Looking for a New Used Subaru... or a Minivan

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anl0109

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After an accident -- everybody is ok to my knowledge which is a blessing -- my old '02 Subaru Forester will be totaled. Real bummer. So now looking to replace the car. First thought was to go with a Subaru Forester or another crossover SUV with AWD. The 2009MY and newer Foresters appeal to us as a family because we are familiar with Subarus (and like them), they have a good amount of room, have a great AWD system, are pretty reliable and are very safe.

Right now, the other car, '09 Hyundai Sonata, carries the car seat for our 18 month old. Now, if we have more children then perhaps a minivan would be the way to go. I know little about them. Would like something reliable, fairly fuel efficient and safe so gravitated to late model year used Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Mazda5's. (Infotainment and top-on-the-line options/features are not top priority.)

Wondering if there are any suggestions from forum members about those particular models and owning a minivan vs crossover/SUV in terms of overall experience, DIY maintenance, etc. Sorry if this is too open-ended but I do appreciate any thoughts.
 
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Subaru has the best resale values of all the auto manufactures and buying new is a better option. Leasing is priced lower too due to higher than normal residual values.
 
2015 forester base model is 22300$ with Manual Transmission about 21500$
 
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The Mazda 5 will be by far the easiest to maintain. The Sienna and Odyssey have transverse V6 engines that are difficult to service; have fun getting to the back of the engine!
 
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
The Mazda 5 will be by far the easiest to maintain. The Sienna and Odyssey have transverse V6 engines that are difficult to service; have fun getting to the back of the engine!



How is Mazda5 reliability? Is it comparable to Forester and Sienna which while different cars have very strong reliability looking back 5 years or so (per CR)?
 
Originally Posted By: anl0109
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
The Mazda 5 will be by far the easiest to maintain. The Sienna and Odyssey have transverse V6 engines that are difficult to service; have fun getting to the back of the engine!



How is Mazda5 reliability? Is it comparable to Forester and Sienna which while different cars have very strong reliability looking back 5 years or so (per CR)?


It's very good. I would consider one if I was in the market. I drove my brother's new 2015 a month ago and was very impressed.
 
Originally Posted By: anl0109
... Right now, the other car, '09 Hyundai Sonata, carries the car seat for our 18 month old. Now, if we have more children then perhaps a minivan would be the way to go. I know little about them. Would like something reliable, fairly fuel efficient and safe so gravitated to late model year used Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Mazda5's. (Infotainment and top-on-the-line options/features are not top priority. ...


If you can afford/justify having a heavier vehicle (MPG loss, costlier repairs) you'll do well to seriously consider a minivan for your family. Sliding doors (power sliding doors especially) are amazing with small kids and carriers. Relatives can usually squeeze in for short trips with the family out. Modern US minivans have crazy power and features and used minivans don't usually hold their value as well as SUVs. Odyclub.com is a good community to explore even if you don't want an Odyssey. 07-10 Odysseys seem to me to be the sweet-spot of reliability and cost although the VCM can be annoying. 2nd gen and later are very safe vehicles.

The Mazda5 is a compelling package. I'm considering it to replace the Vibe. Offered with a manual, 4cyl of good reliability, made in Japan (if you're into that). Some suspension issues and problems with sliding door latches especially in cold temps. Still worth a good look.

(Glad your family is OK)
 
[censored] thing about Mazda 5 is in order to carry 3 folks in back you need to use cramped rear of vehicle losing valuable cargo space.

It is 2+2+tiny rear seat for 2 and no cargo. The only advantage offered by Mazda is able to carry 6 people with no cargo instead of 5 with cargo over Subaru. It does not even offer a real MPG advantage. Obviously you know servicing a Subaru is dead simple and Mazda offers little more over it.

A midsize Crossover or minivan is likely best choice for future in terms of getting 7-8 passenger capability.
 
Originally Posted By: madRiver
[censored] thing about Mazda 5 is in order to carry 3 folks in back you need to use cramped rear of vehicle losing valuable cargo space.

