A lot of basis for the decision depends on what area you live in. In a large city, if a route is drivable, then 99% of the times its drivable for car or SUV. Conversely, if a car can't make it, most likely a stock or even modified SUV probably won't be making it either. There are only a very few places around my area where I think having an 4x4 SUV will get you to places where a sedan won't. I think having a 4wd gives you more of an advantage mainly in the rural areas.

In either case, unless i had a definite destination that was reachable on foot, or I was in immediate danger, or the car was unmovable, then I probably couldn't see myself abandoning the car. You're probably better of staying with it. Of course, I probably wouldn't go far enough to get my sedan stuck in the first place, I'd probably turn around and try a different route before that happened.



You might want to look at Google Maps (satellite view) or check out google earth. It's not the best way of scouting a road or route, but you can get some idea of where it leads and whether there are major obstacles along the way. I use it to check out a lot of the fire roads in my area.