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

[Pat]

Egon, For some unexplained reason my wife is ANTI-minivan.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[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]

[Pat]

Bird, you said: 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...

Again the uncanny parallelism.. That expresses my feelings exactly. Looks like a good deal but...

I haven't quite caught up with you yet in marital politics but I'm coming around.

Pat

[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.

[Pat]

Gatorboy, We have a couple Subarus in our extended family, a sedan and a Forester. Both are 3-4 yrs old now and perform flawlessly. A good friend had a CRV and it was a real good machine. They towed it behind motor home but gave it to grandson and went to Jeep Cherokee to get 4wd low range.

For what it may be worth to you, most Japanese cars are built in America. Subaru is still 100% Japanese. Hopefully parts availability will continue to remain good in the out years.

Best of luck to you in your search,

Pat

[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.

[Pat]

jeffghs, Funny you should mention turbo and economy in the same breath. I got an estimate on the upcharge for the turbo. No thanks. If we were in the mountains a lot or especialy in mountains with heavy load or tow then a turbo would be a very good thing indeed. We have a '89 Dakota with your UNRECOMMENDED V-6. At best mileage is abot 16. Lately 10-11 and I don't know why.

A few years ago while we were on vacation a guy with two KNOCKOUT FEMALE COMPANIONS pulled into a station to fill up a Jeep Cherokee. We were fueling a Dodge/Cummins and I was some surprised when he grabbed the other hose on the pump and stuck it in the Jeep. I said, scuse me, thats diesel. He says, thanks for the warning... this is a diesel Jeep. Seems he was a a test driver for the company and was allowed to "check out" vehicles on weekends and such. This was a vehicle being tested.

I had heard the RUMOR and read comments in magazines about the diesel Liberty but it is a well kept secret as my local Dodge dealer (co-owner) has no info on it. It might be worth waiting for if it happens on schedule and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

In general, if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. So much for so litle... I have a fair size psychological barrier to hurdle to go with a KIA and I don't mean the unfortunate coincidence of Killed In Action.

Pat