Car shopping

[Booze Raccoon]

I'm looking for a new car and I've narrowed it down to the following three:

Ford Escape
Subaru Forester 
Honda CRV

If you have one of these cars can you tell me what you like and dislike about it?

Thanks!!

[fortnightlily]

Mar 29, 2015 7:04:01 GMT -5 Booze Raccoon said:

I'm looking for a new car and I've narrowed it down to the following three:

Ford Escape
Subaru Forester 
Honda CRV

If you have one of these cars can you tell me what you like and dislike about it?

Thanks!!

We just bought a Forester, picking it up today. The Escape was one of the few we didn't test drive.

CR-V:
- The back seats had an awesome fold down mechanism, but as a result weren't nearly as comfortable.
- I didn't like the feel of the steering.
- The dashboard controls weren't as intuitive as the others we looked at.

The Forester didn't have all the fanciest features, but it had enough, was comfortable, had plenty of headroom even with the sunroof. The 0-10 acceleration is a little jumpy, which I'll have to get used to.

[LoveTrains]

I love my Subaru Forester.

[nolasteph]

Are you buying new? I have a 2012 Escape XLT, so the mid range model. I'm only meh about it. We bought it because we were in desperate need of a car, and fast. We wanted a small SUV and we got a good deal on it (we bought towards the end of '12) via a friend at the dealership. I normally like Fords, but this feels very utilitarian on the inside. It's not plush. The plan tho was to get something that could handle long commutes daily and withstand messy toddlers/young kids (we have two) and then later my husband will take it and I will get more of what I want. It has definitely done the job. But it's not really roomy on the inside (with two car seats in the back). The cargo space is decent tho - I can fit our double jogging stroller in there and still fit a full week's worth of groceries. We've taken road trips and can fit a lot of luggage back there. We've had no mechanical problems (just a dead battery). I drive 60 miles a day minimum and get decent gas mileage.

I used a 2013 Escape rental (the fully loaded model) for a week when we had some body work done on ours (a damn tree branch the size of our house fell on it!!) and while I like the inside a lot more - it just felt so much nicer - I felt it was hard to see with the smaller windows. Overall, not a fan of the new model design.  ETA:  Headroom is nice in our 2012.  Like that a lot.  I don't think the 2013 was as roomy with that.

[schitzengiggles]

I don't have an Escape but do have the Edge (SEL AWD with lots of extras) and I love it so, so much. Ford has come a really long way and I have had several people express surprise when they ride in my car and realize it's a Ford. My parents and some friends who have Explorers also love them equally as much.
Heck I've got a friend with a comparable BMW SUV and I would take my Edge a hundred times over her BMW.
Ford's navigation/Sync stuff is especially fantastic.

[circa1978]

We have a Subaru Forester. It's fine. I love the huge sunroof. It's been recalled a ton but I think that's just cars today and not a comment on Subaru. It's roomy enough for my 6'4 H but doesn't leave a ton of space for Henry in our FF carseat when he puts the seat back. If we had it to do again, I'd still buy it but spring for leather, because the fabric marks even with a few drops of water.

[foundmylazybum]

We have a Forester XT and almost bought an Escape. We didn't really look at the CR-V at all.

I may not be the best one to ask about these two cars b/c I think I wanted some really specific things in our car lol.

I am in love with our Forester.
-It has a 250 HP turbo charged engine which I personally am in love with, but you only get if you get the higher priced XT. The car is super fun to drive, and has some rally car extras and details like higher end wheels.
-You can drive it fast, but it also is really safe.

-It has nice seats and plenty of room for packing. MH and I can take the car on road trips with bikes and pack the back up easily and it is so comfortable.


Here are some of the cons:

The infotainment system is meh: ours is a higher end level. It's not a base model and for what it is, it doesn't have heated seats (WTF) satellite radio OR nav system. NOW ours is a 2014, and I've noticed that all those things are in the 2015's, but not base models. Subaru will tell you that their customer is a "simple" person who knows about the high tech world of today. Thus they have equipped their models with blue tooth so you can just hook your phone and ipod into the system. Okay, well for the cost of my car, I'm also into some freaking luxuries like heated seats lol.

It doesn't always get the gas mileage stated. Just fyi. It gets close but I've noticed it gets lower.



Escape:

We really liked the Escape. Ford makes TONS of models and they are easy to get. So you can get a turbo charged AWD model or a regular 2WD model or with leather or cloth seats etc. They are extremely easy to work with and THUS you can also bargain with them. They may not act like it at first, but they will definitely bargain with you on price and models. You can get almost any model from any place. Just take the time to look.

The Escape we looked at also had a turbo charged engine and was fun and fast to drive.

I thought it would be a good car for us. I liked that it had all these little extras, like an automatic hatch closer on the back door, heated seats etc.


The MAJOR con on the car is unlike the Subaru where the infotainment and information center is very simple on the Subaru--on the Escape the information center is like an information center to launch you into space! It is VERY complex. It has tons of bells and whistles. I felt like it could actually cause an accident b/c of distraction. It's not just the distraction piece, if you read reviews the consul actually breaks quite often and Ford is unable or unwilling to fix it, so soon you just have this ugly huge consul that doesn't work for half your car! That was what actually turned us off the car.


