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Compact to Midsize SUV Recommendations
- Thread starter One1Bravo
- Start date
Have you thought about just getting a nice minivan instead?
Unless you actually need higher ground clearance, a minivan will give you more room and more comfort than most of the SUVs
Honda, Toyota and lots of other brands make some really nice ones.
In my case I just sold my 2014 Ford Raptor and am waiting on a 4wd hybrid minivan to ship.
Unless you actually need higher ground clearance, a minivan will give you more room and more comfort than most of the SUVs
Honda, Toyota and lots of other brands make some really nice ones.
In my case I just sold my 2014 Ford Raptor and am waiting on a 4wd hybrid minivan to ship.
I put a daytona grey pearl '15 Audi Q5 3.0tdi in Premium Plus trim level in our stable a little over a year ago. Put 30k on it since then (odo shows ~90k now) and it is becoming my favorite vehicle owned. Had a Malone stage 2 tune flashed this summer and conservative estimate is 305hp/490lbft. Thinking of doing the DPF/Adblue delete to help it breathe better. But this thing does it all: 35mpg economy if you can keep your foot out of all the torque, handles like you'd expect out of a much smaller sport car, great ride on the highway, comfortable and well built interior with superb fit and finish. Kid at work took it to get lunch for the office a couple times and now he owns one too, lol. I use it for commuting and hunting. Does the job on logging roads and gravel just fine. Winter tires and the quattro system are absolutely fantastic for the WI winters as well.
If you do go euro, my advice would be to stay away from any of the 4 banger engine options as it seems like they are sort of disposable things that are wrung out so much to meet the power and economy demands that it starts digging into the reliability. I have done all the recommended maintenance on it myself so far and it is engineered well enough for a hack like me to get after it with no problems and no special tools. Getting ready to change brakes in the next couple weeks here. Parts are on my bench already. Good luck on your hunt, and hope this helps. Hit me up if you need more info on the tdi Q5 if you start leaning that way. Happy to discuss a car that I really enjoy.
Semper Fidelis,
Aaron
If you do go euro, my advice would be to stay away from any of the 4 banger engine options as it seems like they are sort of disposable things that are wrung out so much to meet the power and economy demands that it starts digging into the reliability. I have done all the recommended maintenance on it myself so far and it is engineered well enough for a hack like me to get after it with no problems and no special tools. Getting ready to change brakes in the next couple weeks here. Parts are on my bench already. Good luck on your hunt, and hope this helps. Hit me up if you need more info on the tdi Q5 if you start leaning that way. Happy to discuss a car that I really enjoy.
Semper Fidelis,
Aaron
I bought myself a Jaguar F-Pace S when they first came out in 2017. I am at about 74k and it is the first SUV I have owned that I was not compelled to get rid of at that mileage.
It is pretty quick, is fun to drive and is well put together.
It is light though so I need to keep that in mind during what can be tough Wisconsin winters. I ran P-zeros in summer and Scorpions for winter which is the best option and made up for the lack of sheer weight. I got sick of swapping tires and now run good all seasons.
I hit every option box when I ordered it and got 22's Put it in the mid 70's price range so in a sense a decent value.
It suits the sport better than the utility, but that suits my needs.
P.S. the 825W Meridian kicks ass for manufacture sound.
I have had other imports so in the back of my mind the thought of $$ maint. lingers, but so far so good.
It is pretty quick, is fun to drive and is well put together.
It is light though so I need to keep that in mind during what can be tough Wisconsin winters. I ran P-zeros in summer and Scorpions for winter which is the best option and made up for the lack of sheer weight. I got sick of swapping tires and now run good all seasons.
I hit every option box when I ordered it and got 22's Put it in the mid 70's price range so in a sense a decent value.
It suits the sport better than the utility, but that suits my needs.
P.S. the 825W Meridian kicks ass for manufacture sound.
I have had other imports so in the back of my mind the thought of $$ maint. lingers, but so far so good.
Assuming you have the 35t with the turbo 6 and not the diesel? It's just to haul myself and the two kids around. Mostly myself though. I don't need much utility, but I'd like my rifle cases to fit in the back even if I have to fold down the seats.
The back storage is decent with the seats folded. I have the 3.0L V6 Supercharged, puts it at 380 HP I think the thing is all aluminum so the weight is slight compared to many SUV's
like many others have said, I’d look into the Japanese market. Just bought my wife a 2021 Honda passport and she loves it. We wanted a Lexus but with the market the way it was when we bought we couldn’t find anything halfway decent.
