She has a 2010 Camry that looks and runs like new but she wants the new safety bells and whistles.
I am trying to stear her towards a Rav 4, or a Ford or Subaru of similar size because my 6’5" body prefers truck like seats.
Any suggestions on those choices?
Our former neighbors bought a Forester because the husband, also 6’5", found it the most comfortable of the vehicles tried.
The Subaru Outback is shorter and easier to load kayaks on. ( Shorter height)
There will most likely be no boats on that car. Unless my truck croaks.
We have a 2014 Forester, which was the year the Forester evolved into a more user friendly, less noisy, and roomier-in-the-rear-seat vehicle. But it was a tossup between this and the Outback. At 45000 miles, we’ve only experienced scheduled maintenance and are quite happy with this choice. We’re in a snow zone and appreciate the AWD.
One of our vehicles is a 2014 Forester and in my 81 years on this planet, it has the best all around vision of any vehicle I have ever owned.
Also ours has a variable speed drive transmission and it is amazing to put the car in speed control and never feel any shifting.
I am not sure with your height if you will like it, but the two of us light weights love it.
Jack L
I have a 2015 Forester with the ‘Eyesight’ package. It’s mostly good & I do like the adaptive cruise. It’s biggest issue is that it doesn’t really understand vehicles turning/ exiting as well as it could & has sarted to brake when it should not have. It does also get confused by tar strips in our lovely Michigan roads and will complain that you are wandering.
I traded the 2005 Forrester with 150k miles in on the new 2017 Outback. Tires and batteries until the week before the trade in where the ac shut off unexpectedly.
@string said:
There will most likely be no boats on that car. Unless my truck croaks.
Blasphemy string! Best of luck…
Of the choices you gave, I would choose the RAV4, but better yet, try a Toyota Tacoma. If a pickup is out of the question, take a look at the Hyundai Tucson, Elantra, or Sonata. The 10 year, 100,000 mile guarantee alone makes these vehicles worth it.
I’ve had my Tacoma for going on 12 years and haven’t even had to replace the battery, or the brakes yet and it’s pushing 100,000 miles.
The Mazdas with the SkyActiv engine are nice – also very solid feeling, comfortable even for tall people and fun to drive. Not to mention great gas mileage (I get 36 mpg on the highway with the manual CX-5.)
I do admit that I liked my Hyundai Santa Fe, too, much more so than either my last Outback or my good friend’s Rav4, which feels tinny to me compared to the Mazdas and Hyundais.
After the horror show of my last Subaru I will never buy that overpriced and inconsistently reliable brand again. Yes, I had a Subaru DL that I loved, but that Outback was a horrid piece of crap that cost me more in repairs in 2 years than I paid for it, even though I bought it with only 60K on it.
Thanks everyone. I appreciate the comments. It will come down to 2 things.
- Does she like it.
- Can I comfortably drive it?
Price being more or less equal.
@magooch said:
Of the choices you gave, I would choose the RAV4, but better yet, try a Toyota Tacoma. If a pickup is out of the question, take a look at the Hyundai Tucson, Elantra, or Sonata. The 10 year, 100,000 mile guarantee alone makes these vehicles worth it.I’ve had my Tacoma for going on 12 years and haven’t even had to replace the battery, or the brakes yet and it’s pushing 100,000 miles.
I like the Tacoma but the applicable quote is “I’m not a pickup kind of woman”.
@JackL said:
One of our vehicles is a 2014 Forester and in my 81 years on this planet, it has the best all around vision of any vehicle I have ever owned.
Also ours has a variable speed drive transmission and it is amazing to put the car in speed control and never feel any shifting.
I am not sure with your height if you will like it, but the two of us light weights love it.Jack L
Jack, that’s a good observation on your part. I tend to avoid using cruise control in hilly terrain for a reason that is illustrated by a habit of mine, which is that during normal driving I tend to control the engine power in a way that keeps the torque-converter lock from unlocking, and/or lets the torque-converter lock engage quickly and with minimal wear (I’ve driven other cars for which no amount of gas-pedal control will “prompt” this lockup to happen in a more sensible way, so I’m just lucky that my car’s computer is smart enough to take advantage of the driver’s input to the gas pedal). In hilly terrain, especially with boats on the roof, the torque converter unlocks more readily when going uphill than at other times, and by driving manually I can normally prevent this while only losing about 1 mph in speed. If it does unlock, I can get it to re-lock very gently as soon as the opportunity is there under manual control, but on cruise control, it takes f o r e v e r for the control system to reach the conclusion that it’s okay to lockup again, and when the lockup occurs under power, there’s a prolonged period of slipping to avoid that “jerk” you’d feel otherwise, and that’s extra wear and tear that’s just not necessary.
All that stuff could be avoided with a well-functioning constant-speed transmission!!
ZOOM ! Right over my head.
B)
Lots of good choices in the super competitive small SUV segment. Both Forester and RAV4 have top crash ratings and top resale value. We just drove all of them and ended up buying a Honda CRV. The CRV is the biggest one in the segment plus I loved the engine and transmission and the steering and handling. My wife liked the RAV4 best but I had some influence since I gave her my 4Runner. The Mazda CX-5 is super quiet and well made. The new Subaru Crosstrek is a very nice vehicle. The RAV4 would be most like your wife’s Camry. You may want to drive a 2018 Camry too since it is all new for 2018 and it is quite a fine vehicle for the money.
Thanks Tom. That gives us a starting point. All the dealers in our area are within a mile of each other, so we can wear ourselves out looking with no travel.
I find this all “academic” rhetoric without the wife’s input/desires.