<p>Super happy with the 2013 Acura RDX. Smooth ride, ulta-comfortable, 23/33 miles per gallon and short enough to park easily. Test drove Hyundai sedans and found the road feel too soft for our preferences. Good luck with your search.</p>
<p>So I think we are going to test drive the Hyundai today.</p>
<p>I did a bit of research on the Subaru, while it has great reliability and in general a pretty great car, the maintenance seems to be more involved and expensive than the Hondas and Toyotas. This concerns me a bit as the dealerships are far from where I live and I want to keep maintenance expenses on the reasonable side. However, I still want to test drive it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t buy a car 30 miles from the dealership. I did that a long time ago and really regretted it.</p>
<p>I agree that having ready access to service is important. That said, the amount of service that requires a dealership has greatly diminished over the past two decades. A lot of what dealers used to do is now done by independent shops. It’s helpful to ask around.</p>
<p>(And if you typically have the dealership do all your service work, please disregard the above.)</p>
<p>Looking for the same type of vehicle as you lia_b, to replace a Honda Van that was totaled. Difference being that I want to buy a newer used one.</p>
<p>Drove a Hyundai Santa Fe, a Lexus RX, Toyota Highlander and the Subaru Outback. Liked the Subaru best, hands down. I think this is the car I am going to go with. I liked the drive best, drove most like a car to me. The Santa Fe was just allright. We have another Hyundai so it’s not like we don’t like Hyundai. Also looked at but did not drive a Venza, they looked really nice but just too expensive used. Means they hold their value but I have a price I want to stick with. Did not like the way the Highlander drove.</p>
<p>Also like the Infiniti FX, nice car but you have to get it AWD, the 2 wheel drive is rear wheel drive which does not work where I live. The car dealers keep wanting us to consider Toyota RAV4 and CRV’s.</p>
<p>Deb 9222 thank you for your feedback on the test drives. Sorry about your Honda Van. Hope you get something soon. Everyone has positive experience with the Outback. The Venza currently has good deals for a lease. I am also keeping my eyes open for a newer used cars. The problem is they are harder to find with low mileage. That is how I got my CRV, but we searched high and low and they were always just gone by the time we got there. We lucked out on the one I purchased because we spied it on the dealership lot Sunday night and called Monday morning.</p>
<p>Regarding maintenance, I don’t get all my work done at dealerships and I have a pretty reliable mechanic. When I get a coupon, I go to the dealer and otherwise my mechanic does all the work. With new cars, we tend use the dealership in case something goes wrong and we don’t want any trouble with the warranty. Also, with recalls, we want to have access to a dealership nearby.</p>
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<p>I had an Audi and the local dealership had a bunch of lawsuits filed against them for shoddy practices and closed down. The nearest dealerships were 30 to 45 miles away. They also typically required a week or more to get an appointment. The Audi required a lot of maintenance and I eventually went with local independents but they had their problems too. The local independents typically had one guy that was really, really good with European cars and he was always in-demand - you’d always hope that he worked on your car. The independents also had trouble keeping these guys on their payrolls. Many of them felt that they were underpaid and started their own shops and took along some of the customers too. The problem was that these guys then had to run the business too which means that they didn’t have all of the time to work on cars.</p>
<p>After I moved from Audi to Toyota, a new Porsche-Audi dealer moved in.</p>
<p>I have all of my work (except for tires) done at the dealership. The maintenance of my Toyota at the dealership has been far less than the maintenance of my Audi at independents. The other thing about the independents is that they would often break things that weren’t broken. One other thing that I learned - don’t buy a car with an annual production run of under 1,000. Parts will be outrageous.</p>
<p>Good advice BC. We like the Audi but for dealership distance reasons and cost of parts, we did not even look at them. Our local mechanic said to be prepared to put a fund aside to pay for parts.</p>
<p>If you haven’t had the chance to drive the new CR-V - you should do so. We are coming from a 2005 CR-V and looking for something similar. We test drove the new Ford Escape yesterday and were really disappointed in it. We then drove the new CR-V and loved it. Maybe it felt more ‘comfortable’ because we are used to the Honda…but it’s very nice. </p>
<p>Drove the Hyundai SUV’s last year and didn’t care for them stylistically - but I have heard they are well made.</p>
<p>So true BCEagle91, my SIL says just to count on $1000 every time you took her Audi in for an oil change! </p>
<p>We used to own an Audi years ago. More expensive to fix but we had the best mechanic. He only worked on German cars. My H loved to just go in his shop to see the great cars he had. It was a sad day to get rid of that car and that mechanic. We took our cars there for a long time (owned a string of German cars). Now we drive Japanese cars and they never break! Lol!</p>
<p>We only use the dealer for service when something is under warranty. In our area the dealership is overpriced. We have two good local mechanics who have been able to work on all our cars from a crappy old 75 Fiat to a late model BMW all at a fraction of the cost of any of the dealer estimates.