Toyota has a shitty interior, they always have. Our Honda isn’t bad, Acura and Lexus are nice.
Toyota has a shitty interior, they always have. Our Honda isn’t bad, Acura and Lexus are nice.
4Runner-replace the head unit with something nice that has all the bells and whistles the new cars have.
I'm sure I'll catch flak on this; but, a good buddy of mine is a Land Cruiser nut. He is emphatic, and I'm starting to drink the Kool-aid, that a REAL SUV is NOT a unit-body design, but a body-on-frame design. Anything else is a crossover vehicle.
Curious to know what you guys think about that logic. Again, I'm not 100% on this as I've looked at unit-body SUV's, but I always keep going back to sequoia or land cruiser.
He's looking at this from a trail and tow perspective, not a primary road vehicle.
Curious to know what you guys think about that logic. Again, I'm not 100% on this as I've looked at unit-body SUV's, but I always keep going back to sequoia or land cruiser.
He's looking at this from a trail and tow perspective, not a primary road vehicle.
Hardcore trail toys maybe. REAL DAILY DRIVER SUV is whatever the fuck you want to live with. If you want to try living with a purpose built rock crawler, or a purpose built sand rail, or a purpose built 7 sec drag racer every day be my guest but that sounds fucking awful
Another vote for the 4Runner. It's on a frame, super capable. We ordered ours new in 2016, it's been great. Back then, I ordered theTrail, a step over the SR5, it has the actual transfer case lever instead of the dial, crawl control, all that stuff that we never use...
They are lacking in the tech though
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Just get a trackhawk. Grand Cherokee comfort and motor to go with it.
As for expensive maintenance, go to the stealership and get yourself an oil filter for a 21 jeep gladiator ecodiesel. 104 bucks for a mopar branded one, fuel filter is 60. Local parts houses don’t carry oil filter in stock. Ordered three off amazon for 68 shipped.
As for expensive maintenance, go to the stealership and get yourself an oil filter for a 21 jeep gladiator ecodiesel. 104 bucks for a mopar branded one, fuel filter is 60. Local parts houses don’t carry oil filter in stock. Ordered three off amazon for 68 shipped.
see if you can find a dealer Land Rover Discovery. They usually have very low miles and run around $45 grand
Are you thinking of the Disco 4 or 5? Both have basically the same 3.0L engine and both use the same ZF transmission.
The early models of the D4 are 6 speed but the later facelift model is the 8 speed.
The D4 (boxy shape same as the D3/LR3) is an astoundingly practical vehicle, the 2nd and 3rd row seats fold completely flat allowign you to fit a lot of stuff in the back, you can almost fit 4x8ft sheet goods in the back (from memory internal space is 2000mm x 1400mm ish).
You can also fold all the seats individually allowing things like bikes or skis to fit in the back and still carry 4 or 5 people.
Other than a pick up or a van I don't think you can get a more practical vehicle.
The D5 is a more luxurious vehicle but less practical due to seats not folding the same as the D4, it's a bloody nice SUV (I like it more than the RRS) and has most of the same features as the D4 but all improved upon.
Personally I think the D4 is the best vehicle Land Rover ever made; insanely practical, comfortable to drive, good off road, well equiped for lots of people (3rd row aircon and 3rd row seats that fit adults, tows well, engine is efficient and powerful (for a 3l Diesel) and the gearbox is smooth as butter. The air suspension is great, being able to raise and lower the vehicle height comes in handy more than you'd expect. Being full time 4x4 it's nice being able to use the low range on the tarmac and not have to orry about diff biding up.
The 8 speed ZF trans is an excellent gearbox, gone in a bunch of different vehicles and has a good reputation for relaiblity.
Just make sure you service it, don't belive the lies about it being sealed for life, people also tend not to bother servicing the diffs either so it;s somewhat common for people to replace the front diff (mostly older D3s and RR Sports).
Worst thing about Land Rovers is not that they break down all the time but when/if they do most people are scared of them or don't know what they are doing. If you don't have a garage who knows them or don't do repairs yourself, be prepared for big headaches and bills.
Parts are also stupidly expensive locally but they are readily available from the UK and theres probably 10 websites you can buy from.
There is also heaps of techincal data available for them and parts catalogues online so getting parts isn't to difficult.
