Its heavier and lacks "oomph" according to initial reviews, but they also state it has a nice ride and is quiet.
SUV choices
- Thread starter jc100
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Its heavier and lacks "oomph" according to initial reviews, but they also state it has a nice ride and is quiet.
Ok so we just test drove the brand new 2018 Tiguan. In short it is excellent, none of the harshness of the Mazda, it's a really refined ride. Didn't notice that it lacked too much power at all. It is huge inside, easily as roomy as the Honda if not moreso. It also seems more upmarket inside than the Honda. Steering is great and it's super quiet in the cabin. Seats are very comfy and the digital cockpit is really very good. You can switch the navigation over to the dash if you want or have the map in the main entertainment console and the turn by turn instructions on the dash. Very customizable. If I was to nitpick then all it seems to be missing is a power adjustable passenger seat but that's no big deal.
bigslimjim
Well-known member
if you are seriously considering buying a mazda I feel bad for you lol. go buy a brand new mazda cx9 and watch it rust after one winter of driving it. if you want all the power and premium feel and best standard features do yourself a favour and get an acura rdx or mdx. the repairs are minimal they hold up really well against rust they have great crash test rating and very good fuel economy as well as all the standard features that you will be lacking in the rest of the choices....now im not just saying this because I sell acuras lol but in all honesty if I was in the market for a new suv I wouldn't look further than the rdx or mdx. take one for a drive you will be more than impressed. but please do yourself a favor and stay away from mazda lol.
Any RDX/MDX owners I have ever talked to had nothing but great things to say. Personally, I don't want to pay the acura premium.
Completely out of my price range though. The Mazda is probably off the list now, its currently between the CRV and the Tiguan for one and two with the Kia Sportage and Hyundai 3 and 4 after that. Still have the Forester turbo to look at but that's dated inside and lacking a lot of what the other cars have.
bigslimjim
Well-known member
those are both great choices, the crv is good all around and I have driven the tiguan as well its a very fun little suv/crossover don't know much about them other than they are pretty well equipped and good on fuel economy.
inital impressions are good and everything, but the great thing about the CR-V is that 4 years from now, it will hold its value and won't squeak, rattle and fall apart like the Made in Mexico built Tiguan will.....
Resurrecting this thread. Recently took out a RAV4 out for a toot. The steering feel was terrible. The audio controls where not that intuitive.
Want to support locally assembled products and was surprised that Toyota produced something that was so disappointing to drive? The rear hatch was large and bulky.
Power seemed ok with the LE trim. Didn't tapes the awd.
I know it would be exhausting to try and drive this thing anywhere beyond local groc trips. Regular highway trips? Forget about it! And fuel mileage wasn't that impressive either.
For 2017, I was just surprised at how disappointed I was in the RAV. FWIW Anyways.
Want to support locally assembled products and was surprised that Toyota produced something that was so disappointing to drive? The rear hatch was large and bulky.
Power seemed ok with the LE trim. Didn't tapes the awd.
I know it would be exhausting to try and drive this thing anywhere beyond local groc trips. Regular highway trips? Forget about it! And fuel mileage wasn't that impressive either.
For 2017, I was just surprised at how disappointed I was in the RAV. FWIW Anyways.
Sunny is being Sunny again. I've taken two VWs past 400,000 km and they were still tight and solid with minimal squeaks and rattles. Both needed some attention beyond that point, but with that kind of mileage, that's allowed to happen. The Passat was built in Emden Germany and the Jetta was built in Mexico.
And I'm not at all surprised that nakkers found the RAV4 to be rather miserable to drive. That belongs to a prior generation of Toyota products which all had overassisted (too light) power steering, limp suspension, lousy feel to the controls, and brakes sized for 55 mph America. (VW brakes are sized for the autobahn) My 1984 Toyota pickup was great, including surprisingly good steering and a nice, direct feel to all of the controls. Then Toyota forgot how to build a driver's car. It seems that lately they've gotten the message, the new-for-2018 Camry is supposed to be a lot better, and even the latest-generation Prius is supposed to be a lot better (although IMO they broke the styling in the process of fixing the suspension and steering). RAV4 (and Corolla) still belong to the uninspired dead-feeling previous generation. It probably won't change until the next full redesign.
As far as infotainment, the best that I've run across so far (by no means have I run across all of them) is Chrysler Uconnect. It might not have the latest (distracting ... GM !!!) whiz-bang graphics, but it also doesn't do stupid things like leave one wondering where the button is to do something that ought to be obvious (Ford: Why, in the Edge that I recently had as a rental, does "seek/scan" use physical buttons when everything else is on the touch screen and seek/scan is NOT on the touch screen nor even remotely close to it on the dashboard??) and it doesn't mysteriously take forever to connect to bluetooth (GM ...). And at night, you can dim the screen with a touch of one button. (I don't think anyone else has clued in to that one.) It disables some functions when the vehicle is moving but not to the extent of crippling the entire system so that you can't do ANYthing (Mazda ... ! ! !). And so far, in the vehicle that I have with it, it has worked reliably (VW ... ! ! !)
I don't know why for the OP, but my wife wants AWD (she drives 60,000+km/year). When we bought her current vehicle, other than subaru and luxo brands, awd was only available in SUV's or trucks. Things have gotten a little better since then but the market is still dominated by SUV's. If I can convince her to give up on AWD, a minivan is eminently more useful (and cheaper).
I still want someone to make an AWD hybrid. Gas engine drives one set of wheels, electric drives the other. Easy peasy, redundant, not much heavier than current hybrids.
there are a few out there. Id go with the Acura MDX hybrid with the similar 3 motor hybrid setup from the NSX. 27 mpg city. not bad for a bigger suv.
Very very very very few ppl wouldn't agree that a Honda is engineered and screwed together better than a VW. Oh look..... it's Brian!
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The infotainment issue isn't really an issue when you have android auto working. That just works so well.
Ive had the CRV for 5 days now and it is excellent. Driving back from the GTA was a revelation. The car was very nearly driving itself. It was keeping a set distance and speed from cars in front and steering automatically to keep in the lane. It was very eery....I did input light steering touches though. The CRV handles well and is very comfy inside. If I had one gripe it's that parking the thing is not as easy as my old cars but that's because older cars have better sight lines as they don't have side air bag curtains etc. The rear camera is useful though.
Ive had the CRV for 5 days now and it is excellent. Driving back from the GTA was a revelation. The car was very nearly driving itself. It was keeping a set distance and speed from cars in front and steering automatically to keep in the lane. It was very eery....I did input light steering touches though. The CRV handles well and is very comfy inside. If I had one gripe it's that parking the thing is not as easy as my old cars but that's because older cars have better sight lines as they don't have side air bag curtains etc. The rear camera is useful though.
No doubt that that is a very good vehicle. I have never heard anyone with an MDX (or RDX) that had anything bad to say about it. At $72,000 MSRP, fuel economy doesn't really matter (other than as a discussion point). It would be much cheaper to buy a fuel economy vehicle and an awd vehicle for the bad days (G35x or G37x come to mind as nice vehicles that are affordable). You have two nice vehicles for less total money and much better average mpg.
I want something for ~1/2 that price with double the mileage (like the volt reconfigured as awd). Yes it's smaller, but the vast majority of the time it's a single occupancy vehicle so smaller is fine.
For me, unless you're a very aggressive driver, awd without decent clearance just adds cost.
Once you manage to life all four wheels off of the ground, you're just as stuck as someone with decent traction control.
Anyways, did you check the Highlander?
