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recommendations for small or midsize SUV?

SAC69

SAC69

Active Member
Donator
My daughter is starting to look for a vehicle and is interested in the small or mid-size SUV's:

Toyota Rav4 & 4Runner
Nissan Xterra & Pathfinder
Ford Escape & Edge
Honda CRV
Kia Sorento & Sportage.

We will buy one used. She will use the car in Maryland for a coupe of years until she graduates then afterwards we're not sure where she'll be located. Anyone have one they like, completely despise or have any suggestions? As a family we've owned 3 Toyota's and they've always been reliable.

Thanks for any info.
 
My wife has a 2006 Honda CR-V SE. We bought it for the safety ratings and quality. No problems in 4 years and 50K miles.
 
I've had my Ford Escape since late 2000 with no major problems. (V6 - auto 4wd - about 95k miles now) The only oddity I had was the trans cooler broke and needed replacement.

The only complaint is the sunroof mechanism. It broke after 5 years, so I shelled out $2000 to get it fixed (the WHOLE mechanism needs to be replaced), and THAT one broke after 2 years. :rp I think it's safe to say the sunroof mechanism is lacking.... :cry

Suggestion: Check out ALL these cars at Carmax. She can sit in them and give them test drives, all in one place and without a lot of hassles.

Don't forget to post pics when she makes the purchase. Will it be Navy Blue? :craz
 
My sister has a 2000 Xterra with about 220,000 miles and I don't recall any major issues. Still going strong and headed quickly toward 300,000.

Frank
 
I just traded in my 1999 CRV (boy, will I miss it) for 2010 RAV4. I would have kept the CRV but I needed the 3rd row seating (grandkids) the RAV4 has. Also, the newer CRVs don't have a full size spare tire. If you're buying used, the CRV would be my choice.
 
We bought an '05 Escape V6 new, the computer went out in the first 6mos. leaving us stranded on vac. for 2wks. (comp. had to come from Canada as it was new to this model and a midyear). Other than that issue and dealing with the out of town dealership that could give a crap how long it took or that I had to pay half the rental car fee (no loaner from FORD) it's been pretty reliable. Not the quietest on the interior at hwy speeds or the most comfortable seats but pretty utiitarian for what I've used it for - hauling family/dog, picking up parts, towing small traler, etc. I wish it got closer to the 25mpg the sticker claimed, more like a steady 20-22hwy.
When I start looking again I'm going to start with the Mazda CX-7 and similar. I like the look, seats are way comfortable and I bet the noise, ride and mpg are all better than my Escape, however it's a 4T, hopefully they'll come out with a hybrid or something. Guess I won't be towing anymore.
Jon
 
I like several and have driven them all, some are not on your list though.

1- Ford Escape. Good MPG decent performance and decent in the snow and mud with the AWD. Price is good too.
2- BMW - I can't remember the model # but they look good, perform good and are good in poor traction areas.
3- Mercedes GL and GLK are a bit spendy, but used you can get a deal and they perform above average in all areas.
4- Porsche Ceyanne - I like the Turbo, but very spendy and bad MPG, the S is nice and decent MPG and great performance.
5- Ford Edge AWD. Good performance, looks good, easy to get repaired and looks good.

Just my picks
 
Some of our company's fleet vehicles were the basic-model 2wd Ford Edge. The only comments I ever heard were it has a truck-like ride and hard front seats. I have never been impressed with Nissans. They seem to be over-engineered and a pia to work on (= higher labor costs).

Are you SURE she needs a car in the first place? As an option, could she just rent a car when she needs one? She'd save on a car payment, parking hassles, theft, insurance, and maintenance. My friend lived in San Francisco for 7 years and she just rented a car every now and then for road trips and moving.
 
Out of all the ones you listed, the 4-Runner and PathFinder, I believe are the only ones built on a truck frame, so they really belong in a different class than the rest.

We have absolutely loved our '02 4-Runner, and I've never talked to anyone with a 4-Runner of any year that's had anything bad to say about it.

We currently have 130k miles on ours. It had to have the water pump replaced once, and that's it so far, other than normal maintenance (oil, timing belt around 90k miles, tune up at 120k miles, etc.)

The v-6 of the 4-Runner is plenty strong enough to pull our 18' Searay boat through the mountains. It is very comfortable, and the feature that I like that I have not seen in any other SUV is the roll down rear window in the tail gate. All the others either don't open at all, or they flip up. Rolling it down is EXTREMELY convenient!

Mileage is not that great on it. That's my only knock on the vehicle at all. I don't expect a v-6 truck to get fantastic mileage, though ... that's not why we bought it.
 
John, I thought the 4-runner and Pathfinder were unibodies. Thus no frame. Maybe the older ones were truck frames, but are the newer ones on frames?