For the last 4 yrs H has considered getting a new work car. He goes back and forth and ends up just keeping his present vehicle for another year. He is talking again and is all over the map from a used Toyota Landcruiser to a full size pickup or downsizing to a Highlander or even a CRV. Have always been interested in test driving a Suburu but no local dealer to try one out.</p>
<p>Own two hyundais 2006 2007. Awesome so far.</p>
<p>I have a 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe. It has been reliable and low on maintenace costs. Last year I had to replace an air conditioning hose and this year I had the transfer case resealed. Other than that all that has had to be replaced are two oxygen sensors and one of those was done just before it went out of warrenty so no cost to me. I currently have over 165,000 miles on the vehicle.</p>
<p>Since my child will be off to college my next vehicle will be smaller but I would not hesitate to purchase another Hyundai. I’m actually hoping my Santa Fe keeps going for as long as my son is in college–I love not having a car payment.</p>
<p>my dh is on his 2nd outback and has no complaints. Two big thumbs up!</p>
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<p>You should really get an Audi and add some excitement to your life. It’s never boring when it comes to stuff breaking.</p>
<p>I think I prefer the uneventful life I’ve been leading as far as my Santa Fe goes!</p>
<p>When I took it in to have the transfer case work done the mechanic drove it because I was concerned about the amount of miles on it and wanted to make sure everything was OK. He said it ran like a top and then the dealership tried to buy it from me. I guess they are having a difficult time getting good used vehicles in to sell.</p>
<p>We love our 2012 Hyundai Tucson so far. It’s AWD, great mileage.
Ours is bright purple/iris blue. Very loud and happy color and we adore it.</p>
<p>Plenty bells and whistle-y for us, expecially since it replaced a well worn out 2001 minivan.</p>
<p>Son is about to purchase an Elantra…there are ‘new grad’ discounts on Hyundais running till July2nd.</p>
<p>So we test drove the Tucson and we love it! DH wants to get the Limited GLS but I am trying to keep him on the GLS AWD to keep monthly payments down. Trouble is they have a wait list for colors other than silver and there are no used ones in stock. Plenty of Sonatas though. I can’t believe I am saying this but I was really more impressed driving the Tucson than driving the Acura, especially on tight curves I guess I expected more from the Acura and less from the Hyundai. Also, the Acura is a larger car. Overall, it’s the right size for us right now. The seats could be more comfortable and a V6 would be nice but it handles nicely. The maintenance schedule seems simple and not needy at all.</p>
<p>We also saw the Venza and decided we liked the older style better than the new one. The new version is lower, more like a wagon or sedan. </p>
<p>I have to tell you the Veloster in the showroom looked very exciting but definitely not practical for us.</p>
<p>I didn’t know that the Venza had been restyled. My local dealer has been remodeling so the showroom was moved to a different building and I haven’t seen the new models there for at least nine months. I prefer a smaller and lower look so it might be interesting.</p>
<p>Edit: I don’t like the way that it looks outside but the interior isn’t bad. I don’t like the rounded and sloped roofline in the back. Still prefer the appearance of the Outback.</p>