Help with a vehicle choice, please?

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FullerH

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Nov 25, 1998
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My wife and I are looking to replace our 1998 Dodge Caravan with simething smaller now that the last kid is out of the house. I LOVE my Focus ZTS, but she finds it too small. We have looked at the Subaru Forester and at the new Mazda5. I am also considering the Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix twins and, possibly, the Honda CR4. Since I live in an urban area and we don't get all that much snow in Northern Virginia and neither of us is planning any serious off-roading in the car, 4 wheel drive is not a requirement. But it may be a nice addition. My question is this: Have any of you all had any experience with any of these vehicles and, if so, what was that experience? If you have any other suggestions in that general size class, I would be interested in hearing them.
 
3 friends of mine have the Pontiac Vibe. I test drove one and I like it. Alot. This is going to be my wife's next car when the Chevy dies or mysteriously goes missing.
 
I am not all that impressed with Hybrids. The incresed cost has to be amortized over many, many thousands of miles in order to justify it and there are indications of problems if and when there are accidents I have read in various car magazines that the rescue personnel are not that happy over having to deal with them since they have a higher probability of acid spills and such from the batteries as well as more complex electronics to create sparks to ignite any gasoline spilled. I also understand that you have to replace the battery packs at about 100,000 miles and that they are very expensive. Finally, while the Honda Hybrids may actually handle and brake as well as the regular Hondas, the Prius is an absolute pain to drive since Toyota uses tires designed for maximum gas mileage rather than traction and I suspect that this is what Ford is doing as well.
 
I am just under 6", long in the body and short inthe legs, proportionately, and my wife is 5'3". The Forester is a taller model than the other Subs, which is why I am considering it, as I do sit tall in the seat.
 
If you're considering the Forrester, you should also look at the Outback, which is a great car.
 
The Outback is a great car but it is also rather more expensive as well as sitting rather lower.
 
I am planning on getting a matrix around may or june next year...great car, quick and handles good, good gas milage, and plenty of room to haul junk around in...I will just miss the gas milage I am getting in my civic hatchback right now :)
 
If AWD isn't a requirement I'd go with the Toyota. (Subies are great but they don't get really good gas mileage for their size\power).
 
What about a Nissan X-trail. Good mileage and quite versatile. Don't know if they have it in the US or not.

I've been a fan of Nissan since i got my Almera here in the UK. It's ultra-reliable.
 
Point44, I think that what you are talking about sells here as the Xterra. It is a traditional SUV built upon the Nissan Frontier pickup truck. I seriously doubt that I'd be able to sell that to my wife and it will be her car. As I said, we don't need the off-road capacity and we certainly don't need the full frame truck chassis type SUV with all of the weight, handling, and ride problems that this design brings with it. And I know that she wants something more comfortable than what is a truck at heart.
 
Shann said:
If AWD isn't a requirement I'd go with the Toyota. (Subies are great but they don't get really good gas mileage for their size\power).
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I think the AWD has a lot to do with this. You can (theoretically) get AWD on the Matrix, but I have yet to see any real mileage numbers for the AWD version. Would be interesting to know the difference.

So if you don't need AWD, you can save quite a bit on purchase price too, just be sure and get ABS brakes (probably the best safety feature ever). I was interested/curious about the Suzuki Aerio (wagon) until I couldn't find any with ABS.
 
A friend of mine has had a Vibe for a couple of years now and its a great car. With the back seats folded down it carries all our fishing gear and then some. Phil is 6' 2" and is comfortable. The vibe seems to get in the low 30's for gas milage on the road.

My next door nieghbor has the forester and she loves it. They all seem to be good cars, its just a matter of taste to what you like.
 
FullerH said:
Point44, I think that what you are talking about sells here as the Xterra. It is a traditional SUV built upon the Nissan Frontier pickup truck. I seriously doubt that I'd be able to sell that to my wife and it will be her car. As I said, we don't need the off-road capacity and we certainly don't need the full frame truck chassis type SUV with all of the weight, handling, and ride problems that this design brings with it. And I know that she wants something more comfortable than what is a truck at heart.
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Nope. The Xterra and the X-trail are different cars. The X-trail is more like a honda CR-V, Land Rover Freelander or RAV4 sort of vehicle. It's not an all out 4x4. Not really for off-road.The Xterra is like what you mentioned. HOWEVER, i'm sorry to give you bad advice 'cos i don't think they sell the x-trail in the usa anyway. I checked the Nissan Canada website and assumed they have the same cars as the US. But they don't.
 
I bought an '05 Subaru Forester XT in March and love it. Just hit 10,000 miles with it and haven't had one problem. Not much of a test really but it's a great ride. The 2.5l intercooled, turbocharged flat-4 sure isn't gas mileage friendly though. :D But, Man is it fun! The '06 X model is the naturally aspirated version and has 173 hp now. They also do very well in all of the crash tests performed.

If your interested in learning more about them you can find some good info here: www.subaruforester.com
 
Fuller , they are now giving instruction to firefighters on how to deal with hybrids - take the key OUT, and disconnect the battery. These things operate at very high voltage !!...My brother has a lexus SUV .They now have a hybrid version but the hybrid is designed for performance not fuel economy. It gets LESS fuel mileage than the standard version !!!
 
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