Thanks for the breakdown, that’s awesome
The only years the Discovery diesel was available here are ‘17-‘19, and all of them had the ZF 8 speed. That’s honestly the only reason I’d consider a Land Rover. I’ve worked on some British vehicles myself and work with someone who had previously worked on them for a bit. I definitely appreciate the capability of the Discovery but I don’t want to deal with the engine/trans problems. I do almost all my own work so it’s good to know parts are easy to get.
Carplay makes me like the work truck alot. I will upgrade the Sequoia at some point.
I test drove one a few weeks ago and no thanks! When you let off the "gas" the car lunges because of the regenerative braking. It feels like you downshifted too many gears. I was able to make my kid's car sick by doing this though, lol.
Working in the automotive industry, and dealing with hundreds of cars per day in the US and Canada, I would say get something Toyota. Pretty rare for one of those to break down.
It's because you let all the way off of the accelerator. You quickly get the hang of controlling regen braking by how far you let off the pedal. If hold mode is turned on for regen braking, you can drive the car and never touch the brakes except for emergency stopping.
Yeah just don't buy a white one, their white paint is terrible. Shit peels off like a 1980s GMC.
Yeah a lot of them you can't really lift em etc, they do handle smaller bumps better out of the box though and daily driver ride quality is better too.
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The Lexus suv is very hard to beat. They are reliable and ride great. The BMW ones have gotten a ton better over the years but the Lexus is still king. I'm very familiar due to helping my mother with hers and my wife's. Between those two we've had many many different ones and we go back to the Lexus because it's better.
really, wonder why the sales guy didn't tell me that? I have a tuned X3M competition and am looking for an SUV that is similar in speed and size, the X I drove wasn't quite there unless I get Plaid.
No idea. When I did a test drive, all I got was walked out to the car, showed how to unlock it and adjust the seats/mirrors, then told to have fun.
They definitely take a little adjustment. I had done a LOT of research before my 3 was delivered, so by the time I got mine home from the delivery center (300+ mile drive for me) it was all but second nature to drive. Older models and software updates had options for how aggressive the regen braking would be, but that's not a thing in my 3. I'm not sure if they just transitioned to it all being controlled by accelerator pressure or what.
If you want acceleration, it might be worth looking at the Y Performance instead of the X. The YP does 0-60 in 3.5 and has the same 155 top speed of the standard X. It's also a shitload cheaper than the X. Obviously it doesn't keep up with an X Plaid, though.
I am a LC nut myself and Toyota in general. The LC in my opinion is the most capable and reliable SUV made. They are thirsty and expensive but they don't break. We put 160-180,000 miles on them and sell to buy a new one as our primary family vehicle. They hold value extremely well and the only thing I have ever replaced on a 200 series are a couple door lock actuators. That is though 3 of them and nearly 500,000 combined miles. Other than my Cummins tow rig we only have Toyotas. 03 tacoma, 11 tacoma, 07 FJ cruiser, 20 LC 200 and 85 FJ 60 LC. They just last forever with decent maintenance. I also like to be low profile and most people have no idea what a LC costs and would rather be seen in a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Land Rover, etc. for the high dollar name recognition. That doesn't fit us aside from the fact that other than the Lexus none of the luxury SUV's will touch the reliability/capability combination of a LC. This is a minority opinion though because they only sell about 4000 a year in the US. Anyway, as you would expect, I recommend you get a Toyota.
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I do have a Yota
. Just not a LC. I started thinking of replacing the existing Yota with the LC back in 2017 early 2018, then life happened and next thing they've gone up 35% in price (pre-inflation).ps...I'd argue that at 180K your LC is just now broken in.
Land Rover has used ZF trannys for a very long time now, basically any LR over 15 years old will have a 6HPx or 8HPx.
That diesel engine is known to have a few things go wrong but I'm not like the old Rover V8 that you could guarantee would go go wrong.
The most reliable engines in the LRs seems to be the Jaguar V8 petrols, for what ever reason the 4.4L and 4.2L Supercharged engines seem to just go and go, being in the states where petrol is actually affordable that's what I'd go for.
I don't know a huge amount about the later generation Supercharged V6 engines, but the older gen (found in the D3 and early D4s) isn't well regarded, less reliable that the V8, less power but same fuel consumption.
The ZF 8sp is used in dozens of other vehicles and is absolutely bomb-proof. I’m contemplating a BMW 535d that coincidentally has the same trans also. And every other car forum that I’ve visited relating to that trans says the same thing; keep the fluid/filter changed and they’ll last forever, even with some extra power in front of it.
