<p>I think Hyundai is pretty reliable and they have a better factory warranty than pretty much anyone and you usually get a lot for your money with them and some of them are made in the USA if you care about that. Have you checked them out?</p>
<p>Why do you think the Fit is more practical than the Subaru? Is it in the initial price, fuel costs, something else? </p>
<p>If you were going to be ‘really’ practical you’d get a used vehicle. If you’ve decided against that then you’ve already decided to pay more to get what you desire than what you need from a purely practical perspective. Also, since you plan to keep the vehicle for 10 years you should consider what the difference in cost would be over 10 years and then decide if that difference is worth the ‘desire’ for you. </p>
<p>Based on a rough $5K difference in cost between the two (ballpark - depending on your options), it boils down to an extra $42 per month for the purchase cost over 10 years. You can calculate the fuel costs depending on how much you drive and the mileage diff between the two.</p>
<p>For a vehicle you plan to keep for 10 years, and will have to live with for that amount of time, I think it’s worth spending a bit more for what you want as long as you can reasonably afford it.</p>
<p>(I’m trying to help you justify what you really want)</p>
<p>For long boats, having a longer crossbar spread is desirable for better stability when the boats are on top. Go to a store that sells Yakima and Thule racks and check the fit books to see which vehicle allows a longer crossbar spread and capability of holding two kayaks on top. The Yakima web site may have the crossbar spread listed in the fit guide, but the Thule web site may not (and the crossbar spreads for the Yakima and Thule racks may differ for the same vehicle).</p>
<p>Thule kayak saddles do not work that well on Yakima round bars, as they tend to spin around the bar when you are sliding boats on them. Yakima saddles work fine on Thule rectangular bars.</p>
<p>Racks should be removed when not carrying boats or other items, since they increase noise and fuel consumption.</p>
<p>These two cars (Fit and Forester) are so radically different it’s hard to tell you what to do. I don’t know how much you want to spend but have you looked at a Prius 5?</p>
<p>UCB–thanks. I’ve got Thule racks on a very, very old Dodge Caravan right now. (I can actually put 3 kayaks on there, but I expect when i buy something smaller, that probably wont’ be possible.) Hopefully we can reuse them when we replace it. I’ll look up the two vehicles’ specs, but i thought someone here might have personal experience with them.</p>
<p>Fit owner here. In fact, we own 2 Fits. Got the 2009 for our D and when it was finally time to replace our well loved and hard driven Civic Wagon (a wedding present in 1989!), I actually got myself a new Fit. I love it. As my college kid says, “You can pack a lot of sh** in a Fit!”
I also like the handling. Honestly, would love to have the Subaru in winter snow conditions but I’m too cheap and I really do get >40 mpg (even when it’s mainly driving in my small city). We can get some serious snow so there are some days (waiting for Mr Snow Plow Man) when I can’t drive but then neither can anyone else. My husband appreciates the mileage and safety ratings but says it doesn’t even really look like a car!</p>
<p>So, I just got back from test driving a Subaru Impreza wagon. I was quite impressed. It seems like a really good compromise between my two choices. It’s nicer inside than the Fit but gets about the same gas mileage so I’m thinking it might be just what I need. Reliability ratings not as good as the Hondas, but still good. They (as well as the Fits) are flying off the lots. Hard to find something to test drive. This discussion has been very helpful.</p>
<p>Gladgraddad - have you looked at used car prices lately? I’ve usually bought used, but right now? Ay ay ay! I liked all your reasoning, by the way. Thanks.</p>
<p>A friend of mine just bought a used Subaru Impreza wagon with 165K miles for about 4,000 miles. He absolutely loves it (it’s his winter car as his sports car isn’t great in the snow). One of my sisters told me that she is looking to buy an Impreza and was just working on the best deal. I assume that she has one now - she’s going to an Impreza from a Corolla - I guess she wants the AWD.</p>
<p>Subaru was on top of the quality rankings a few years ago, I guess Honda and Toyota stepped it up a notch again. I think that both Honda and Toyota took quality for granted for a few years and let things slide. I am partial to Toyotas but they don’t have anything that I’m interested in right now.</p>
<p>The 1984-1989 Caravans had rain gutters and used rain gutter towers to hold the crossbars, unless you have factory rails that use different clamps to hold the crossbars. If you have factory rails, the clamps can be reused on another vehicle with factory rails, but you need to get different towers if there are no factory rails. Since no recent cars have rain gutters (some full size vans may), if you have rain gutter towers, you would need to get different towers. However, the crossbars and anything attached to them can be reused, unless your new vehicle is much wider than the old one.</p>
<p>If you decide to switch to Yakima racks, you would need to change the crossbars and the towers or mounts, though some Thule attachments to the crossbars may fit (though Thule boat saddles do not work very well on Yakima round bars).</p>
<p>garland - we would regularly haul 4 kayaks ontop the minivan but when we downsized to the crv, got the roof rack add-on - checked the specs of what weight could be put on the roof rack (165 lbs?)…and now I’m nervous to put more than the two small boats we have. Depends on the kayak weights of course, but I have one long 14’ that sticks out both ends that prob weighs around 75 lbs. Add to that the “rollover risk” warning on the driver’s side…and let’s just say, haven’t gone kayaking yet.</p>
