NEW Vehicle Advice / Recommendations: Anyone? Subaru or Toyota? What says the gang?

SammyChevelleTypeS3 said:
NEW Vehicle (SUV) Advice / Recommendations: Anyone.... Subaru or Toyota?
A little help/info? What would you go with? Subaru or a Toyota? I know there are several BITOG people who own both.
About all I know about Subaru is that they use the "boxer" style engines.

We have bought Hondas ONLY since the 1990s. We are done finally done with Honda after over 30 years for a few reasons. Honda has made it very clear since about 2016 they no longer care about their long time customers. They have also been slipping a bit quality wise. (still rated #4 in the top ten according to consumers) Honda still will not admit the issues they are having with the tiny (diluter) GDI-Turbo engines they continue to make standard equipment in several models. We still own two Honda Accords. The last one we purchased , the 2018 Accord seems smaller (interior) with very uncomfortable front seats than the 2009 Accord that I still use mostly. Wife loves her 2018. It runs and drives great , but has lots of wind noise on highway and always has that gas in the oil. Also IMHO way too tiny oil sump they build them with. We are looking/need something for two people with bad necks/backs etc... Easy to get in and out etc....

I truly value the opinions of the majority of the people here @ BITOG....
Wife is in need of a new ride for work and for grandma duties. We need something that we can get in and out of easily for two people with many back and neck issues. Wife will use it to do short 12 miles round trip work drives 5 days a week. Also some 120 mile round trips to visit and to take the grandkids places. We also may start to attempt some longer road trips again to visit other son and family, if we find it comfortable enough to start doing those again.
So, I have ridden with my oldest son in his 2019 Toyota Rav4 that he raves about. I was very impressed with it over all. The seats and the highway ride in it was really comfortable. I also found it to ride really well and very quiet on the interstates. I have zero experience with Subaru but have always been intrigued by them. I have never really heard anyone at all complain about owning or maintaining either Toyotas or the Subaru SUVs.
We are looking at the Toyota Rav4 or the Subaru Forrester models. We find they seem not too big and not too small compared to others. Plan to do some test drives over the next few weeks. Any comments / experience will be appreciated.
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I'm 6'7" 300+ so my observations are based on comfort for me

Yeah, the egress and ingress are more tight on the prior gen Accords as compared to the generation before that. I rented a 2022 Accord Hybrid in 2023 and while I really enjoyed driving it around the mountains in Southern California, getting in required some contortion and one time I whacked my knee pretty bad on the dash trying to get in fast. That alone decided for me that I would never own one. I don't know about the newest (current) generation, haven't tried one.

I've also rented a Camry Hybrid in the last few years, it is comfortable once you're in it, but the seat was low for my taste. I definitely felt like I was sitting down into it. I was able to achieve 58mpg on this car driving around Seattle and Whidbey Island, if anyone cares about such things. Considering I paid over $5 a gallon to fill it up before returning it, I was glad for this high fuel mileage at that time.

The Rav4 is the best selling car in America but I have not rented one of the latest generation models, they are new this year. The older ones were not great on interior space for a person of my size but maybe the new ones are bigger. They are competent drivers but boring and if you don't get the hybrid the fuel economy is not great IMO at the kind of speeds we drive here in Texas. (I think the new ones are hybrid only).

The Highlander is much more roomy and I would definitely recommend if you can afford it. They are expensive though. The lowest trim you can get the hybrid with is the XLE and such equipped is $48315 with no options. The very lowest trim, the non-hybrid LE is over $40K also.

Oddly the Grand Highlander Hybrid starting price is about $2000 lower according to the Toyota website. Reason seems to be that they offer the hybrid in an LE trim on the Grand Highlander.

I am a not Subaru fan personally. However the last time I sat in a Forester, I did find it roomy in the front seat area.

What about an Outlander? The new generation is pretty roomy up front, it was plenty for me. We drove them and liked them. It's based on the Rogue but without the wacky VC-turbo variable compression 3 cylinder. Our 2018 Outlander was dead nuts reliable. We considered replacing it with a 2024 Outlander PHEV, but we went all EV.