The guy I work with that worked on them has almost nothing but nightmare stories about them, even brand new at the dealership. He said that trying to find the right combination of connectors and cables to talk to some systems is a struggle in itself. I’ve also worked on German cars since I started my career so British stuff can be like a totally different language.
I’m also specifically looking for a Diesel engine. Especially once we move and I can delete and tune it I won’t have to worry about vehicles for a long time
Based on the age range you said you'd be looking at a Disco 5 with the TD6 engine, I think there were some teething issues with it but I haven't heard too many horror stories.
I don't live in the US so I'm not sure what similar vehicles you'd have the option of or what diesel engines are available, but the Disco 5 is a very nice and the drive train certainly performs well.
The 4x4 system and air suspension system has been used for about 15 years now and is pretty reliable, sure there are more parts to go wrong that coil over setups of leaf springs, but you get a better comfort and flexibilty from the air suspension and full time 4x4 is great.
There are a heaps of Land Rover forums online so you can find information from owners all around the world.
It absolutely does not need it. The 8-speed auto is as smooth as any DCT I've driven and the manual shift paddles are instantaneous.
That said, we took the Sorento across the country. Stinger is for weekend trips to the mountains. Heavy traffic and trucks is no fun in a sedan.
I’ve got an automatic ATS-V, so I can appreciate a modern slushbox that is faster than any manual.
That said…three pedal cars are rare these days and there’s absolutely a market (perhaps small, but there) for a RWD car where someone can row their own, but at an attainable price point.
I mean, Miatas and the BRZ/86 exist and the Genesis G70 offers a manual…
2010 was the last year of the real Explorer, anything newer than that is just a glorified minivan.
I own and like the last of the real Explorer's with V8's so much, I actually bought a second one. Body on frame, V8 gets better fuel economy (average 22-mpg on the highway) over the V6 model, and many other SUVs with a V6. The power and acceleration are awesome, however the 4.6L isn't a torque monster. Very reliable engine/transmission combination, handling and ride are good both on and off road. Sure the Land Cruiser, 4 Runner, and G Wagon will be better off road, but they also cost much, much more.
I'd love to get an 80 series LC, but I'd have to invest quite a bit more than what I have in the two Explorer's to get a decent FZJ-80.
I own and like the last of the real Explorer's with V8's so much, I actually bought a second one. Body on frame, V8 gets better fuel economy (average 22-mpg on the highway) over the V6 model, and many other SUVs with a V6. The power and acceleration are awesome, however the 4.6L isn't a torque monster. Very reliable engine/transmission combination, handling and ride are good both on and off road. Sure the Land Cruiser, 4 Runner, and G Wagon will be better off road, but they also cost much, much more.
I'd love to get an 80 series LC, but I'd have to invest quite a bit more than what I have in the two Explorer's to get a decent FZJ-80.
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As long as the “teething issues” don’t include the possibility of some horrifying engine damage I can deal with it. I did a little looking into the D5/td6 a while ago and it seemed that the vehicle itself was pretty reliable like you said. What I did notice was a ton of complaints about the nav/stereo system. Is this something you’ve seen as well or is that overblown?
I’m also cross shopping some pretty strange stuff just because I’m looking for a diesel. Everything from VW tdi to F250 powerstroke. I’d like my wife to be comfortable in the disco td6 so we have a kid hauler then I can get a 535d M-sport *crossing fingers*.
If it didn’t cost an extra ~$30k to do a Toyota diesel swap I would seriously consider a LC or Tundra.
Can't coment on the infotainment system, the D5 has been out since 2017 now so I'd like to think all the software issues have been sorted out by now.
Whats the reason for wanting to go diesel?
Most people overseas only buy diesel vehicles becasue the petrol alteratives cost so much more to run, most people I know would happily run a V8 if petrol didn't cost $6+ a gallon.
Just to be a little different. I love the idea of a vehicle that is just as/more powerful than the gas equivalent but gets 10mpg better sounds absolutely awesome to me.
I'd say a fair estimate of MPG increase would be about 40% better for a diesel on average, for similar power and torque.
My Disco gets about 9-10 L/100km where as my brother in laws 4.2L SC Range Rover averages 14 L/100km.
For towing and general uses I think you could get either or, but for fun and taking off from the lights the 4.2L SC definitely gets the nod.
