AUTO BUYING ADVICE REQUEST

[Pat]

The time has come to buy my wife a new vehicle. We are considering mid sized crew cab pickups with small beds, 1/2 ton crewcabs with small beds, Subaru Forester, and KIA Sorento. Started out leaning toward PU but evolved toward SUVs Forrester and Sorento. Looked at Dodge Pacifica and other cross over SUV thingies but a bit pricy and maybe a bit big. Laughed at Avalanche transformer toy. Looked at various brands but lean toward the Forester and Sorento.

Anyone with experience with a Sorento? I drove one and was favorably impressed. Good power, comfortable, fairly quiet, and fantastic waranty periods. Extending the full coverage bumper to bumper waranty to 100,000 miles is not very expensive. Looks fine, and seems to be a lot of vehicle for the $. The downside is I have no experience, first hand or otherwise with any of their vehicles except seing them go down the road. I can get over the idea of driving a car whose spelling invites the interpretation of Killed In Action.

I also drove the Subaru Forester and Baja. Forester is roomier, has better ground clearance, handles better, costs less than Baja.

Subaru does well for the size of its 4 cyl opposed engine. Good power with little vibration and strain. The Sorento has larger V-6 and is clearly more powerful but gets less fuel economy which is a consideration due to our remote location and need for considerable drive for shopping etc. Still, either is possible.

AND I'm open for sugestions re other choices. Our requirements include 4 doors, seating for 4 or more adults (with legs attached) cargo area like a SUV or station wagon or a small pickup bed. Must be smaller than Suburban and that genre so as to be easy to manuver and park.

What say?

Pat

[egon]

AWD mini van.

Egon

[Bird]

Pat, I can't help but still be a little leery of the KIAs, purely a personal feeling with no objective evidence at all, but I sure am seeing a lot of them on the roads around here, so it may be a good deal. I've never owned a Subaru, but have been impressed by what several owners, including one family member, have had to say about them.

Personally, my brother and I had good luck with Suzuki products. We had a Samurai and my brother had a Sidekick. Both gave good economical service.

But I'm not recommending anything except to get the one your wife likes best. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Gatorboy]

Deciding on a vehicle is really not a pleasant experience. There is alot of money at stake, and you do not want to make the wrong decision.

I am in the mid to later stages of trying to decide on our next vehicle. I have gone through a whole spectrum of models. I have spent hours on Edmunds.com and all of the manufacturers websites. The ones we are considering -- some may or may not be something you would consider -- are:

Sedans:
Hyundai XG350L -- Our leading contender. Oodles of features with an appealing price tag and warranty
Honda Accord
Ford Crown Victoria

SUVs:
Ford Escape
Honda CRV,
Saturn VUE
Hyundai Santa Fe

Station Wagons:
Volkswagen Passat
Subaru Outback

Good luck in your research.

[jeffghs]

Pat,
I have a 2001 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab and absolutely love it. I am also shopping for a new vehicle, but will keep the Dodge. I am looking bigger for 3/4 ton with a diesel. I can say the Dodge has been reliable (only one visit to the dealer for repair - loose ground) I have the 4.7 v-8 which has all the power you likely would ever need. The downfall is the gas mileage which averages 15 mpg (I have gotten 22 mpg on a highway trip). There is plenty of room for 4 adults. If you are not looking for a V-8 the 2004's are being built with the 3.7 v-6 which is also a good engine. I would recommend staying away from the 3.9 v-6 as the power is not that great, and fuel economy is really no better than the v-8.

If you are looking for fuel economy, the Subaru is not a bad choice, and a turbo option comes this year. I have a membership to IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association) who Subaru strongly supports, and they offer any Subaru at Dealer cost, but you have to be a member for 6 months to take advantage.

If you are looking for small SUV's the Ford Escape Hybrid will be out this fall. It's rated at 40mpg city and 29 highway with the same power claimed as the v-6.

Yet another is the Jeep Liberty, which will be offered this year with a 2.7 Mercedes diesel engine which has been used in the Grand Cherokee in Europe for the last few years with great success. It is supposed to be rated at 29 mpg.

My brother and sister-in-law have a Nissan Frontier Crew cab, which has run great, but has very little back seat room.

As for the Kia, it is a great looking vehicle, but I would be very suspect of build quality. I have never owned any myself, but we use some small vehicles built by Kia on our base, and we have had problems with interior parts literally falling off since the 1st month we got it. Many of the door latches have broken, which is what I have seen with many Kia's and Hyundais as well (Kia and Hyundai are sister companies). A co-worker has a Kia Optima and has had similar problems, but they have been resolved by the dealer, and he is quite happy with it. Sorry to any Kia and Hyundai owners out there, I don't mean to blast these products, but it is the impression I have gotten from them.