(However, we would consider a PHEV again in the future if the OEMs gave them more EV only range so that we only rarely used the gas engine around town. Begrugingly on my part, more enthusiastically on the wife's part)
 
CKN said:
So buy something before 1970??
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I will personally never own a vehicle with points again. Electronic ignition is just vastly superior, and nobody can say that OEM platforms like the HEI distributor are not reliable. If I bought a classic car, the first thing I would do was convert it. I could live with a carb, but points ignition no way.
 
Brons2 said:
I'm 6'7" 300+ so my observations are based on comfort for me

Yeah, the egress and ingress are more tight on the prior gen Accords as compared to the generation before that. I rented a 2022 Accord Hybrid in 2023 and while I really enjoyed driving it around the mountains in Southern California, getting in required some contortion and one time I whacked my knee pretty bad on the dash trying to get in fast. That alone decided for me that I would never own one. I don't know about the newest (current) generation, haven't tried one.

I've also rented a Camry Hybrid in the last few years, it is comfortable once you're in it, but the seat was low for my taste. I definitely felt like I was sitting down into it. I was able to achieve 58mpg on this car driving around Seattle and Whidbey Island, if anyone cares about such things. Considering I paid over $5 a gallon to fill it up before returning it, I was glad for this high fuel mileage at that time.

The Rav4 is the best selling car in America but I have not rented one of the latest generation models, they are new this year. The older ones were not great on interior space for a person of my size but maybe the new ones are bigger. They are competent drivers but boring and if you don't get the hybrid the fuel economy is not great IMO at the kind of speeds we drive here in Texas. (I think the new ones are hybrid only).

The Highlander is much more roomy and I would definitely recommend if you can afford it. They are expensive though. The lowest trim you can get the hybrid with is the XLE and such equipped is $48315 with no options. The very lowest trim, the non-hybrid LE is over $40K also.

Oddly the Grand Highlander Hybrid starting price is about $2000 lower according to the Toyota website. Reason seems to be that they offer the hybrid in an LE trim on the Grand Highlander.

I am a not Subaru fan personally. However the last time I sat in a Forester, I did find it roomy in the front seat area.

What about an Outlander? The new generation is pretty roomy up front, it was plenty for me. We drove them and liked them. It's based on the Rogue but without the wacky VC-turbo variable compression 3 cylinder. Our 2018 Outlander was dead nuts reliable. We considered replacing it with a 2024 Outlander PHEV, but we went all EV.

(However, we would consider a PHEV again in the future if the OEMs gave them more EV only range so that we only rarely used the gas engine around town. Begrugingly on my part, more enthusiastically on the wife's part)
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Thanks. Just the kind of feedback from experienced folks with what we are looking into. (y)
 
Ranger83 said:
Those ads are pretty amusing.

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Funny stuff. Some how .... about 18 years ago ? We became "cat people."
A pregnant cat showed up. Dropped (4) on our patio and stayed around. We kept one of the females along with the mom. Got them fixed to prevent more from showing up. Installed a pet door into my garage so the can come and go as they please.
 
AutoMechanic said:
I will tell you that as a Toyota dealer tech I’m not happy with Toyota and their quality and quality control recently. It’s one thing after the other these days. And normally I’d go out of my way to get a Toyota but not anymore. Between leaking shocks on the RAV4, coolant shut off valves on the RAV4 and just various other issues across multiple models including the RAV4 I’m just not impressed anymore and record high numbers of recalls. And are very picky on warranty work you’re lucky if they will cover it. Or if the vehicle is just slightly out of warranty you’re not going to get any support or help like you will with Subaru. I used to be a Subaru tech and when I was they were amazing vehicles besides a few select issues but they were known and Subaru actually cares and will take care of the customer. Toyota basically tells you to go pound sand. Toyota knows people will buy for the name so they have stopped caring.
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Thanks for that blunt , I am confident "spot on" analysis that some folks may not be too quick to share. Especially employees.
I am the same way. I share. If I know something that can affect or help others. I can't hold it in.
OOOF! Even though it has bit me on occasion "LoL or ouch" at times! My bud used to always tell me "Sammy , never forget .... No good deed goes unpunished!" But its hard :unsure:to hold back when you know something. You know.

