the new murano is super deluxe and quiet. i love mine. but it is a little on the large size. check it out.
The new and re-surfaced highways in my state are awful for road noise, just terrible. Unfortunately I live on one of them. Not sure any car can compensate 
@cbreeze, I love my Volvo, but I’m not really a “car person” and I’m not sure I need another car quite so nice/expensive/with so much space. My kids have left the nest, for the most part. I drive less than 10 miles to work, on the highway, so it’s an easy commute. But, I will consider another, because it’s been such a good car. I really thought I might get the very small Volvo (C30?) as my next car, and keep mine also, but they don’t make the little one any longer. I have no complaints about the Volvo, if that’s what you are wondering about.
There is a brand new this year small Lexus SUV that looks interesting. I think it’s the NX200. There’s a hybrid version as well. I’ve heard great things about Lexus, but I’ve never driven one. I may test drive it and the smaller Acura when I’m ready. We just recently purchased a Honda Cross Tour for my husband. He is a die hard Honda fan, and he loves it. I haven’t been in it enough to judge the noise level, but it is AWD.
I have an Acura RDX and I love it. I spend a lot of time driving on highways and it is very quiet.
For this very reason, I had an Audi A6 (quattro AWD) wagon. My son has hearing loss and at the time still sat in the back, so we had the distance from me and me not facing him to contend with too. It was very good in terms of being quiet on the road. I later traded it for a smaller Audi A4 wagon, and it is not nearly as quiet.
Someone mentioned a sound level meter – there’s an app for that! (Lots, in fact.) It won’t be calibrated to your phone’s mic but you can make measurements and compare them relative to one another.
@1214mom, glad to know the Volvo was trouble free. My D and her H are ordering the new 2016 XC90. They are skipping the mini-van and going straight to the SUV with 3rd row seats. The new Volvos are in high demand, lots of dealers have no stock and no one is discounting even one penny from MSRP.
All of your information is great and well appreciated! Thanks! I do have a sound meter and plan on taking it with me but also will make a grid of the cars and what that reads on the same roads at the same speeds.
This is kinda of a big deal as we want to take road trips. Today we drove about 20 miles to and from an appointment and we could not talk. The road was awful (but becoming normal) and H could not hear either.
I do not think that most people understand how much NOISE effects them in everyday life much less someone with hearing loss.
I have made a nice list of all of your suggestions. One car that we owned for 11 year was a Volvo wagon back in the early 80"s. Loved that wagon and could drive home a new couch in it.
I haved wanted a Lexus for a few decades but like Volvos and am open to the Acura.
Not sure H will be open to a Mercedes due to their history of repairs…but then all he needs to see is that Consumer Reports thinks they are fine.
We are a few months off from buying but thank you for giving me some direction.
I am so not a car person–my latest and love except for the noise is my Hyundai Elantra that is 3 years old so bare bones to what they offer now. Great for errands, love the smallness and the fuel economy. But the road noise is awful.
Yes, of all the vehicles I have driven, I think the Lexus and Accura are among the quietest. We aren’t in vehicles all that much, as there’s only so far you can drive on our island and I tend not to want to go out all that much. I’d suggest you may want to try renting for a longer drive of a few days before you buy when you’ve narrowed things down after test drives and budget, etc.
Wait, you want to hear your h on a long road trip? 
@oregon101 I don’t know how many you are road tripping with, but do your hearing aids have an option of pairing with a mini microphone that could be worn by another passenger? The passenger could wear the mini mic, and stream the voice directly to your hearing aids. Most brands of hearing aids have an option like this. It can cost an extra several hundred dollars. Perhaps your audiologist has a loaner you could try out. Also, on some hearing aids, like the latest Phonak and I believe Unitron, there is a way to mute the mic on the hearing aid that is facing the road, and stream everything from the ear facing the passenger or driver (depending where you are sitting) to the road side ear, so you are hearing the conversation in both ears and getting less noise. (Maybe you have tried all these things – background noise really is tough for people with hearing loss!)
My experience with Jeeps is that quiet is NOT one of their attributes!
Do people feel that Subarus are noisy??? Are you sure it isn’t just your older model?? Maybe test drive some newer models???