[jeffghs]

Pat,
another I forgot to mention of upcoming vehicle that you may want to consider are the Chevrolet Colorado, and GMC Canyon. It looks like GM has put a lot of effort into these and could possibly be very promising.

[GaryM]

Pat,

My wife and I are on Subaru number four. We've owned;
1981 Loyale Wagon
1986 Loyale Sedan Turbo
1990 Legacy Wagon
1994 Legacy Wagon Turbo

All have been good performers with only minor repairs required. The 94 has only 48K on it as it's not been driven a lot since the wife retired. She called it her "Pocket Rocket". Usually first away from the lights, particularly on wet pavement.

If I don't buy a Toyota Prius this fall I'll be looking at another Subaru. Probably the Forestor. It's almost the same size as the Legacy. Although I do like the thought of the six banger in the Bean edition.

[JohnMiller3]

Every auction, I’ve ever attended has Kia at the bottom of the pile… Their resale is very very poor… perhaps almost approaching the “Yugo” resale value… Here are some sample upset wholesale auction prices the past week on Kia’s in my area:

<pre><font class="small">code:</font><hr>

YR MODEL ENG BODY TRN PS PB AC TOP 4X4 MILEAGE L COLOR PRICE

2002 Optima LX 6G 4DSN A PS PB AC HT 26,998 GREEN 7,000
2001 Rio 4G 4DSN A PS PB AC 35,299 WHITE 3,500
2001 Rio 4G 4DSN A PS PB AC 15,451 BLUE 3,200
2000 Sephia 4G 4DSN A PS PB AC 22,450 BEIGE 2,400
2000 Sephia LS 4G 4DSN A PS PB AC 32,498 GREY 1,400
2000 Spectra GS 4G A PS PB AC 25,371 RED 3,100
1999 Sephia 4G 4DSN 5 PS PB AC HT 44,338 BLACK 750
2002 SPECTRA GSX 4G 4DSN 5 PS PB AC 15,973 BLUE 1,600
2000 SEPHIA 4G 4DSN 53,661 GRAY 1,350
1999 SPORTAGE 4G SUV 4X4 70,124 BLACK 4,000
1999 SPORTAGE 4G SUV 4X4 55,146 BLACK 3,500
1999 SPORTAGE 4G MPV 25,234 RED 3,300
1998 SEPHIA 4G 4DSN A PS PB AC 40,068 GREEN 1,050
1998 SPORTAGE 4G 4MPV 4X4 78,658 RED 3,250
</pre><hr>

(What major area are you located next to? Also give some neighboring states, I will look up some local auction prices for your area... (I didn't see any for the state of OK))

[jeffghs]

Hi John,
How are you looking up those auction prices? If you are using the Manheim report, I would be interested in finding out about a 1998 Toyota Sienna in the Mobile, AL area. Closest auction site may be Atlanta area. This is a big area of contention I had with a dealer here the other day.

I went in with the Kelley Blue Book Trade-in value I got from the dealer's web site, and it was $7720, but the highest the dealer would offer was $4500. They said the Manheim report did not hold this vehicle very high.

I filled their corporate offices mailboxes with some choice words as I felt this was a very deceptive practice since I did go in there with what they gave me from their web site.

Thanks,
Jeff

[JohnMiller3]

Results for past two weeks in Red Oak, GA (Atlanta Auction)
<pre><font class="small">code:</font><hr>
2002 SIENNA LE 6G 4VAN A PS PB AC 35,162 BLUE 16,200
2002 SIENNA LE 6G 4VAN A PS PB AC 35,720 GREEN 16,200
2002 SIENNA LE 6G 4VAN A PS PB AC 34,993 BEIGE 16,000
2000 SIENNA XLE 6G 4VAN A PS PB AC MR 55,602 BLACK 16,300
1999 SIENNA CE 6G 4VAN A PS PB AC HT 4X2 50,621 MAROON 9,700
1999 SIENNA LE 6G 4VAN A 83,604 GOLD 8,700

1999 SIENNA CE CE 6G 4VAN 50,706 10,500
1999 SIENNA LE 6G 4VAN A 91,786 BLUE 9,200
1998 SIENNA LE 6G 4VAN A 94,062 GREEN 8,100
</pre><hr>