Kia Soul and similar cars? Or vans?
Seems like you want a low floor and high ceiling for ease of access.
I just went through this helping a friend. My friend wanted a small suv but ended up with a small crossover. She drove the Forester, crosstrek, Honda CR-V, Toyota Rav, Mazda CX-5, Volkswagen Tiguan and an Audi. The Audi was used with a lot of miles and she loved the drive but it wasn’t practical. Her budget was 25,000. All the vehicles drove well. She ended up with the Subaru Crosstrex. Her budget was tight and you have to factor in tax and licensing when you look at costs. She loves her car but it wouldn’t work for a wheelchair.
My other friend replaced her Lexus SUV with a Kia Sorrento. She is happy one year later.
Find an automall and go and drive several different makes and see how each drives and what lines you like. My SIL got a Rav last year and my other SIL a Honda CRV. Similar cars, similar price just different styling.
When I went with my friend her test was how the car excelerated on a short freeway on ramp in our town.
“ Even looking at the current tech in vehicles is overwhelming for me - current vehicle was no frills at all.”
I love all the new tech and safety features. The other day I discovered a new one in my car. As I approached an intersection the car in front of me abruptly stopped and BRAKE flashed on my dashboard. I’ve had my car since August and I discover cool new things every few days. My favorite safety feature is the blind spot warning on my mirrors that pops up when a car is coming up and passing me.
While larger than you might want, we have loved our Acura MDX, and my DIL has the smaller RDX. The MDX has a third row which we have only used a handful of times, but it allowed us to have an SUV with a large storage area. We keep the third row down (and hidden) except for the few times we wanted to use the third row.
I actually looked at the Santa Fe in 2011; the main reason I didn’t have it at the top of my list is I wanted a car with an automatic closing hatch. My large SUV I had previously was getting hard to close, and since we keep our cars well over 10 years, I was afraid I would not be able to handle the hatch as I aged!
If you have Costco, we have been more than pleased with their car buy service. My husband recently purchased a new car, and look at several different brands. Costco sent us the dealers and sale person’s name; we visited and received a print out with the Costco pre approved pricing, so there was no back and forth with the price. We truly had a nice experience with each dealer. I did not look into AAA program with this car, but did in 2011; like Costco better at that time.
https://www.costco.com/auto-program-services.html
We have Sam’s (Costco wasn’t in our state till recently). I believe Sam’s has a similar car buying program. I’ve been wondering about trying it. Wonder if it is as good or if it would be worth getting a Costco membership.
@UCBalumnus1 - definitely not a !ow floor. That’s why we want to make the switch from a sedan - we’re both tall and finding it harder to get in and out of low floored sedans. The Santa fe was the perfect height for us both to get in and out of. Haven’t tested any others yet. Next Saturday we need to get out and do that.
Its overwhelming with all the choices
Is it low floor or low seat height that is the issue?
Probably both. I have arthritis in my knees and when it is flaring it is hard. My husband is having major back issues and the low seat/floor is a problem. Like yesterday - we had been out and his back was really bothering him (he can walk but only very short distances) - he almost fell into the car - and across my side - I was getting in not realizing and his hard head hit my shoulder.
He really liked the height and ease of getting into and out of the one crossover SUV we have test driven so far (the Hyundai). I will say I did not find the seat itself comfortable in the Santa fe, and I currently drive a Hyundai.
IME of subaru, costco had nothing to offer. The costco program is really not helpful if you can use the internet and can walk away from douchebags if they don’t work for you.
The bad experience I referred to in my initial post was partly (mostly) because of the internet price the dealer had out there. I went there over several dealers I had checked out (we are100 miles from 3 large cities and i check them all) because of their internet price which was better than anyone else’s. Except that it bore absolutely no relationship to a price they were actually willing to honor - by several thousand dollars. Their excuse - we weren’t eligible for all the discounts. Turned out they had included every incentive in their discount including disaster area (hundreds of miles from a disaster area) and discounts that actually couldn’t be taken together. I said itvwas deceptive and they said they don’t put the price out there, Hyundai does - to which my response was that we came to them because their internet price was so much lower than every other Hyundai dealer in 100 mile radius. Then they kept doing that nonesence of coming back with different monthly payments all of which were over MSRP when you totalled them up even though we told them we already had a bank loan. Oh, and they didn’t have the color I wanted and they said they’d see if they could find one and told me there was not one within 250 miles ( not true - there were several). I was actually willing to go for one of the colors they did have at the fictional internet price. I finally got annoyed and walked out when he did the “go talk to my manager” thing for 15 minutes then came back with More monthly payment numbers, insisted they were 0% financing and they still would have come to more than MSRP and much much more than the internet price. Let’s just say, if we do buy a Hyundai (looking less likely now I’ve started looking around), it will not be from them. We actually bought our current car from them and they did not pull any of that stuff back then.
My rather long way of saying I don’t trust the internet pricing after that experience.
My Chevy Trax crossover drives just like a car, but in a different body. (We are leasing for now, just turned in the Chevy Cruze sedan, and it’s the same driving feel.)
