Parents are thinking about a new car.

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My mom calls me about of the blue to check in on me since I got a cold over weekend but also to ask me about getting another car to replace their minivan as a daily driver. They currently drive a 2005 Sienna I've done all the work on, it's been a good van but they miss their Prius.

They are considering a Subaru but I also mentioned to them the new RAV4 Prime is coming out. They are in their late 60s, they do want good MPG but also safety and I think since one of their friends pulling up in a '19 Outback 3.6R with EyeSight and the family who "adpoted" me lives across the street from them with an Ascent piqued their interest. They do have solar panels to anticipate a planned EV purchase - they were spooked by Tesla(and not ready to stomach $50K on a Model 3). So my mom also wants the ADAS. They aren't in a huge rush right now but we'll see if oil prices spike up.

I was thinking about steering them towards a 2014-2019 Outback 2.5X Limited/Touring if they can't wait for the RAV4 Prime(or want to pay for a new car note, but they are still planning on financing it anyway). I know about the oil comsumption issues and CVT warranty extension. Supposedly the later FB25s have the oil consumption fixed. How's the MPG on those? I know a friend gets 28-30mpg on his 2012 Fozzie with crossbars installed, it goes down to 22-25mpg with a ski rack installed. Any other issues with that generation of Outback/Forester besides the rings and CVT?
 
My mom's '18 Forester just topped 40k; her lifetime mileage according to the dash calculator is 32.2 (she does lots of highway driving and rarely if ever breaks 70mph). Hasn't used any oil since new, CVT has been flawless, and the UOAs are lower than universal averages. She asks me every time we talk about it why she waited so long to listen to my recommendation of getting one. "Women.
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Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Can they afford a CRV hybrid?
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I looked at that. No standard AWD(since I might have privileges to borrow the car for Tahoe), and my parents don't seem like Honda people.

They know a salesman at a Subaru dealer, I know people at the local Toyota(parts) and Honda(sales and service advisor/manager) dealer.
 
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
My mom's '18 Forester just topped 40k; her lifetime mileage according to the dash calculator is 32.2 (she does lots of highway driving and rarely if ever breaks 70mph). Hasn't used any oil since new, CVT has been flawless, and the UOAs are lower than universal averages. She asks me every time we talk about it why she waited so long to listen to my recommendation of getting one. "Women.
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That's good - it's close to Subaru's claims and no roof rack does help. The car will see highway miles, one big plus with the RAV4 Prime is HOV stickers.

My parents would be good candidates for a Fozzie too.
 
The more you wait, the more ADAS technology improves. If they only have 1 vehicle, I'd be hesitant to get a plug in only EV unless they are comfortable with staying in range.
 
My experience with a 2016 Subaru Forester limited with eyesight living in the lower peninsula of Michigan has not been good.

We bought a used 1 year old model with 28K miles in September 2017. When I was driving the car in a heavy rain on the freeway, the car started fishtailing. We had to slow down to 55 to make it safe. After searching online, we replaced the tires as most answers we found said that the original tires were not good. In the first snow that year with my son driving, the car again started to fishtail. More internet searching turned up the term "ghostwalking" and that the alignment was the problem. We took the car in for an alignment and as I was explaining to the service writer my problem, a mechanic nearby me that overheard said that "all Foresters do that". The service manager also heard what was said. She came over and took the repair form and crossed off the $89.95 cost of alignment, said " that alignment will not cost you anything" , and told the service writer to record the alignment settings so they could be sent to the zone rep. This has not fixed our problem. The car still fishtails when driving over a slippery patch of road. This would not annoy me so much, but I have been passed by front wheel drive cars and 2 wheel drive pickup on those same roads. We now have put 4 snow tires on it which has helped but not eliminated the problem. This problem does not occur if the roads are dry.

On the good side, we do not have the oil consumption issues and it does get good fuel mileage averaging about 28mpg year round according to the in dash readouts.

I would trade it in but the value has dropped to the point that I am being offered about 50% of the price that I paid.

We recently test drove a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid AWD and if we could get a better trade in, would buy that. It rides nicer that our Forester, showed over 50mpg on our 15 mile test drive, and I would not have to drive to a dealer 1 hour away whenever we needed something done to the car.

Just my experience with a late model Subaru.
 
Originally Posted by Leo99
The more you wait, the more ADAS technology improves. If they only have 1 vehicle, I'd be hesitant to get a plug in only EV unless they are comfortable with staying in range.

The RAV4 Prime is a PHEV. They have another car, and they will keep the van around.
 
Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Can they afford a CRV hybrid?
smile.gif


my parents don't seem like Honda people.



I see people of all shapes, sizes and walks of life driving Hondas. Including my parents.

What exactly does a Honda person look like? Can you describe your stereotype?
 
Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Can they afford a CRV hybrid?
smile.gif


I looked at that. No standard AWD(since I might have privileges to borrow the car for Tahoe), and my parents don't seem like Honda people.

They know a salesman at a Subaru dealer, I know people at the local Toyota(parts) and Honda(sales and service advisor/manager) dealer.


Buy an AWD vehicle if you feel you need one, and let your parents buy a vehicle without AWD if they don't need or want one.
 
AWD is a personal preference but if and when they decide to trade in that Subie for something else the lack of AWD will affect the value. People equate crossovers and Subaru's with AWD.

Do they travel in situations where AWD could be helpful ?
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
AWD is a personal preference but if and when they decide to trade in that Subie for something else the lack of AWD will affect the value. People equate crossovers and Subaru's with AWD.

Do they travel in situations where AWD could be helpful ?

nthach mentioned borrowing the car to go to tahoe, which i assume is for skiing.

The advantage of AWD is not needing to put snow chains on for R1 and R2 conditions (just need to carry them).

2WD vehicles will need to use snow chains in R2 conditions.

R3, chains for all, is rare
 
my mom loves her 2017 CRV and have had no issues with it. gets 30 mpg mixed . the EX trim has all the good safety features. resale is also good on them.
 
How about just the regular Rav4 hybrid if they don't want to wait for the PHEV version? You get AWD (although maybe not Subaru level of traction) but also higher mpg than the Subaru.
 
Originally Posted by Brons2
Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Can they afford a CRV hybrid?
smile.gif


my parents don't seem like Honda people.



I see people of all shapes, sizes and walks of life driving Hondas. Including my parents.

What exactly does a Honda person look like? Can you describe your stereotype?

My mom never liked Honda for some reason. My dad actually liked a few of their designs and drove an older CB7 Accord for a while.

I did look at the CR-V Hybrid and it does look promising. They actually considered a CR-V a while back.
 
Originally Posted by WhyMe
my mom loves her 2017 CRV and have had no issues with it. gets 30 mpg mixed . the EX trim has all the good safety features. resale is also good on them.

That 1.5T is kinda unnerving for me - my family keeps cars beyond 10 years. I drove a newer CR-V when The Critic dropped off a care package to my apartment. I do like how they drive and Honda Sensing does feel pretty transparent.

The new PCM and climate control update from what he told me is an effort to fix the fuel dilution on the L15Ts.
 
I'm going to zig where others have zagged and suggest a Buick Regal TourX, which is an excellent vehicle that should be able to be had heavily discounted now. If they cant get over Buick's reputation, just point out that it's designed and built in Germany.
 
my 2014 Mazda 6 has for the money been the most impressive car new I have owned. Flawless so far.
 
Originally Posted by littlehulkster
I'm going to zig where others have zagged and suggest a Buick Regal TourX...


There's always one...
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