I am sad to hear what is going on with Toyota. I heard a tiny bit of grumbling over the last 12/14 months but thought it was normal.
The same kind of thing you have noticed with Toyota is the stuff that has made me decide we are thru with Honda vehicles. They still refuse to admit the issues they are having with the tiny GDI-Turbo engines they been stuffing into their vehicles the past several years.
 
I like them both, but Toyotas were never worth the additional price the dealers were used to getting MSRP+
Being further upside down in a liability never seemed the way to go.

We went with Subaru and it's been a perfect little rig for my parents.

Between the two dealers the Subaru guys wanted to do a deal the toyota guys didnt even talk.
 
CharBaby said:
I always take my time and drive just about every vehicle in the segment that I’m looking at. Even the same vehicles from different dealerships this way I can judge consistency in the quality and trim levels. Often, vehicles surprise me. For example, the vehicle that ranks lower on my list is way better than I gave it credit for. And the top rated/scoring vehicles according to the PRESS, I often like the least, almost feeling that I’ve been misled.
I look for things that are most important to me and my criteria, the roads that I drive, my particular climate and how exactly I will be using the vehicle 95% of the time, not the 5% that I might use it.
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Oh yeah. For certain, this time we will take time and do several test drives. Unlike the last one. I let the wife rush me. I never have done a car purchase rushed like that before and would not have purchased a car with the tiny GDI-Turbo that we ended up with. Not this time.
 
UncleDave said:
I like them both, but Toyotas were never worth the additional price the dealers were used to getting MSRP+
Being further upside down in a liability never seemed the way to go.

We went with Subaru and it's been a perfect little rig for my parents.

Between the two dealers the Subaru guys wanted to do a deal the toyota guys didnt even talk.
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Yes. Unfortunately that is what I keep hearing as of late. Subaru is in the dealing mood and Toyota never is. Pay what we ask or go elsewhere is the attitude I have been told. My son ended up buying his Rav4 a couple years old. I don't mind buying used once in a while but this one I am wanting to be brand new - full oem warranty with no surprises.
 
CT Rob said:
I just got a 25 Forester Wilderness and freaking love it.I traded my 17 Tundra with 98,000mi for it. Couldn't be happier with my choice.
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Sounds nice. I am sure we are going to drive one of them. I like the looks I see when I pass the Subie dealership. Been eyeing a 2025 White w black trim Forester. Trying to make a good pick this time. We rarely put many miles on anything these days. YET, I have some hope if we can get something we are comfortable in that we can get back to making some short road trips like we used to do.
 
I had another RAV4 today 8,000 miles with bad shocks on it. Had to reject it for state inspection until the shocks come in for it. For some reason we have gotten in a bunch of new cars off the trucks with dead batteries too. Toyota needs to do better than this. I’m not sure if you read about all the new Tacoma they shipped with bad brake hoses so they had to stop sale of them and advise customers not to drive them if they owned one.

Toyota reps came out a few weeks ago and told us our dealership submits too many warranty claims as they don’t ever have issues with their products then we showed them proof in person and they are like oh.
 
AutoMechanic said:
I had another RAV4 today 8,000 miles with bad shocks on it. Had to reject it for state inspection until the shocks come in for it. For some reason we have gotten in a bunch of new cars off the trucks with dead batteries too. Toyota needs to do better than this. I’m not sure if you read about all the new Tacoma they shipped with bad brake hoses so they had to stop sale of them and advise customers not to drive them if they owned one.

Toyota reps came out a few weeks ago and told us our dealership submits too many warranty claims as they don’t ever have issues with their products then we showed them proof in person and they are like oh.
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You left out the 2022 and 2023 Tundra Engine replacements….
 
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