But I’m not sure the trunk would do it for you. It’s possible to get the trunk specs on various models and compare against the dimensions of a folded wheelchair, before leaving home.
The Toyota van drives more like a car than several of the SUVs I test-drove. It is also the same chasis as the sedans, I’ve read. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is to drive. Both our kids learned to drive on it as well and found it as easy to drive as the sedans.
My friend just bought a GMC Terrain and it was redesigned this year. Very snazzy. I test drove the old design last year and loved how easy it was to get in and out of.
I have an Outback and my D has the Crosstek. I have a ton more room in the trunk than she has. It is also very easy to fold down the back seats, a feature I love in Subaru.
I had to get a new car last year. Test drove the Subaru Outback, Chevy Equinox, GMC Terrain, Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape. Liked them all except the Ford (I think it was a dealer issue also). When I decided on a model, it was easy to check on prices between dealers and asked for the best price with the local dealer and they honored the best price I found.
If you like the Santa Fe and there are multiple dealers, I would email the different dealers and find who has a price you can live with. We also have an Elentra and understand that why you would stay with them.
My only advice with a bad back is to really check the seat comfort for the lower back. We have a Honda that is old, but the seat is very comfortable and supportive on the lower back, also adjustable lumbar support. Our second car is a nissan which was less expensive, but the seats are just not as comfortable nor as supportive. If you only drive around town, not much of an issue but if you commute by car or plan on longer trips, may be a consideration.
We have an Acura RDX which we really like, but the price point is higher than you are looking at. D1 just bought a new Hyundai Tucson in October and she loves it. I have ridden in it a couple of times and it is very nice. D2’s bf bought a new Subaru Crosstrek last year (his 2nd one) and it is a great car for the price.
We just went through the shopping process for a smaller SUV. Our budget was lower and we were looking at used cars mainly. There were several that we test drove and liked, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV-4, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester, and those were among our final choices. I feel like these would be a match for your budget and other requirements for height, trunk space, and gas mileage.
However, in doing my research, I found that the best deals were for pre-owned cars sold by the dealers(these were 1-2 years old and sometimes pre-certified as well). If you’re open to looking at these, your budget might accommodate a few more makes.
Some of the SUVs have heated seats with good lumbar support in the higher configurations only.
Regarding our car-shopping experience: We were able to get internet quotes and do most of our enquiries online by going through employee perks websites and also our local credit union’s similar website. The dealers responded to our queries promptly(most of the time) and sometimes we were able to negotiate the price down via email, reducing our interactions with the salespeople and their sneaky tactics to a minimum.
FWIW, our local Honda and Subaru dealers(both part of a bigger family owned chain) had well-maintained websites with frequent price updates and worked with us online/on the phone till we actually were ready to test-drive.
Funnily after all our research and comparison, we bought a car that wasn’t on the list because the dealer wasn’t able to sell it for 2 months and we got a great deal on it.
A friend told me that the best deals on cars are just before the end of the year because the dealers want to clear the inventory for the upcoming year. Don’t know if that is true since we didn’t have the patience to wait and find out.
We downsized a year ago after having a larger SUV as well as a Subaru Outback, and looked at CRVs, RAVs, Mazda, Nissan (what we got), and Subaru. I loved the way Mazda handled, but the dealer would not budge on price, and it was closer to $40 than $30k. A lot of people love CRV generally, and the new model I am seeing looks bigger than the older ones, but I personally found it a little claustrophobic inside. I drove RAV for an extended rental for while and found I wasn’t satisfied with the rear window visibility. Subaru Forester was great, but they were pricey for us. We are very happy with Nissan Rogue, great mileage, great price, as we purchased at the tail end of the inventory year and they were happy to clear the “old” models off the lot. All of those will be worth looking at, the visibility, comfort, and cabin feel is very personal, so try them all out and see how you respond!
Wife and I liked the Forester so much we bought two. I’ve taken mine on off-road trails that would give even a Jeep a good workout! Never ceases to amaze me how versatile this thing is… it’s great for road trips, great for commuting, highly capable AWD system, fun to drive, well priced.
I thought I was the only person who doesn’t like the visibility in the Rav4, so am very glad to see that @Midwestmomofboys had the same reaction. I will not buy another Rav4 as I have been panicked more than once when I really couldn’t see what was going on behind me and I needed to make a quick move to enter a lane, change lanes, etc.
If anyone can comment of the visibility of the Forester vis a vis the Rav4, I would love to hear your thoughts. The Rav4 experience turned me off SUVs, but maybe others have better sight lines.
I rent a lot of cars in connection with work travel and I’m seconding the opinion that you should also look at minivans. They are surprisingly easy to drive and are amazingly flexible vehicles. And I’m also seconding the importance of new technology like side blind spot warning and a good backup mirror. On a different note, if you aren’t driving many miles, what about a 2 year lease? You will be within the warranty the whole time. And this gives you the chance to see how things go for you.