Must buy vehicle NOW. Please advise.
Okay. Relief! The Honda Pilot sold to a great couple less than 24 hours after listing it on KSL. To be honest, I thought it would take much longer.
I haven't given much thought or done ANY research toward which vehicle to buy next. I feel like I barely came to terms with selling the Pilot this week.
Here's my situation. We have a 2002 Honda CRV. 106,000 miles. Really like it. The AWD is great for getting up the Cottonwoods on powder days and *most* places I've tried to go off road. Which may not be saying much. I only used the 4WD on the Pilot once, coming up the hill on the return trip from Tusher Tunnel near Moab.
I have < $10,000 to buy the next car.
What are your suggestions about something with 4WD? I'm pretty much one of those Japanese car guys. I've really been averse to the Big Three after a bad experience in the past and then working for them as a consultant recently. I feel my budget would put me in a 4WD with high miles or mechanical liability.
I'd consider another CRV with AWD. I like the one we have, it's a known entity, and I like sitting a little higher than a sedan. Though I feel a little weird about being "one of those families" that has two of the same car.
I don't know anything about Subarus, except that they're AWD and there seem to be a lot of them around. I'd probably look at Outbacks over Foresters. I drove a Forester in 1999 and it felt very wagon-y. And I'm not a lesbian. (No offense, Chere... :) ) Luce's Subaru reminds me of a VW Passat. Handles really nice, but lower to the ground than I am used to. Not sure if that equals better gas milage than a CRV?
The other option is to go conservative and pick up a Civic. My wife will mostly drive the new car, and while the back seat would be crowded for out three kids the gas milage would be sweet. We could use the existing CRV as our "adventure car". Okay, stop laughing. No really. Stop it.
Any thoughts on these cars? Others? Any tips on where to buy a car? It's been forever since I had to do this exercise, and I've always known exactly what I wanted months and months in advance. Since we handed over the Pilot tonight, I'd like to move fairly quickly.