Scantlings

My 1991 Toyota Celica is on its last legs, it runs fine but the entire car is breaking down like the old perfect carriage. Suddenly, it needs everything. So I'm looking for the next vehicle. Since it has to haul gear, I need cargo room. I also have a limited budget. What's the verdict on mid-2000's Subaru Forester/Outback, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV, any other entries?

Get a minivan. Cheaper and they carry more.

We just buy a new CRV every ten years or so and give the old one to the kids.

Works for us.

I have a 2004 Honda Element with about 110,000 mi. These days I drive less than 3000 mi/yr. Doesn't have a drop of style, but with the back seats removed, it can haul all the sails for a 40 footer plus a load of groceries or two bikes upright with the front forks clamped to a 2 X 4. Enormous doors with no pillar. Huge, split tailgate. Hose-out interior. On-demand all wheel drive and pretty good on snow. Same engine as the CRV, but a bit heavier and less aerodynamic, so the performance and mileage are a little worse. It also has the best standard sound system I've ever heard in a car. Cost of ownership has been very low.

Olaf Hart wrote:We just buy a new CRV every ten years or so and give the old one to the kids.

Works for us.

What do I have to do to be adopted by you?

I will detail a very bad experience my wife and I had with a 2003 Forester.

But first I will describe the absolutely brilliant experience I continue to have with my 1998 Outback. The Outback has 280,000 miles (450,000 km) and is still solid as a rock. It did get the requisite head gasket repair at about 120,000 miles and just like they say, the head gasket job is "a bump on the road to 300,000 miles". Very little unscheduled maintenance has been needed: I did replace a rear strut when it became stiff. Many of the dashboard light bulbs are burnt out. One of the rear seat belt buckles is inoperative. The ignition coil, spark-plugs, and plug wires were replaced. That's all that I can remember.

The car still drives perfectly. It has never been aligned and tires show no abnormal wear. The thing sticks to ice (with 4 wheel studs) so well that you can not have any "fun" with it even if you try.

So with that background, I found a second hand 2003 Forester with about 70,000 miles for my wife to drive. On the test drive I found a couple glitches (rear defrost inop, and a few broken plastic bits in the interior) but figured this would be a solid car needing only the head gaskets replaced at around 100K miles. I was wrong.

The car pretty much had something wrong with it the entire 3 years we owned it: Rear windshield wiper motor shaft corroded, Power window mechanical failure, Interior plastic trim literally falling on the floor, Broken cup holders, Glove box broken, Constant burning of exterior light-bulbs, Heated seats failed (both), and on and on. Most of these problems were common to this vehicle as others had posted YouTube videos of repair techniques.

The head gaskets failed right on schedule but we were expecting this and paid Subaru the $2,500 bucks to fix it. About a year later, I noticed a drip of coolant in the driveway and all I could do is yell fuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Soon after it started consuming coolant at a very slow rate - fuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!

I immediately forbid anyone to drive the car thinking that the gasket just might last long enough to get to a car dealership for a trade-in. And that is exactly what we did - traded it in on a new Toyota...

I know it was wrong to unload the car with a known problem but I was at whits end.

Bad me.

Steve

Toyota.... what?
After owing a few Toyota's I'd be hard pressed to buy anything else, unless of course you like spending your weekends working on the family car.
But, the 97 Camry, well it had a little bit of an oil leak, kind of common for that era Camry, I even told the car yard about it when I traded it in on a newer Toyota earlier this year, All though, I did happen to forget to tell them about the dried up emulsified oil I found under the oil filler cap last time I topped up the oil, sure hope that head gasket is still all good.
Post the Camry Gracia Toyota didn't make a Camry station wagon anymore so I when into the car yard looking for a Caldina.
Well I saw something shiny, and well we don't have a dog anymore, (the major meed for the station wagon) and most of the cars use was going to be my commute which is 90 miles open of road.
So I bought the shiny 05 Mark X. Great open road car, and easy on gas, crap on trunk access.

Don't buy an 05 1500 corolla, it might go for ever but I had to ask my wife today if she had wound up the spring before we left home today. Mrs 4yo from the back seat asked "what's all the laughing about" when I tried to speed up to catch a green light.

Ish wrote:

Olaf Hart wrote:We just buy a new CRV every ten years or so and give the old one to the kids.

Works for us.

What do I have to do to be adopted by you?

How do you feel about standing on your head and driving on the wrong side of the road?

Olaf Hart wrote:

Ish wrote:

Olaf Hart wrote:We just buy a new CRV every ten years or so and give the old one to the kids.

Works for us.

What do I have to do to be adopted by you?

How do you feel about standing on your head and driving on the wrong side of the road?

Simultaneously?

It's like a double negative, isn't it?

It's not hard once you get use to it. But Susan hates being a passenger on the wrong side for the first day or so.

Panope wrote:
I know it was wrong to unload the car with a known problem but I was at whits end.

Bad me.

Steve

Sometimes it happens that way- dealers see what they need to and make a decision quickly and the only stuff they really mind is things that change between the time they agree on a deal and the car arrives for the final swap- like bald tires and steel wheels on a car that had fresh tires on mags, etc., etc. I once traded in an absolutely beat Saab for a Toyota Land Cruiser at a dealer about 120 miles away. We agreed to the deal and it became obvious dealer really wanted to close by the end of the month, which was very soon. I lacked proper bank funds at that time and needed a few days to get proper check, temp plates (different state), etc. a holiday was coming up. Dealer said no problem, how about I drive the Land Cruiser to your home on my plates tomorrow and do the swap there. So he arrives and we complete the paperwork and I realize he has to drive the Saab 120 miles on a hot Sunday and that is not a sure thing at all. I'm forced down the road of "ignore the temp light it is on full hot all the time but the temperature is fine" plus the litany of other problems the car had- thats when he told me some trade in stories from a dealer's perspective. Your coolant drip wouldn't even register as unfair.

Nothing to be embarrassed about.

My dear Uncle Johnny who had an old truck to give to the scrap yard, who had a fit when he showed up to collect it, since very single item that might have had value had already been removed. That's something to feel a little embarrassed about.

Thanks Jamie, Tucky

I just hope the dealer or some other "car guy" had to eat the repair and not some struggling single mom.

Steve