Mel
 
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Not on your list but we love our Dodge. This is good looking, nice driving car. My first job was working for Hertz and I hate new cars. This is the only new car I have even kinda liked in the past 20 years. I would plan on buying another but they stopped making 'em.
 
Today we test drove 2 smaller SUV's at a local Carmax:

'08(?) Mazda C-7 turbo 4 cyl we did not like the road noise or "feel"

'09 Nissan Rogue, very, very nice all around.

From an Enterprise car lot:

'09 Kia Sporatge, we did not like the road noise or "feel"

I appreciate the responses so far, next up are the Toyota Rav4 and Honda CRV, we'll check out your responses/suggestions too.
 
I would check out the Kia Sorento if I were you. As a used vehicle you can have a warranty on the power train for 10 years or 100,000 miles. I have owned two Kias a Sedona van and a Sorento. The warranties are great. I've never had a claim that the dealer didn't gladly take care of! Both of my sister in laws have Kias, my mother in law has one, my sister in laws mother has one. All in all, our family has owned seven! When purchasing our Sorento we compared them to the Rav4, and the CRV and the Suzuki Grand Vitara. Neither the Toyota or the Honda offered a 6 cylinder at the time and it was standard on the KIA. No comparison as far as size. The KIA came standard with just about everything. It even came standard with Michellin tires in 16 inch aluminum rims. The Toyota and Honda came with tiny steel rims. I couldn't stand the CRVs offset steering wheel. When I mentioned it to the salesman, he said he had never noticed it.

I think all cars are built pretty well these days so it comes down to value=price, service and quality. For me KIA was the best value.
 
"guruatbol" said:
John, I thought the 4-runner and Pathfinder were unibodies. Thus no frame. Maybe the older ones were truck frames, but are the newer ones on frames?

Mel
Click to expand...

I can't say for sure on the Pathfinder, but I know that until the newest model release (I think happened in '06 or '08, the 4-Runner and the Tundra used the same frame. The entire front clip on both was the same. This is why all the 4-wheel drive 4-Runners already come with the tow package.

I'm not sure on the new 4-Runners, but a) they're no longer small ... they're HUGE, and b) they now look ugly as sin! I was thinking that Tom was probably looking at one a couple years old to minimize costs. The 4-Runners hold their value EXTREMELY well. We were going to buy used in '02, when we bought ours, but there just wasn't enough difference in price in 2 years old vs. new ... so we went new.
 
we were just in your same situation and bought our daughter an 08 Chevy Equinox.
we set as a requirement the need to have an Onstar-type service, for safety concerns.
All we subscribe too is the emergency service so it's pretty reasonable.
People asked me why we insisted on this when she has a cellphone, but what if she's in an accident and unconcious? Could mean the difference between life and death.
Ford wasn't producing the Sync system till recently and those vehicles are too new and pricey for us.
In 07 or 08 Consumer Reports reported that the Equinox took a big jump in reliability and safety, so that's why we spent a little more to get one that new.
 
Safety? I forgot to mention that the Sorento has a 5 star safety rating from NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and no, I have no investment in KIA.
 
I'm in the other camp. I HATE Kia & Hi'n'dry products. Did quite a bit of work on an '05 Sorrento and it is/was a piece of shiat.

They drive pretty well, and appear to be nice, but they are cheapo central. Radiator hoses and timing belt are made out of Ziploc bags, interior plastic trim is thin and prone to cracking, totally piss-poor gas mileage, and the timing belt is on a 45k mile $750 service interval not covered by their warranty.

Friend of mine worked on his ex-GF's 01 Sportage, and it was a big POS as well. Had to replace all brake lines, front to back. In contrast, my '99 Nissan still has its' original lines.

I'm a Nissan fan, if you want something tough without the Honda'$ price tag...they are a little over-engineered, but we have one with 260k miles that has most of its' original parts, except for a timing belt. The newer Chevy products are excellent as well; I've been searching for an Ecotec 4cyl powered Pontiac for myself, but they are sorta hard to come by, which is too bad, as I've seen good running Ecotecs with 300k+ miles on them.
 
OK, Korean = JUNK!

Jap trash will never grace my driveway!

My 65 Mustang has all it's factory brake lines and they are still good.

I don't like the Nissan since they way over do the engineering. I like the Jap cars, but still will not buy one.

I really like the Fords and the German cars.

Mel
 
A golfing buddy has a Hyundai Sante Fe and loves it, its his second one. If they still do the 10 year 100K mile warranty a decent used one may still have a warranty. The Nissans are nice, but the gas mileage sucks. Drove an exterra for a while, even my M35 gets crappy mileage.
 
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