My wife is currently driving an '06 Sonata. It has been a great car. We bought it new maintained it well, has almost 160,000 miles on it and still runs great. I just started thinking about a new car for her. I've considered another Hyundai, but like the looks of the Chevy Impala, and Equinox. Anyone have any experience with either of them? She's on the road without me from time to time going to see the grandkids, and I've begun to worry about the Hyundai on the road so much.

My wife loved the Impala. I was sure it was going to be her next car (we wound up with an AWD Ford Edge....we wanted AWD and the Impala is only available in AWD as a Buick). We really disliked the Equinox. It stopped at every traffic light and lurched when it cranked back up. Ford did the start/stop thing much better (but we still hated it). We bought the V6 edge because it didn't start/stop and didn't need premium (or didn't prefer it, however you wish to consider it) like the turbo motors.

I would look into the Cruze as a family car. Don't think it comes in and but it does have a diesel. Never owned one personally but several friends with them that love them, including hard core muscle car guys.

It's certainly a different class of car, but my wife and I both love our Honda Fits. They are low on power but big on room, and GREAT gas mileage (36-40). And you can get a top of the line for just under $20k.
That said, if your current car still runs great, has been serviced since new, and doesn't have any problems creeping in, why buy a new car (if cash is tight)? When the old car starts to cost 1/2 - 2/3 as much in repairs yearly as new car payments, then its time, IMO.

Have you looked at the Taurus lately? When they're well optioned, they're really nice. You can even find SHOs for under 20k. I test drove a SHO for my mom recently and even though I expected it to be decent, I was surprised at how much I liked it even ignoring the power.

what's the budget?

The new Sonatas and Kia Optimas are really, really nice. They seem to have good reliability and they blow every other brand out of the water in terms of options packages. You get a lot more for your money than you would even with Japanese brands. I’d take a good look at those if your current car has been good to you. Hyundai has really stepped up their game in the last few years. I used to be a hater, now I’m considering getting one for myself.

The leases on kias are rediculous in our area... stupid cheap. And rightfully so... theres a death yard behind each dealer of bought back cars

We have Wisconsin's largest Kia dealership in my town. They come with lifetime warranties and good options for the money. But like you pointed out with the graveyard. They are still kias. They sell like crazy but have no resale value

I wouldn't be opposed to owning one under warranty, but I'm more interested in other vehicles

The budget is in the mid to upper $30's, but I'm cheap, so the lower the better. We started out looking at a 2013 Honda Cross Tour, (around $13,500), but it sold. I started looking around a bit, and realized with the deal they're offering, we could get a new one easily enough. That Sonata has been tough, but we would like to start traveling a bit and wouldn't mind a newer car. She will definitely want something with enough room for a baby seat, (grandkids!), and I would like something with a little grunt, and good looks. The Equinox looks nice but a 1.4 liter turbo doesn't sound like enough engine to me.

If you think Kia is bad with that, you should se how many lemons Subaru and FCA are turning out right now. My mom bought a 16 Grand Cherokee -and she’s on her third one. First two were complete lemons. You think they would have at least got the second one right for 50 grand.

I'd stick to Honda or Toyota, considering the type of vehicles you're looking at. The CR-V just won SUV of the year. We've owned a 2009 EX-L and now a 2016 EX-L Navi. IMO, can't be beat for the quality, durability, fit/finish, performance and resale. They are indeed a benchmark in the industry. 2017's should be discounted nicely. We got our 2016 as a left over in March of this yr. $2000 below invoice.

Since your budget is that high, I'd also suggest Infiniti. We've been extremely happy with our M37x which is our 2nd. We had a G35x for a long time and some idiot crashed us on the interstate, spun at nearly 80, went in a ditch backwards and the whole family walked away. It's also very reliable, just a Nissan underneath plus some nicer features, and AWD was a must. After that was totalled we got the M, bigger for the family, smoother ride and more features. And since it's a "luxury" car, buying a few year old car is way cheaper. And it's less pretentious than say a Lexus or Benz.

