterra if you don’t consider the third row seat, and it’s a lot more comfortable ride.

The Hilux 4x4 G arrived while the Ford Escape was still with us. With still half a tank-ful of gasoline in the Escape, we left the Hilux alone for the two more days we had the Ford.

No sense wasting diesel, even as we later realized that 3-liter Toyota engine in the Hilux was a fuel miser. We drove over 530 kilometers to Pangasinan and back over the weekend and still had a fourth of diesel tank to spare.

We knew from an earlier test drive that the Hilux, while certainly a big improvement over the model it replaced, still had a rather trucky ride. But we didn’t request the Toyota pickup for its comfort, although it must be said the Hilux’s double cab was spacious with a lot of interior amenities usually found in sedans.

We were planning to haul cargo back from the province, and the powerful Hilux and its pickup bed was going to be maxed out. We loaded the Hilux with firewood, sacks of freshly milled rice and garden soil, and still had room for a welding machine, cartons of flowers, and a duck caged in a dog carrier.

That should be the main benefit of acquiring a pickup.