I’d definitely recommend the Honda HR-V or CR-V. It’s a great brand that you can’t go wrong with, and as Wombat experienced, it’s a brand and make that you can trust for reliability.
I am looking at the HR-V for our next car. It’s a brand new model, and I really haven’t seen any out in the wild yet.
And I am back from shopping, I went with the Mazda CX-5. It was a lot of fun to drive and the dealer gave me a great deal on my trade and the fact that I was a repeat customer. He went into this long discussion with me on how repeat customers are not common anymore and he goes above and beyond to satisfy.
I’ll get a picture up tomorrow. I am exhausted, between looking most the day yesterday (test drove the CRV, Escape, CX-5, Tucson), and then deciding on the one I wanted was the Mazda. Lots of paperwork last night, insurance and what not this morning, I picked it up this afternoon.
It really was tough to choose between the CRV and CX-5, both are fantastic in different ways. :)
The Escape was a bit too small for me and not as refined as I wanted inside, the Tucson was really nice, but lacked cargo space and I disliked the low profile tires it came with at the trim I wanted.
Sorry Slainte Mhath, I never made it to a Kia dealer, only had so much time this weekend. :p
Grats on the new Mazda! Did you get awd or front? If I had decided on front, I would have gone with the cx-5 myself I think.
pics!?
The CX-5 is definitely a nice choice. It’ sat the top of my list for when we need to get a new car (well, tied for first with the unannounced Tesla!)
We bought a 2015 Forester 16 months ago, but the CX-5 was our other prime candidate. We have a 2005 Mazda 3, which while needing a few repairs, has been a great little car. Just crappy traction in the winter.
We have two growing kids 7 & 9, and the Forester was a slam dunk over the Mazda in terms of rear passenger leg room advantage. My wife and I both agreed that if it weren’t for needing a family car, we’d likely have gone for the Mazda, due to the extra pep in the engine. Still the Forester has been my favorite car ever. Tons of space even for adults in the back seat, great in poor Northeastern weather conditions, decent-ish gas mileage, and AWD, it’s just been a great, solid car. We do get our oil serviced every 5k, so perhaps mitigates the oil consumption problem.
Went with AWD because winters! Pics tomorrow, I fell asleep this afternoon around 3pm and now its dark out because of daylight savings!!!
No worries, congrats on the new ride!
The new issue of Consumer Reports arrived in my mailbox Saturday. They rated the Kia Sorento (mid-size SUV) and Kia Sportage (small SUV) #1 in their respective categories for overall reliability. Even I was shocked. I’ve had a great experience with my Sorento, but I would have fully expected Honda or Toyota to top any list of most reliable vehicles in any category. On the flip side, avoid Kia for the cheap compact car category, as their Rio actually rated among the worst in reliability. Weird how a company can have cars at both ends of the spectrum like that.
I think part of the dichotomy in results for a company like Kia, with one model at the top and another at the bottom, may stem from the different challenges inherent in different types of vehicle. I’m guessing there is more leeway to do stuff in a SUV than in a subcompact, both in terms of sheer physical space/resources and in terms of price point. It may well be that Kia is good enough to handle the one but not well set up to handle the other. It seems rather difficult, overall, to build really good small cars, from anyone.
Just bought a new CX-5 in August, love it! They are pretty slick looking, and were WAY more fun to drive than the other crossovers we tried out. The sport switch is fun!
Pics are coming, as soon as I find my data transfer cable for my camera. :p
Yeah I am at 150 miles now Avtar, it drives really well. :)
UPDATE:
Nice Mazda! We suddenly were in the market for a small SUV and the CX-5 was one of the three we ended up test driving. We looked at it, the CR-V, the Ford Escape, the Buick Encore, and the Chevy Trax. The last two we rejected out of hand because they felt tinny, and whoever did the design on the interior apparently slept through all the classes where they teach you how to actually do it right.
Of the final three, my wife (this would be her daily driver) found the CX-5 to have the best automotive performance, but the seats were a bit uncomfortable and we found the center roof console thing that hangs down over the front seats and down the windshield to be a bit looming. The tech package was awesome, though. The CR-V was comfy as hell, but the tech package was clunky and the automotive performance bland as dishwater; besides, she’s driven a CR-V for the last 13 years and 110,000 miles. We ended up with the Ford because it was the perfect combo–good driving characteristics, excellent interior, good tech package. A sort of Goldilocks sweet spot, though the CX-5 was a very close second.
Thanks! Yeah I like the new CR-V’s a lot, the LED refresh they did to the front looks great. Ford Escape is nice also, my Uncle has one, though its a bit small inside for me. (5’11, 290lbs). I am sure its a perfect fit for your wife. :)
Not sure if it counts more as a momvan or a crossover, but I’ll merrily report that the Dodge Journey is a perfect vessel for human misery! From nonexistent automotive performance to infamously bad brakes and tire wear to one of those stupid damned wheel well protrusions into the driver side foot area that makes doing anything of substance uncomfortable, it’s everything you hate about cars and SUVs alike!
On the flipside, it was stupendously cheap (2 years ago) and has slightly better gas mileage than the first-model-year Jeep Liberty it replaced.
Overall, I’d rate it a tragic replacement for the Dodge Magnum, the only car whose visual design I’ve ever liked.
I’ve owned one Dodge in my life, a 1976 Aspen. Worst. Car. Ever. I’ve never owned another Chrysler product. And as far as I can help it, I never will.
Yeah. When the Liberty was deemed unfit for North Carolina roadways, with required repairs exceeding its value, we decided it was time to replace it. My gf has a tiny Yaris for getting around (not so much these days w/ illness + unemployment), so we decided we needed one larger vehicle for moves and the like. Cost limits put us in the “used crossover” market, and I found a deal we couldn’t really pass up on the Journey. . . but now I really. . . really wish I had.
On a side note, regarding headlights. If anyone has the option to check out LED headlights, definitely do so. Having them in on the CX-5 they are much brighter and project further than the Xenon lights in my last car (maybe because the SUV rides higher?), and are probably 2x brighter than the Halogen lights, just by what I’ve seen driving on the road next to someone.
I’ve also experienced people flashing their lights at me, thinking I have my high beams on, when I don’t. :)
Keep an eye on the headlight alignment next time you’re on a flat surface facing a wall. From 50 feet away the beam shouldnt be more than three feet off the ground. Sample image:
I hadn’t seen the pics of your new CX-5… looks good!
So after trying lots of vehicles I ended up getting a Nissan Murano this week. I’m really impressed with the vehicle. Smooth ride and very quiet and lots of awesome tech. I was considering the Honda Pilot for awhile but dealers are charging over MSRP by adding thousands of accessories you can’t turn down. Also I decided I wanted something not quite so big.
My favorite feature is the Birdseye view of the car when parking by compositing 4 camera views.
Other cars I looked at: Rogue (similar to Murano but not as plush/quiet), Subaru Forester, Toyota Highlander