It is 2+2+tiny rear seat for 2 and no cargo. The only advantage offered by Mazda is able to carry 6 people with no cargo instead of 5 with cargo over Subaru. It does not even offer a real MPG advantage. Obviously you know servicing a Subaru is dead simple and Mazda offers little more over it.

A midsize Crossover or minivan is likely best choice for future in terms of getting 7-8 passenger capability.


Yes, I am concerned about MZ5 being kind of cramped... trying to find one locally to look at and drive but the closest one to me is some 75 miles away so only browsing now. The local Mazda dealer has no MZ5's used or new. Strange.

I am pretty well aware of Subaru maintenance at this point (owned my Forester for 5 years) and overall it's not bad although some special tools and dealer were required for a few things. I'd rather buy a newer Forester personally but not sure that it will work for two kids... Pretty sure three is out of the question for a crossover.
 
Honda engines are easy to work on- getting to all the plugs is pretty easy and you do not have to be contortionist. Power doors on odyssey are easy to fix- lot of resources on the web. They seem much less complicated that Toyota sliding doors.

I have 2 kids and we do lot of road trips in our odyssey. Love the space and comfort.
 
Originally Posted By: dblshock
lot of Subie lemons out there..

http://tradeinqualityindex.com/

whens the last time you saw a nice older Subie out on the road? almost never.


Odd site that it explains absolutely nothing behind the numbers and how derived. What makes you believe anything on that? Where is data from and who? It mentions trade ins so what if a make happens to have a high level of single owners. Also who is doing stats taking?
 
Originally Posted By: dblshock
lot of Subie lemons out there..

http://tradeinqualityindex.com/

whens the last time you saw a nice older Subie out on the road? almost never.


The post above will probably generate a lot of attention. Hope it won't derail the thread... But there might be a lot of Soob lemons out there... but mine did quite well and looked fantastic at 14.5 years of age before it got hit. I've seen a good number of nice looking 15+ year old Subarus. Not sure if that's considered old but I thought I'd mention it.
 
Test drove 2009-10 Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey yesterday. Will look at Mazda5 today hopefully. Due to pretty low sales volume they are hard to find. I also found out that the 2015MY is the last one as, from what I read, Mazda is discontinuing manufacturing the model and not replacing it with anything comparable. Price-wise Sienna/Odyssey and Mazda5 are way different but they're different cars period so not really worth comparing. Hertz R2B is offering a '13 MZ5 with 55K for $10.5K which is pretty impressive though.
 
A new/used Subaru and a minivan are kind of opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of vehicles, so IMO, you've got to work out exactly what you want.

I've got both.. and 4 kids. LOL. My XV Crosstrek is mainly my work commuter. The Missus can't/won't drive it anyway, because it's a 5spd manual. Our 2013 Grand Caravan pretty much never cools off. With 5-7 people (mostly kids) in the GC, we average 19mpg daily driving. It can get close to 25mpg on long highway trips. That's similar mileage to a small SUV or cross-over, but more size/utility/comfort.
 
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Originally Posted By: JTK
A new/used Subaru and a minivan are kind of opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of vehicles, so IMO, you've got to work out exactly what you want.


From my point of view and for our needs, they're not exactly opposite.

We ended up with a black 2014 Mazda5, 30K miles. Hope it will be good for the family. Better half really likes it so that's a big plus.
smile.gif
 
Good choice. What trim did you go with? How would you rate the quality of the interior materials?
 
Originally Posted By: B20z
Good choice. What trim did you go with? How would you rate the quality of the interior materials?



Sorry about not responding earlier - didn't see the message. Ended up with a black ext. / black int. Sport trim with automatic transmission. Pretty basic package overall. Quality of materials and overall build appears to be average. Although it's subjective so my response probably won't be very helpful. I'd say that Honda and Toyota minivans are superior in quality but are also large in size and drive differently. Happy with the choice so far.
 
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