Originally Posted by buster
I've been thinking about my next car, which will likely be some type of vehicle that can handle driving on the beach with ease. Tacomas, CrossTrek and the new Rav4 due out in early 2019 are on my list. What other economical, reliable vehicles are out there with capable AWD sytems that will handle light trails and beach use? Mazda's AWD seems decent, but I'm not sure it can handle the beach.
I don't see anything beating the Crosstrek and new Rav4 for value, reliablity and AWD performance.
Forester would be a good bet. Economical and reliable in our experience, although the older one isn't all that economical.
There is probably no better AWD system in any vehicle, much less a moderately priced one than that found in Subies.
The two liter is apparently quite slow by all accounts, but the current NA 2.5 seems plenty strong in our '17.
Fuel economy also beats our '12 Accord in the same use as driven by my wife, who loves the AWD a few days out of the year as well as the high seating position.
This means she'll hate our new Accord. LOL!
I'll add that to some extent your thread title is mutually exclusive in that I think you're looking for a reasonable blend of three distinct attributes.
No one machine can or does excel in all three.