We are semi-retired and plan on road trips to see the National Parks and other old people stuff 
I have Oticon, latest generation, and the aids talk to each other but I can turn one off (such as the road side) but that does not improve much, and also have a wonderful set of headphones that streams the TV dirctly into my ears letting H have it at his own volume and not loud for me. Not sure about the mini mic but will look into that. All would be helpful but mainly getting rid of the loudness in general. Even when I can hear a person fine the background noise becomes exhausting.
It takes alert intensity to follow conversations and not miss something and I am often tired after a few hours of people.
People often do not understand how to talk to someone with hearing loss and think that if they talk louder (can help) or repeat themselves all is good. What really helps is to give context immmediately such as “the garden, I was thinking we should put in a new bed” instead of “I was thinking about putting in a new garden bed”.
I am mullingover how to put my thoughts together for an article or a training. As these years go by I will have a lot of company! And sadly, my hearing loss is almost assuredly from second hand smoke from my parents. The veins in the ears do not develop right due to the smoke and there is loss later in life, Our house was blue from smoke.
Back to cars–this is a good list to start with. I would like to rent the car for a small out of town trip first or get the car dealers to give a loaner for few days. Word has it that dealers such as Lexus are different in their apporach than say Hyundai. I did buy our last two cars through internet sales and it was great.
abasket, the suburus have improved but they are not super quiet and they have very uncomfortable seats. Our 2007 is hard for me to ride or drive in. My GF just bought a new Forrester, replacing her uncomfortable suburu legacy, and she hated the old seats and hates the new ones.
Back in summer 2009, I was seeking an AWD vehicle. Subaru topped the list for safety, but the sedan I tried (Legacy maybe?) had a high-pitched whine. The Forester had lovely visibility, but was uncomfortable for my 1-hour commute and too noisy. The Honda CR-V was superbly designed, but drove like an American car (no pep.) The Toyota Rav-4 was interesting, but I think Toyota had some reliability issues going on and availability was an issue because it was summer and they were running out of last year’s models. I ended up with a Nissan Rogue which I’ve been reasonably happy with. If I could put in the heated seat controls and climate control from my old Volvo S60, and add in the visibility of the Subaru, I’d have an almost perfect car for me
Subarus are still noisy, although less noisy than older models. I have a 2014 Forester and my wife has a 2015 Legacy. Both cars have a good number of interior rattles, and the road noise is noticeable. I love both cars but have accepted the fact that Subarus are generally noisy vehicles.
Perhaps as the company tries to cater more to mainstream buyers they will focus more on NVH issues, but for now Subaru is not the brand you generally turn to if you are looking for a quiet ride.
This is where I got my info before I bought my car. It’s a lot to go through but it was worth looking at the decibel levels of different vehicles before I decided to buy. http://www.auto-decibel-db.com
Thanks for the site–sent it to H who is hunting for new vehicle as well.
One other important element is the tires. The noise variation between different tires is pretty surprising. I had a set from Yokohama that were specifically designed to be quiet for a while and they actually were noticeably more quiet than other tires I’ve tried. At least for the first 15-20k miles, then the noise level went back to typical levels.
You can see tire reviews on tirerack.com, and I believe they include noise levels as well. Also generally narrower tires will be quieter than wider tires, so you might want to avoid options on vehicles that include larger/wider tires.
If you have Oticon, you can get the Streamer and a ConnectLine microphone. The total cost would be approx $300, I am guessing. (You could also get a Connectline TV adapter, but it sound like you have something else for that.) Oticon hearing aids are great – some say they have the best sound quality of all! While they do “talk to eachother” to optimise hearing in noise ,etc., they don’t do the ear to ear sound streaming that Phonak does. Though if you like the sound of Oticon, you might not like Phonak as some describe it as “aggressive” and not as smooth as Oticon (still a fantastic hearing aid and a lot of people prefer the sound of it – really depends on individual preference which is why audiologists often offer more than one brand.)
I am not affiliated with any hearing aid brand!! but here is the info on Oticon’s lapel mic:
http://www.oticon.com/products/wireless-accessories/connectline/microphone.aspx You would need the Streamer to go with it.
The one thing that seems car-independent is rain noise. It’s gonna hit the windsheild no matter what.
To reduce road noises on any vehicle you can add Dynamat to your car. If you have good coverage under your door panels and carpet you can reduce the road noises by half. My brother always installs Dynamat in every vehicle he drives.
http://www.dynamat.com/automotive-and-transportation/car-audio/dynamat-xtreme/
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-GZ7vzCc0Gyu/learn/car-stereo-proving-ground-pt-4.html