We spent a LOT of time looking at cars, like months and months--driving and looking, and honestly every single time I go out to my little Subaru, I say to myself "Love, it's a Subaru." We saw a Forester rally in the Smokey mountains and it was like we totally nerded out lol. I'm not quite sure that I would love my forester as much if it wasn't so fast and zippy haha, but I highly recommend them!

[sugarbear]

Chiming in to follow. I've narrowed it down to the CRV, the Escape, and the Mazda CX5.
OP, my primary concerns were hybrid/fuel efficiency, safety, and 4wd. I've discounted the Forrester because it doesn't seem to get the same mileage as the other two. What were your criteria? Maybe I should put the Forrester back on my list...

[mich1]

When I went looking, the Forester, RAV4 and CRV were on my short list....in this order. I had been driving a Sentra and needed a higher profile car as my hips were giving me problems and getting behind the steering wheel was difficult.

Reviews at the time were comparable on all 3, only difference was price so I started looking at least to most expensive. With the RAV4 and CRV the AWD was not standard and I wanted it.

I stopped at the Subaru dealer and never got any further. I have a 2007 and other than an a/c leak (fairly cheap fix) everything I have put into it has been maintenance items (belts, tires, batteries, break pads, fluids).

I love my car, I bought new intending on driving it until the wheels drop off. When I look again, I'd probably go with the model that has the turbo. My non turbo is ok, but I have bed driving SO's STi, and last weekend, a Porsche and I like driving a car that goes fast!

[Deleted]

Mar 29, 2015 7:43:00 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I love my Subaru Forester.

Me too. Love it so much.

Eta: I bought brand new, it's a 2014. It's the touring edition, and has all the bells and whistles: leather, Nav, heated seats, dual temp zones, side mirror defroster, etc. I'm so glad we splurged a little on getting everything I wanted, since I intend to drive this car for a long time.

The only thing I wish I did different was get the black leather, instead of the grey (but I wanted the dark gray exterior color, so it was a trade off).

We were also going to look at the RAV4 but we went to the Subaru dealership first and left with the forester.

[LoveTrains]

Mar 29, 2015 10:34:45 GMT -5 sugarbear said:

Chiming in to follow. I've narrowed it down to the CRV, the Escape, and the Mazda CX5.
OP, my primary concerns were hybrid/fuel efficiency, safety, and 4wd. I've discounted the Forrester because it doesn't seem to get the same mileage as the other two. What were your criteria? Maybe I should put the Forrester back on my list...

Make sure you are comparing the AWD (all wheel drive) mileage on all. The subaru ONLY comes with AWD, there is no 2WD option, so the mileage per gallon reflects that. The others might come with 2WD or 4WD options. 

I believe the subaru forester has been rated very highly in crash tests. Just google it up. 

[asoctoberfalls]

I just bought a 2015 Forester Premium with the all weather package last week because my 2005 Forester with 160k miles finally needed a repair I was unwilling to make. I LOVE the new Forester. It is a lot bigger than the old one, but it gets much better gas mileage. I do all city driving and getting about 28 mpg so far. We paid 25k.

My mom has a 2015 CRV, and I also like it a lot, but it was more expensive than the Forester and felt smaller to me. The CRV definitely feels more advanced and has more bells and whistles, but Subaru has always kind of lagged other makers in that area, and the Forester lags behind other Subaru models like the Outback.

I didn't consider the Ford. Their reliability just isn't as good. I prefer to drive a car forever, and Subarus are usually really reliable (although I honestly didn't have great luck with my 2005, which is pretty disappointing).

[mich1]

Mar 29, 2015 12:18:58 GMT -5 @roseyposey said:

Mar 29, 2015 7:43:00 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I love my Subaru Forester.

Me too. Love it so much.

Eta: I bought brand new, it's a 2014. It's the touring edition, and has all the bells and whistles: leather, Nav, heated seats, dual temp zones, side mirror defroster, etc. I'm so glad we splurged a little on getting everything I wanted, since I intend to drive this car for a long time.

The only thing I wish I did different was get the black leather, instead of the grey (but I wanted the dark gray exterior color, so it was a trade off).

We were also going to look at the RAV4 but we went to the Subaru dealership first and left with the forester.

I did this too!

[spwspw]

MH drives a CRV, I like it. It's roomy enough not to feel cramped even with both kids in there and pretty fuel efficient. Andplusalso, Honda, so reliable.

[lilac05]

Mar 29, 2015 10:04:06 GMT -5 schitzengiggles said:

I don't have an Escape but do have the Edge (SEL AWD with lots of extras) and I love it so, so much. Ford has come a really long way and I have had several people express surprise when they ride in my car and realize it's a Ford. My parents and some friends who have Explorers also love them equally as much.
Heck I've got a friend with a comparable BMW SUV and I would take my Edge a hundred times over her BMW.
Ford's navigation/Sync stuff is especially fantastic.

I think we've bonded before over the love of our Edges.  Mine is a 2008 & has 80K+ miles on it & I haven't had any issues at all.  I think I'm about to need new brakes...maybe.

I rented a newer Escape recently & wasn't a fan.  I felt it drove more like a truck & was bumpier and jumpier.  I also didn't think the visibility was great, considering its size.

Ford had a bad reputation long ago for not being as reliable, but they've really turned that around for many of their models. We've been extremely happy with it.  (& chose it over a CRV and Rav for many reasons!)