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Old 05-27-2014, 09:00 AM   #1
blee
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Replacing the Civic

My wife has the car replacement itch. She's driven her Civic for 12 years now, but it just cracked 100,000 miles last month. I'd like to say that it was flawless but it cost me more money in repairs than any of my other vehicles. Okay, except for that complete S14 teardown/rebuild, but that doesn't count.

Anyway, now she wants something in the crossover/compact SUV category. The punchline is that she hates car shopping, and despite wanting a new car, she really can't stand looking at and driving them. Really, I think she would've been perfectly happy if we'd just driven to the Honda dealer and picked up a CR-V. But I don't do that.

We managed to go to three dealers and drive four cars. All of them were mid-trim level vehicles with FWD. (I mean, come on now, these aren't actual rugged utility vehicles...they're 21st century station wagons.) By "drive," she took them around a few parking lots to see how they parked and felt, and I actually took them on the road. Impressions:

Honda CR-V: Big, big disappointment to me. Best price, airiest interior. Chintzy materials, even considering the segment in which it's competing. Most road noise, in a bad way. Suspension that was neither smooth nor sporty, but some confusing place in between. Slow torqueless engine and tranny. Worst of all, the steering reminded me of playing Out Run on a machine that had been abused one too many times. It was so overboosted and disconnected that it scared me. Oddly enough, my wife thought that it was the "easiest" car to drive precisely because of the steering. It is so totally not as decent of a car as the 12-year-old Civic. Why it's a best seller in this segment, I'll never know; maybe if I were 65 years old and/or only ever bought Hondas.

Ford Escape: Very impressive. Priced pretty high, but well appointed with very nice materials and fit/finish. Construction felt more solid, less beer can-like. Nice firm suspension with good handling for a vehicle of this type. I picked the 2.0 L EcoBoost, which has 240 hp, so it's almost unfair comparing performance to the 185ish hp in the CR-V, but I will anyway...it was so much faster I almost laughed. Good steering feel and appropriate steering effort. All vehicles in this class seem to have those silly backup cameras as standard equipment, and the Ford's was the best of the bunch. Surprisingly, the Escape also felt the smallest inside, and the booster seats we brought with us had to be wiggled around a bit to get the seat belt latches exposed enough for the kids to get to them.

Mazda CX-5: Also a sleeper hit. Priced a bit lower than the Ford, although with the Ford's bigger incentives and the Mazda's comparative lack of incentives, they price out very closely. Engine doesn't have as much horsepower as the Ford but there's plenty of low-end torque. Handling and steering is in the same league as the Escape; we didn't exactly go autocrossing, so for all normal street/highway maneuvers, they were basically equivalent. Roomy inside on par with the Honda, no trouble with the booster seats. Interior was not as nice as the Escape's IMO but it was still leagues better than the CR-V's.

We also drove a Focus hatchback in order to have a small sedan-based wagon to compare against the SUVs. Nice car, but she felt cramped inside and the booster seats definitely didn't play well with the rear belts.

Final verdict: Dunno. We'll give it a few days to stew and probably walk into a dealership to make a deal by next Sunday. I'm pushing for the Ford, but Kim is undecided. I think she really wanted the Honda to win, but she was as disappointed as I was in the materials and overall quality. I'm totally willing to check out any other cars she wants. Also brought up some small wagons and hatchbacks, but she didn't particularly like the way they looked. Same with the GM compact SUVs; they were either too ugly or too boxy (and therefore ugly) for her.
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Old 05-27-2014, 09:11 AM   #2
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Were the Outback and Forrester on the "didn't particularly like the way they looked" list? The Forrester has that kicked in the face with the ugly boot, but the Outback is...plain.

You're probably coming up on some really good deals on the '14 Outback as they start running out and the next gen '15s start rolling in (late next month?).

I know I keep hawking it, but I'm seriously impressed with the Outback for what it is. Drives like a mid size wagon, feels like a mid size wagon, hauls insane amounts of junk, nice appointments and high quality feeling materials on the lowest end, no-option (other than CVT) version like ours, no weather worry ground clearance and Scooby AWDness, blah, blah, blah. And rather inexpensive for what you get.

FWIW, woke up in the morning thinking we were going to buy a CRV, but the dealer/salesass played too many games and wound up with an Outback that evening.
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Old 05-27-2014, 09:12 AM   #3
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No new Cherokee?
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Old 05-27-2014, 09:29 AM   #4
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I like the new Cherokee, might give it a spin sometime. Unfortunately it has the smallest cargo space behind the seats.

We've thought about Subarus as well. From my time in Connecticut, it seemed like everyone up there owned at least one, and I've heard mostly greats things about them. One potential issue is that the closest dealership is not close. No big deal for sales, but a potential deal breaker for service/support.

On the salesass front, we actually had a similar experience at the Honda dealership. Maybe it was just luck of the draw, but the Honda guy was wan at best and really didn't seem to care much. When we told him what we were doing yesterday, he still spent a good 10 minutes walking us around the lot in order to find the exact vehicle we had in mind, as if we were going to buy it Right Now. The Ford guy, OTOH, was awesome and knew exactly how to work with us.
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Old 05-27-2014, 09:34 AM   #5
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We had a hilarious coked out Ford sales guy when we looked at the Escape last year. Super friendly and trying so hard to be helpful. So desperate for a sale I'm sure he would have blown me if I'd asked. Actually, it was rather unnerving.
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Old 05-27-2014, 07:58 PM   #6
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My wife drives the current model CR-V. You're right about the road noise, numb steering, and chintzy materials. The main selling points (err, buying points) for us were the very generous interior room and the knowledge that it's going to hold its value extremely well. Beyond that, I don't really care because it's not something that I have to drive on a regular basis.

The engine is OK, and will respond perfectly adequately if you plant the go pedal. The problem, IMO, is the mismatched transmission. It desperately needs another gear, and programming that doesn't shift into 3rd gear so early. I can't even begin to guess how many times it's shifted into 3rd and then right back to 2nd a few milliseconds later without any change in the angle of my right foot. It's a little frustrating, but as long as it realizes its mistake and corrects it, then whatever, I guess.

I'm sure there are more nicely appointed interiors in the segment, but that's less important to me than resale and interior space.
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Old 05-27-2014, 08:43 PM   #7
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I'm sure there are more nicely appointed interiors in the segment, but that's less important to me than resale and interior space.
I guess they expect you to jump up to the Acura if you want "nice".
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Old 05-27-2014, 09:27 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by clyde View Post
We had a hilarious coked out Ford sales guy when we looked at the Escape last year. Super friendly and trying so hard to be helpful. So desperate for a sale I'm sure he would have blown me if I'd asked. Actually, it was rather unnerving.

Oh god. I am still laughing out loud about this. Hours later.
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Old 05-27-2014, 10:17 PM   #9
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I drove an 08 CR-V around the block, EX, AWD. It was slow, but otherwise seemed decent enough, in fact steering was NOT crazy light in my memory, drove just like other Hondas.
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Old 05-28-2014, 07:37 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by equ View Post
I drove an 08 CR-V around the block, EX, AWD. It was slow, but otherwise seemed decent enough, in fact steering was NOT crazy light in my memory, drove just like other Hondas.
New model for the 2012 model year. In comparison, our 12-year-old Civic has much better road feel and steering feel.
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