And just for numbers sake, the G was 2006 45k miles $20k in 2009, and the M was 40k miles $30k beginning of 2016 and I've seen them way cheaper but this was in exceptional condition, new car smell, certified, and we were in a hurry to buy, but good ones can still be found in the 20s just avoid the first years of electric steering.

I know 2 people that owned the Equinox. Both hated it and had tons of issues. I do not recall anything major but they were always taking it to the dealer. They both only kept them for about a year

Oh you're higher than I was thinking. Dude, Volvo. Super safe, quality over flash, good resale without high entry price, lighter than you think and decent turbo engines, most comfortable seats ever, designs are more timeless than trendy so they don't look old soon. Come in all sizes while being not terribly different in quality/permformance/price so just pick your favorite size/shape. I drove a v60 Cross Country recently and the turn in was surprisingly really good too, probably the least amount of understeer compared to any of the sport sedans we've looked at.

Drive the Honda CRV first (I'm sure you will). My wife's Accord was totaled earlier this year and I was sure she was going to ultimately end up in another Honda. We drove the HRV (it's tiny), the V6 Accord (has a timing belt that needs serviced at some point, steering wheel had too many controls on it and the dual monitors in the dash were just distracting) and the CRV. She didn't like the turbo motor and CVT (as I remember) in the CRV and when you put on the right turn signal, the screen on the dash flipped to the backup camera (irritating and distracting). They did that because the rear visibility of the CRV makes an F-body (even a convertible with the top up) look like it has excellent rear visibility. I really expected her to love it and after driving it, she hopped out and said "I'm NOT buying one of THOSE" (your results may vary). Knowing my wife likes Honda products, I really figured it would be coming home with us.

Honestly, we drove a lot of cars and disliked most of them. Hmm....maybe there's a pattern here. (I'm not sure we'd buy another Ford Edge if we were doing it again today, but I can't say that for sure).

Pretty much the same here. 1.0T Fiesta, average 38mpg when it's sub-30F and about 43 or so on summer gas. Will knock down 50mpg all day long in good weather on the highway and it will 3 wheel it's way through rotaries with lift-throttle oversteer. Fun little commuter with lots of practicality.

Mastawyrm, I coach "Street Survival" driver training occasionally, and recently had a student in a Volvo wagon. I think it was an AWD V70 or something. and very impressive. I don't know what I'm going to do. We may hang on to the Hyundai, and if it dies on a trip, we'll fly home or buy something else.

My wife had a Nissan Murano. Very nice car, but I didn’t care for the CTS transmission. Although it worked well, it gives a really disconnected feeling. The new ones now mimic a 6 speed manual, talk about weird.

The FX37 is an amazing machine. We had one for a while but needed more space. It was so fast and handled amazing.

Her current car is a Mazda CD-9. Mazda really does build great driving cars. The CX-9 is damn near a minivan but it drives like a car half it’s size. Decent power and responsive handling. She bought it used and now has over 100k miles but looks like new. The only downside is the fuel economy, 22 highway is about it.

If that’s too big for you guys, I’d be the CX-7 would be perfect, although I’ve never driven one.

$30K?!? That's TWO retired Tahoe PPVs or Caprice 9C1s. One to drive, and one for spares. Great trucks, both of them (yes, the Caprice is very 'truck-like' with it's equipment). Only issue with the Caprice is the fact that it's now orphaned. We have one of each, both bought after retirement at ~80K miles on the clock each, and both have been dead-nuts reliable.

But I'm sure you're looking for something with a warranty.

Another one to look at the Buicks, the newer Lacrosse and Regal is really nice. And I like them because you can get AWD. I'm not sure if that's a concern or not but we get snow and ice in PA and needed a family style car, but with comfort and luxury. I found a really nice Lacrosse local, 3.6L AWD and it was a premium so leather and goodies. I like it for the lady because it looks classy, feels classy, plenty of pep, good on fuel and AWD so I don't have to worry about her as much.

But now we have tinted the windows and I just got her wheels for it

(Chanting)

LS SWAP! LS SWAP! LS SWAP!

