Thanks for that post. Yeah. I like Subarus, but my hesitations are:
CVT transmission: who knows?
Turbocharged engine: I realize they are the future, but prefer displacement and the Toyota V6 is incredibly proven. Turbos just drive weird in my experience.
New model: I don’t like cars at the beginning of their design roll out. The Highlander is at the end. Our 2002 end of third generation 4 Runner has been completely boring for eight years.
AWD is not a huge issue. Although my wife requires it, it will get used 3 days a year max.
Here's another Ascent review.
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
I just bought a Subaru Crosstrek. It's my first Subaru, and it's still new to me, but I fricken love the thing so far. Totally blown away with the build quality so far.
As a bonus, it's available in FDE!
While I think the offerings of Toyota and Suburu are likely more reliable, if I were in the market for 3 rows I would at least take a spin in a VW Atlas. They have reviewed fairly well and have a 6 yr/72K bumper to bumper warranty which is 2x that of the others.
Something to think about.
My impression is that is VW still in wheeler/dealer mode for customers with strong credit given "dieselgate." VW is highly motivated to get their mark back on the road and has been fairly aggressive in their out the door pricing.
Last edited by vcdgrips; 06-18-2019 at 05:17 PM.
Okay. We just drove the Pilot. That muddied the waters considerably. Extremely nice vehicle. We both preferred the driving manners and interior ergonomics. It’s a much more clean, intuitive design than the Highlander, Scandinavian almost.
Interior room much better.
I generally love Hondas, but for this car’s application leaned Toyota.
We are going to have to pick a trim level and drive them back to back to decide, I think.
The EX-L seems to be the sweetspot for the Pilot. We don’t need the extra time electronic doo dads of the Touring, and I am not sure if it worth the extra money to go from a 6 speed Honda to 9 speed ZF transmission?
Any input on that decision would be helpful from transmission guys here.
For now I have ruled out the Mazda and Subaru. And it is down to Highlander vs Pilot.
No. We only drove the 9 speed today and I don’t know how much one can learn on a short test drive. I did like the bitchen paddle shifters but disliked the engine off at stoplight feature that the 9 speed has the the 6 speed doesn’t.
Plus, we don’t have a car under 11 years old so anything is going to drive amazing.
Last edited by Doc_Glock; 06-18-2019 at 07:35 PM.
Just helped my mother make a purchase in this segment (though not with AWD) so I'll copy the research I did of the contenders. The prices are estimated post-haggle and are for models equipped with her minimum options (full safety package with automatic emergency braking, leather/pleather, multizone AC, Android Auto, etc)
Subaru Ascent Limited
$37,000
26/20 mpg
4 star rollover (5 star everything else)
all wheel drive
Consumer Reports Recommended
Mazda CX-9 Touring
$33,000
28/22 mpg
4 star rollover and frontal crash, 5 star everything else
front wheel drive
Consumer Reports Recommended (though 4/5 - "good" instead of "excellent" - reliability)
2020 Kia Telluride
$29,000
26/20 mpg
Not crash tested yet, but based on sorento (5 star)
Front wheel drive
Add $2,000 to have 2nd row captains seats (7 passenger instead of 8 for the bench)
Consumer Reports Recommended (though 3/5 - "fair" instead of "excellent" - predicted reliability. But it does have a 20 year, 200,000 mile powertrain warranty)
2019 Toyota Highlander LE-plus
$34,000
27/21 mpg
4/5 stars rollover & frontal crash (5 star everything else)
front wheel drive
No android auto, subtract $3,000 for cloth seats
Consumer Reports Recommended
2019 Toyota Highlander Hybrid XLE
$39,000
28/30 mpg
4/5 stars rollover & frontal crash (5 star everything else)
front wheel drive
No android auto, subtract $3,000 for cloth seats
125,000 miles to pay off hybrid cost at $3.50/gallon
Consumer Reports Recommended
Honda Pilot EX-L
$35,000
27/19 mpg
4/5 stars rollover & frontal crash (5 star everything else)
front wheel drive, subtract $3,000 for cloth seats
Consumer Reports Recommended (though 3/5 - "fair" instead of "excellent" - predicted reliability.)
2020 Toyota Highlander
$??,???
34mpg
probably 5 star crash tests
includes Android Auto
The 2019 Nissan Pathfinder SL
$35,000
27/20 mpg
3/5 consumer reports predicted reliability (minor problem areas: transmission, electronics, paint & trim, & in car entertainment)
4/5 star frontal crash test and rollover
front wheel drive
She decided on the CX9 mainly because the local Mazda dealership is excellent (stuff like lifetime free car washes), the mpg was better, and she loved the "birds eye view" display for parking:
The redesigned 2020 Highlander is due in December (hybrid version in February), but she didn't want to wait and the local dealership is awful to work with. Still, I bet it would have won if the dealership wasn't so terrible.
My favorite was actually the Kia Telluride and it would have been my choice for a lease, but for a purchase expected to last 10 years it seemed like too much of a gamble. The Pilot might have been more of a contender except for surprisingly bad Consumer Reports reliability history (mainly transmission).
Last edited by 0ddl0t; 06-18-2019 at 08:07 PM.