station wagon vs small suv

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I'm looking for a new car for my wife. She is a small gal, so cars with big long expansive hoods are not her thing. She currently drives an old Saab which has become finicky. We are considering the new Volvo V60 station wagon with the base turbo 4 and the eight speed auto. It gets 37 highway miles and in the high twenties in the city. We are also considering an Acura RDX, based solely on the fact that Acuras are pretty much trouble free. Anyone have any experience with the new Volvo Station wagon, or even with their sedans and the 4 cyl turbo. Are Volvos as reliable as their reputation used to be?
 
You could always save a few bucks and look at a Subaru Forester.
Very easy to see out of and not exactly an SUV or a station wagon.
Pretty reliable as well.
Chinese Volvo?
Maybe not.
An Acura RDX would be fast but a fuel hog.
Not all that easy to see out of either.
 
From consumer Reports and folks I know it seems like recent Volvo has an average or better reliability. Very nice cars.
 
Are Volvos as reliable as their reputation used to be?

I've known Volvos to be durable, but not exactly reliable, and certainly not inexpensive to maintain and repair. I'd second the choice of a Subaru Forester or maybe a Jetta Sportwagon, since it's for your wife.
 
Volvo's have excellent seats. Skip the reliability worries and consider getting what she's more comfortable driving. Only a test drive will reveal that. Hopefully the test drive isn't on a smooth as glass road.
 
Quote:

Skip the reliability worries and consider getting what she's more comfortable driving.


+1; went car shopping with a female coworker years ago. Regardless of the attractiveness of getting a Legacy, the seat position was the pits; even the sales guy said he didn't like it. Got a 2005 RAV4 instead.
 
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the older Volvos were great the old 850 was a great car todays volvos are still good they are fords pretty much just like jaguar ws
 
thanks to all for replies. not a Subie fan
I like the Volvo because I like the idea of a luxury interior without paying stupid money. am worried that five years from now may be as hard to service as my Saab.
 
Originally Posted By: PeterGreen
thanks to all for replies. not a Subie fan
I like the Volvo because I like the idea of a luxury interior without paying stupid money. am worried that five years from now may be as hard to service as my Saab.

Who made the basic design of the new ones? The last ones were based on a Mazda3. If its a clean sheet design, well I would wait and see how they do.
Also you could spend some time talking to service manager and get some book times for common stuff. If every job starts with "remove the front end" like some audis then maybe just lease it.
 
Most of the cars I've owned in the past 18 years have been Volvos. 85 240, 98 V70, 02 S40, '13 XC60. I keep going back because of good experience. All still on the road but we only currently own the last two.

Seats and interior can't be matched.
 
i always liked subies but there are still engine problems floating around we had a 2008 in the shop with the famous head gasket problem at 88,000 miles
And lately there have been reports of oil burning on some although we did not have any of the new ones in the shop for that problem i guess the warranty is paying for them as theyare pretty new.
Lately there have been problems with a lot of engines the 3.6 from gm is one of them..
 
Originally Posted By: PeterGreen
I'm looking for a new car for my wife. She is a small gal, so cars with big long expansive hoods are not her thing. She currently drives an old Saab which has become finicky. We are considering the new Volvo V60 station wagon with the base turbo 4 and the eight speed auto. It gets 37 highway miles and in the high twenties in the city. We are also considering an Acura RDX, based solely on the fact that Acuras are pretty much trouble free. Anyone have any experience with the new Volvo Station wagon, or even with their sedans and the 4 cyl turbo. Are Volvos as reliable as their reputation used to be?

My wife and I, like you, are looking for a vehicle and considering V60. She drove an '06 scion tC, put just under 200K miles on it before we sold it. She especially liked tC's size and also reliability, peppiness, ability to fit in awkward items. I thought we get something safer and more comfortable for her, hopefully with better highway gas mileage. The other candidate is Mazda3 2.4L hatchback. We test drove both of these cars multiple times as she's still not sure which one to get, but I can share our impressions if you'd like. As far as reliability of new Volvo drive-E engines it's too early to tell, but it will be the engine for fwd models of V60, S60, S80, and XC60 models so hopefully they did due quality assurance.
 
I think three row SUVs are pretty dumb. Difficult rear bench access for car seats, sometimes the bench is flat with the footwell (eg escalade), and unless a suburban, poor cargo space with the third row up, etc.

At that point a van makes sense.

But for a two row vehicle, the world's your oyster. See what is the best to drive between wagons and SUVs and go after that.

If shopping used, the tsx wagon will likely be highly overpriced, but also a good compromise, and not the gas pig that the Acura SUVs seem to be.
 
Originally Posted By: Eddie
+1 Subaru Forester is a great vehicle. Excellent visability, reliability and cost to own.


I maintain one of these and it is neither reliable or economical to own. It's also really hard to repair.
 
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