We drove a LaCrosse because my wife wanted an Impala and it wasn't available in AWD unless you bought the Buick. It was a nice car and a pretty well equipped package. When her car died, we sorta forgot to look at those again and wound up with an AWD SUV. That's a fun car, and fairly quick too.

Some of those Buick models have available nice brake packages. I know one (LaCrosse, Regal?) has availability of the same Bimbo brakes used on the SS and CTS-V. 310 HP, AWD and nice brakes in a 4-door. What's not to love?

To jump on the Buick bandwagon, we just picked up 2011 turbo Regal with a manual transmission. I'm still not sure why you have to pick between a manual trans and AWD... is it really that hard to give us both?

It has a nice ride, the 220 turbocharged horses are fun, and it shifts great. The downside so far just seem to be with the age of this one with 100k miles. Lots of previous owner scratches and other signs of a rough life. Including 4 bent wheels, that were only noticeable over 60ish.

Finding parts will prove to be a bit of a challenge, rockauto shows some annoying repair stuff as out of stock... power steering pressure line, turbo rebuild kit, flywheel, and some other off the wall things.

Also, you won't find much performance suspension stuff (but basic replacements are ok). So that can keep your wallet happy, I guess.

I'm starting to hate LS Swaps.... seems like all we do anymore haha.

The Regal GS is a fun little car and you can get it in AWD, but not with a manual trans. I’m sure the wife would prefer an auto for commuting, anway.

Heh, indeed. EVEN when the car originally came with a LS*!!

I've held off looking for the last couple of weeks. Christmas, New Years, a house full of people, a cold, and now crappy cold weather, and snow. I plan to resume my search sometime next week. I do like the Buicks, but have been out of the market so long, I don't know what car comes with what features. And that's where you guys came in!

^It's hard to think about cars when your pipes are frozen. Ask me how I know.

That sucks, and I do know!! It's also sucky to have to try to fix them in just-above-freezing weather with all that water/ice around!!

I understand about the frozen pipes. I helped my nephew fix a burst pipe in his house just yesterday. I was the site plumber when I retired from DuPont's Spruance plant in 2014. For whatever reason, they could never remember that water froze at 32 degrees f. I made a TON of money in overtime because of it. The funniest incident was a very young, very new manager who called about a plugged pipe. It was a drain from a modular office area rest room, and exposed to the weather for about 30 feet. I told him I'd fix it the next morning. I get a call that morning that water was "everywhere over here, it's even coming out of the toilet"! When I got there he told me he had left the water running in a sink so it wouldn't freeze. I told him the drain was still frozen so it had no where to go. "Why is it coming out of the toilet and not the sink then"? "Because the sink it higher than the toilet and they use the same drain", I said. He almost had tears in his eyes..."Please fix it and don't tell anyone.." I did, and never mentioned it.

Luckily, mine didn't burst this time. But I remember one time down at the farm when my dad started heating up the copper pipes with a propane torch. He wasn't really a mechanically inclined person and didn't heat the pipes evenly enough or whatever and he made a real mess in the basement. That made me nervous about just going in with a heat gun so I just generally added a lot of heat to my plumbing access (my house is on a slab). It took longer (2 days) but this way nothing blew.

So, after the snow that will not go away.......what do you guys think of Subarus? I'm actually serious......

He must've kept the flame on a joint a bit too long. Copper should take a pretty good hit of propane before melting through. But yeah, move it back and forth, and you should be good. We have slab homes here, too, and most of the time, the main supply line goes into the house near the base of the wall, sometimes leaving a pretty good run of pipe exposed to the atmosphere. The last house we lived in I enjoyed dragging a hair dryer outside in sub-freezing weather to thaw the supply. That's even after wrapping it well.

One winter, when we got temps in the teens, and nothing above freezing for a week, I came home one afternoon to see water running out the garage. One of the pipes that ran up the garage wall into the attic space (over the unheated garage) had frozen and split. Luckily, I caught it early, and had a friend with a portable band saw, so we were able to replace the split pipe in pretty short order.

Winter tires are much cheaper and infinitely more reliable.