<p>I’ve had my Honda Fit for more than two years and I love it–especially the gas mileage. We live in a snowy place and use it for around-town driving as well as getting to the ski area. No problems with lack of 4WD–we keep studded snow tires on it in the winter.</p>
<p>My son’s grandparents bought him a show room new 2008 Fit when he graduated high school (let’s not talk about how we wished they would have instead contributed to his college fund) and it’s been a great car for him. He goes to school about 850 miles away and drives that trip 2-3 times per year, and it gets excellent mileage. My only complaint with the car is it’s a bit difficult to get into and out of, I’m almost 5’10” and I feel a bit like a contortionist trying to get into it. It also rides very close to the ground so it’s a bit of a rougher ride. My son has put close to 50k miles on the car since 2008 but he does the maintenance on it faithfully. He’s had no mechanical issues whatsoever. For some reason, he goes through wiper blades like crazy. Can’t figure that one out, but it’s been a great car for him.</p>
<p>I have a 2010 Civic (traded in my 2006 Corolla) and I love it.</p>
<p>if you have any snow issues would definitely recommend the forester. I switched from camry hybrid to forester last year and the only moments of regret are at the gas pump for sure. But love the car in every other way. I would also stroly consider going up one notch to the outback if you can afford it. I think the drive is smoother and a little more space inside. If the rav4 or crv had a good hybrid option i would go that direction. I hope subaru will work on the milage issue soon!</p>
<p>Amanda–thanks, good information. We regularly carried three on our minivan. Part of me wants to buy another, but the Forrester gets better mileage; we just don’t mostly need a vehicle that big (esp as we had a regular Caravan, and now they only make a Grand). Ours are all about 14 ft, around 50 pounds each. I hadn’t thought about the rollover aspect.</p>
<p>These days, our kayaking has been limited to not going farther than about ten miles away, as the van is so iffy. Luckily, we’re surrounded by water, but there are other places farther away that we used to paddle, and i miss them! Also, as we get older, loading up on the van is getting more difficult–we can do it now, but I worry about the future. We have the rollers in back, which really helps, but still, that initial lift is a test, every time!</p>
<p>“For some reason, he goes through wiper blades like crazy. Cant figure that one out, but its been a great car for him.”</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is something endemic to Hondas, but I have had the same problem on my Odyssey mini van, especially on my car the rear one. It could be the design of the wiper arm or maybe it has gotten warped out of shape or the angle of the windshield, but whatever it is I tend to eat wiper blades. If your S is using the dealer blades, I recommend switching and buying a more upscale blade like the Michelin ones, they cost a bit more (at Walmart the difference is about 7 bucks a blade) and see what happens, IME they use materials in the higher end blades that don’t self destruct like the cheaper Anco and so forth blades. </p>
<p>Also, have him check the wiper arm and how the blade is hitting, if it seems like the blade is not lying level that might cause the problem as well and might need adjusting (might be able to adjust it himself visually; also, the arm tension may be off). Obviously, also depends the weather conditions he drives in, if you live in a place that has heavy winters, that causes damage, the salt thrown on the windshield in areas that use it cause the rubber to degrade, plus scraping over ice on the windshield or heavy slush/snow/sand kicked up from the road takes it toll.</p>
<p>One option for higher mileage on an SUV might be hybrid SUV’s…I would recommend the Ford Escape except that quite frankly the hybrid doesn’t do that much better gas mileage then the 6 (it might have more pep, though), and may not be worth the difference in price. There are higher end hybrid SUV’s, but they tend to be more upscale, like Lexus (I bellieve they have an RX hybrid), Acura might as well…eventually hybrid technology is going to hit all models, I know Subaru is working on hybrids (initially I hear it is to boost performance on the WRX while improving gas mileage, will eventually make it down to other models). I am surprised Toyota hasn’t hybridized the RAV4, but I suspect they are all working on plug in hybrid technology and then will introduce it…</p>
<p>Yakima and Thule racks typically have load limits of 165 pounds (including the weight of the rack), but have lower limits for some vehicles. Check their rack fitting guides before deciding on a vehicle.</p>
<p>The new Subarus have much better mileage than the previous generation. The new Impreza gets about 36 MPG on the highway. Our old Subaru was lucky to get 25.</p>
<p>The hybrid SUVs don’t impress me with their mileage considering the differential in price.</p>
<p>I (share with son) have an older subaru outback. Seats fold down and I can haul a ton. The newer ones sit up a little higher which might be good for visability. We picked it up used (its a 2003) when they still made the LLBean editions.</p>
<p>Maintaince so far has been a new set of tires, oil changes and fixing a busted boot on one of the axles. We have put a ton of miles on it and it still has the new car smell/leather (weird huh?)</p>
<p>It has the AWD so it works well for those of us who had never driven in snow before moving to NC. Again I love the way it handles, and how fun it is to drive. I am sure my son wanted a sports car somewhere along the way but he has been really enjoying the subaruuuuuuu and doesn’t want to change it except for another subaru…someday …after we hit the 300,000+ mile mark…and as that he is in med school and doesn’t drive too much or too far we are going to have it for a while!!!</p>