Wow! Back from the dead!
My mom is looking to buy a new car - changing things up from her 2005 Honda Accord EX... LX (I don't remember, this always kills me). It was purchased brand new with leather and has roughly 50,000 miles on it (wow, right?) She wants something newer (easy) and larger (easier). All cars are a bit bigger these days, even the Accord, which is hilariously massive. The key here is the get something taller. She wants an SUV but I'm learning her towards a crossover.
Some chats with Rory at Motor Trend led me to the new for 2014 Subaru Forester. We talked about it at length and I drove the 6-speed manual around the El Segundo office. It's light, at 3200 lbs and surprisingly cheap - like $25k? I forget how affordable non-luxury cars are. Unfortunately, it's far from a looker.
Today, we stopped my Honda, Subaru, and Acura in Costa Mesa. The Honda CR-V was the first stop and I think automatically has become first choice. Everything just makes sense in the super practical Honda sense. Simple but functional, usable, affordable. I'm thinking we'll go FWD with cloth... maybe leather? It's great that it has only one engine option, which seems to be just just right 2.4l i4. I always dislike when there's two engine models, underpowered and overpowered.
My mom suddenly became keen to saving money after realizing how inexpensive this car was (especially compared to our 2004 BMW X5). New models might be in in November, but we're not sure if we want to wait that long. Perhaps some tools like TrueCar or something from KBB might help us figure out invoice price and help us haggle?
We also stopped by Subaru to see if my mom might like the Forester. I don't think she had the heart to tell me it looked awful. We didn't drive it (although I seriously thought the Forester was the better driver, at least with a 6-speed). The 2014 autos are all CVT now, which weirds. me. out. One interest tidbit: the salesman shared the website www.cars101.com. I thought, must be another silly aggregate data site, but no! Seems to be a community-driven (or sole nutjob?) function over form Subaru information site. Pretty impressive stuff.
Lastly, we stopped by Acura, which I'm, to be honest, a bit soft on. Acura makes some handsome cars, but for some reason, despite being last place in the luxury segment in my eyes (America doesn't even count), I still feel they're expensive. Go figure. We have a 2005 RL at home and it's nice, but for some reason Acura isn't standing out. We scoped out a 2013 Acura RDX, which was nice, but after seeing a CR-V, was it really worth it for some luxury features and a preppy badge? The Tech Package which included what... a nav, fogs, and? was almost $3500 extra. We didn't drive that either, but my mom did go "wow! this is super!" when we sat inside. To be honest, the overzealous salesman kind of annoyed me, so I really didn't feel like humoring him.
I think we'll stop by Toyota some time in the next few weeks to check out the Toyota Rav-4. I expect it to be decent, but I kind of find the Rav-4 to always feel like the girlier of the two (CR-V vs Rav 4). I'd like to also take a look at the Audi Q5 and allroad, the BMW X1 and X3, Mazda CX-5, and maybe the Mini Countryman? Although, I think it already looks like it will be the CR-V. Who knows?
Final note: Random copy of Fourwheeler on the table at Acura? What?