My wife is ready to trade up her 2006 Subaru Forester for something newer. We are thinking of a 2016 or 2017 compact SUV. There seem to be several candidates (some listed above) and we would appreciate input from anyone with experience owning one (or anything comparable).
Some of our considerations are…Visibility to the rear (my wife is fairly short and one of her complaints is she has very poor visibility to the rear in newer cars). Sufficient head and leg room for me (6’2") but suitable for her (5’). AWD is nice, but not necessary. We don’t care much about sporty handling or acceleration. Inside finish is important. Reliability is important, though we are retired and so we don’t expect to put much more than 6K miles a year on it.
I’m a bit leery of some of the CVTs out there, based mostly on what I read in blogs. Maybe I’m just poorly informed.
Finally, we are always looking for a good deal. We will consider vehicles that may not be highly rated, but which can be found at good prices and low mileage. Right now, it looks like we will be paying in the mnid-teens for what we want. $17K is probably our absolute limit.
We don’t have any kids and we hardly ever take friends in the car.
We have considered the Subaru Crosstrek as well, though they tend to be priced a bit higher. Same with Nissan Rogues.
By “may not be highly rated,” we mean vehicles like the Chevy Trax, which maybe isn’t that great, but we can get one a year younger and with half the mileage at a comparable price.
Used hybrids cause us some concern, but we are reasonable people.
My wife needs the SUV style rear to carry stuff, but that storage area does not need to be huge.
Another option is the Toyota RAV4. And depending on how much stuff you need to carry, a Honda Fit might work for you. (Full disclosure: I own one and get a commission from Honda of America every time I talk someone else into buying one.) I don’t know whether you’ll like the headroom and legroom, though.
Our other car is a RAV4. It’s a bit too high for my wife, who has to use the grip when she gets in. We may find that some of the alternatives are also a little too high.