With the snow, I'll reiterate my bit with the Infiniti. I took the wife's M37x out and plowed thru like a champ, just like the G35x did before. I usually end up only taking out my Land Cruiser because it's armored and I want to keep her car nice but it does great in any weather. Just look for the "x" models. It's awd system is similar to that of the GTR, only difference is that GTR has computer controlled LSD's.

The used prices are pretty good and personally i would love to get another 2006 G35, after that they started getting heavier and more add on crap, and earlier than 2005 had less power, smaller brakes and ugly interior. They are so responsive and can get up and go. They also come in a manual with a little more power than the auto though i never had the chance to drive one I'm sure they're much better.

A buddy of mine sells Subarus. The amount of them I’ve seen in the service center getting complete engine replacements blows my mind. I used to be a big Subaru fan because their old stuff was rock solid. The newer stuff - run far, far away.

I've been reading around the internet, and it looks like they got the head gasket/engine issues straight around 2015. Never the less it's a concern, and I had not heard of it until your post. I remember the Toyota head gasket fiasco a few years back, and they had a mess on their hands. Thanks.

Wow, they still had head gasket issues all the way into 2015?!? I remember back in the '80's and '90's where the common joke was that a tune up on a Subaru included a torque wrench so you could do a torque check on the head bolts.

Haven't heard of that many engine issues with the autocrossed Subarus, just transmission and transfer case replacements. Although I think a friend has had an engine replaced in his 2015/16 XTi, but he usually wrings the most out of cars he autocrosses.

Subarus are EVERYWHERE here in Colorado. They have the reputation of being the hippy LGBT mobiles, as a result, we don't have one.

Friend of mine spun a bearing while autoxing an STI. I forget the year but it was a hawkeye

Yea, and you get to have strange conversations in parking lots.

A friend parked her Subaru in the lot at a store and gets out of the vehicle. Just then a second, matching Subaru pulls in beside her.

Subaru 2 "Think if we leave them here together they'll make little Subarus?"

Friend "Um, I'm not sure, I guess it's always possible" (while trying to find a way out of this oddly uncomfortable discussion)

Subaru 2 "We'll, I guess we'll just have to leave them here and find out!"

Friend "Um....ok".


Another friend of ours is a little 30-ish year old blonde who was getting her masters in social work and she just HAD to have a Subaru. Not that she could afford to trade her car in with the cost of school and such. And I tried to convince her to keep her car and put tires on it (or whatever) and she took everything I said as a "See, I should buy a new car" and she bought roughly the least expensive thing you could drive off a Subaru lot because she HAD TO HAVE a damn Subaru. lol. Now she calls it her "Lesbaru" (she's straight, but I think it's due to the high percentage of LGBT Subaru fans). Beats me.

If cars could do that, I'd have a litter of el Caminos by now.

I don't want to make a political statement, I just don't want to my wife to get stuck in the Snow!:) On a side note....I just looked at the title of my post. A great response would have been, "Good idea"!

It's an interesting trichotomy with Subarus. Regular ones are considered granola, the tall ones are just another crossover but WRX/STI is a "troublemaker's car".

I never thought of that....They cover a lot of bases, old folks, gender curious, and hooligans.

Kind of hard to avoid that, even if you're trying to avoid it. As they say, 'haters are going to hate'. A Subaru in Colorado will have a rainbow sticker in the window no matter what, and a Camry on the highway will have a 'Caution idiot driver on board' sticker on the back window. Then there's a BMW.....

People will make a$$umptions about the driver in the car before they ever know about the driver in the car. You can't win. Drive what you want/need to drive, and let the twitiots tweet.

And a Forrester with a WRX STI drivetrain swap is for the older gender-curious hooligan!


We actually drove the Legacy 3.6R from Subaru. We liked how it drove and it made good power (the CVT helped, but we don't prefer CVT transmissions) and the features were nice. Sadly the outside is ugly. My wife said "There's no pride of ownership, no "hey guys, come see my new car" feeling with that one, you just quietly park it out back and hope nobody sees you get out of it". lol.

I wonder in an NRA or Trump sticker would even stick to one? There was a guy around here years ago with a Skull&Crossbones painted on the hood of a Miata.