What's your recommendation on a reliable 5-10k awd used SUV for a college student?

Oh and just my opinion.....

STAY FAR AWAY FROM CVT'S

 

Excellent point. Heard nothing but horror stories. Supposedly they fixed some of the issues in the newest vehicles but overall, no CVT transmissions for sure. They're so picky with fluid type/amount/maintenance too! Another thing I was going to add is absolutely no Nissan lol! I've seen so many messed up things with Nissan in almost every year range... (Yes I know about the Renault merger etc) that I'd only recommend one to a true enemy. I cold make a fun list of things I've seen first hand but that's for another topic.

 

I assume it has to do with getting 50 posts for the BST threads. I guess Off-Topic posts aren't worthy enough.

 

I have yet to see any company recommend fluid changes on them or give a way to do it......they are all sealed units.....on a snowmobile or ATV you can change out the belt relatively easily and cheaply......these car CVT's are metal on metal and you replace the entire unit.....or scrap the car

 

The old Nissan Hardbody trucks were solid vehicles....I am not impressed with the build quality of the new ones

 

Don't have much bad to say about the Frontiers. They seem ok.

Recent customer 2 year old Nissan

$29 NV200 GunVault NanoVault Travel Handgun Safe for Pistols with Key Lock - TSA-Approved

NV200 with 70k:
- All the black pieces on the dashboard are already sticky and gummy
- Side door handle broke with little effort
- 3rd fuel pump... factory OEM replacements, not driven low. First one 20k, second 50k?
- Wheels so thin and light, most economical on steel, that 3 out of 4 were already bent during balancing, eventually swapped to aluminum wasting $500
- A/C compressor leaking at around 45k miles. New A/C compressor costs 700+!!! From all sources! Even generic china no name shit is 500+ on eBay at the time it happened. Sentra compressor from 3-4 years prior to this model? Fits. Everything identical in EVERY way. Same ways the tubes run. Same engine orientation. Similar engine bay. Basically this is just a Sentra assembled from leftover parts sitting in a warehouse for 3-4 years? But the dickheads decided to rotate the fittings 180 degrees. Literally the only difference. So we went and got a compressor for $300 and cut the fittings, I aligned them 180 degrees, tacked them, welded them, and viola saved 400$ that Nissan dickhead engineers almost forced us to waste.
- Steering wheel... already crumbling! At 2 years! I remember this happening to 20 year old Ford Windstars and such at the JY, but on a 2 year old car? Gotta be kidding me!
There was more but I don't know if I have to continue lol.

 

There is no possible way to get a metal belt sliding in metal pullies to last....disposable transmissions equal disposable cars....Manual transmissions are the best power delivery method bar none

 

In this particular case they weren't painted, just super shitty plastics. I've seen this happen on so many Nissans, and some German cars too. It's gross when they get that sticky texture that no matter what you wipe it with or how many times, they keep feeling sticky.

Haha I always laughed how my ex's BRAND NEW 2016 Jetta barely got cold at all from the A/C. Almost like it was broken. Some new type of compressors for the environment or something? Someone told me they're doing scroll and other electronic bs in most newest cars. While my 07 Tacoma with 250k miles!!! and original A/C compressor blows ice cold air haha.

 

Hmm, I told her to take it back many times. But she's my ex so whatever lol. Her problem her car gets about as cold as a beer that's been sitting for 10 min in the sun. I guess next time I get one of these sticky plastic cars I'll take my contractor's knife and slice in to some place where it won't be noticeable to see if it's painted or not lol.

 

Do any of the options I list or ones recommended in the criteria have seats that can fold into the floor for camping? That's one of the reasons for the SUV requirement. Would love to hear some more input from people.

 

FORD did not do a recall on the defective transmission...they only added an extended warranty....

 

My vote would be go with a Toyota Highlander 2004+. Try and find a Limited with side airbags, and maybe avoid the 2.4L 4-cyl because they don't quite live up to Toyota reliability. They're excellent cars that do great in all weather conditions with great reliability. That or a 3rd or 4th gen 4Runner. There are good, well-maintained low-mileage cars out there. Just gotta look.

 

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Well whatever it was, they refused to service it because of the title. Otherwise they said it could have been repaired under warranty.

Thanks for the input. Going to have to look into those options too. Do you know if any of them have seats that fold into the floor? If it were me I wouldn't care I'd just take the seats out and leave them at home lol.

 

The 4Runner miiiiiight, but the Highlander's fold down not-quite flat.

 

They're in San Francisco bay area so there's a good chance they'll be living in the car. J/k lmao! I'll have to look up pics. If they fold down not quite flat that's still not bad. Better than all the "get this gigantic shit out of here" fold down seats I've had in minivans before (Caravan, Windstar, etc).

The one thing kind of attractive about the CRVs and much as I'm not a fan of Hondas, is the K series motor which is pretty much bulletproof. Seems like nobody really complains about the transmissions on the 4bangers vs the horrendous V6 models of anything Honda made. I always see people boosting the hell out of K series.

 

Keeping up with the head gaskets is a $2K fix last time I checked which was right before I sold my Outback. I'm with the OP on Subaru. My outback was just a meh kind of a car, lots of little problems and a big one. Center diff went out, and was covered under the extended warranty. And it was going out again when I sold it.

I'll second the comments that the Honda CRV seem to be pretty good. My son's 2006 is going strong at 250K miles. He got it used at 220K miles so he has no idea of the maintenance done on it.

 

Highlander or HOnda pilot or Acura MDX

 

Haha yeah I had a Subaru WRX STI 2012 in my shop. Owner kept rubbing it in my face how I got a 50,000$ car on my lift (oh boy, like cars don't depreciate?). Hew blew his engine trying to get close to 500HP and spent 10k fixing it. I see Mitsubishi guys (am a personal fan of 4G63/4 engines) with all sorts of hacked up junkyard stuff flying past those numbers without much trouble. Yet every Subaru owner I meet seems to blow their engines left and right. I dropped his transmission before the job (mostly the customer) got too annoying and had him town it out. Wasn't too impressed with the overall engineering. Only thing I liked was the throwout bearing design and fork was very stout and had a serious shaft, compared to previous models I guess which sometimes has forks break.

Nice! Everyone's got some serious odometer readings on their CRVs, good sign of a decent car. What's the deal with the Toyota 2.4s one person mentioned? Are they not reliable?

 

Lol don't get me started on the Pilots. Basically an Odyssey soccer mom van with a face lift. Complete POS. Engines not rebuildable. Paper thin sleeves. No machine shop will touch them. Normally I wouldn't even consider rebuilding one, but it's hard to get a replacement engine for a decent price because lots of people are blowing them. My family has one. Extra quart of oil needed every oil change since 60k. Seen them burn up cats because of all the oil burning too (fortunately we're in FL where there's no emissions). Dead A/C compressors at 60k. All from your average low mileage local driving. Not towing anything or using it for work. Their transmissions are insanely expensive because everyone is blowing them up too. Seen lots of issues with the air ducts in the dash. Stupid gaskets leaking at low miles on the variable valve timing solenoid housings. Gaskets impossible to obtain. So you have to spend 150+ for the whole unit. List goes on. Complete trash!

Seems like the consensus with Honda is 4 cylinder = good, v6 = trash.

 

Whatever my wife drives a mdx, 100k miles and better reliability than my Toyotas. btw isn't this a recommendation for your soccer mom daughter? lol