My 25 year old is in the market for a new vehicle. Apparently it's come down to a 2020 RAV4 or a 2020 Subaru Forester. She's only owned 2 Jettas, and the last one got hit. She got used to sitting up higher in the rental, but doesn't want full size as she street parks in Philadelphia. Someone talked her out of looking at a Honda, and she drove a friends Tucson and didn't like it.
Anything specific I should look for between those 2? Is it just a matter of drive both and buy what you like better as they are pretty much the same price? Since I just bought a 4runner, I'd assume I'll try to push the Toyota, but how are the Subaru's? I've never owned one.
You've probably seen this already...
https://www.kbb.com/comparison/2020-toyota-rav4-vs-2020-subaru-forester-comparison/
But yeah, you called it. Drive both and buy what you like better. For me, it would be the Toyota, since I had a strongly negative experience with a Subaru product I once owned, and most of the trouble came from the horizontally-opposed 4-cylinder engine.
My wife recently bought a new RAV4. I like it way more than I want to admit, and I'm admitting that I really like it. She's getting 37-38mpg in her real world driving which is sort of absurd. It's got one of those efficiency meter thingys that "teaches" you to drive and my wife takes it as a personal challenge to high score that sucker. It's nifty. No idea how it will do long term, but I'm hoping she lets me have it when she's done.
Hard preference for the RAV4 here. Having owned a couple Subys, I got tired of the little nitpicky nickel-and-dime-to-death stuff. They are a pretty long-lived car with few big failures, but parts aren't quite as cheap, and you'll need more of them.
All I can say is that I drove an Outback with the cvt and I wanted to kill myself. If she is like my wife your daughter probably won't care though.
Verify but I think the Rav4's gas mileage would be much better over the Forester or basically any other Subaru you can buy so Rav4.
If it's parked on the street I would check headlight and taillight replacement procedures and cost.
Toyota. Subarus make me itch.
I've driven a '16 rav4 and a '19 forester. I kinda liked the forester a little better but that's base model to base model and if i had to own one i'd buy the Toyota, except i'd get the Prime so i could do 0-60 in the 5s and spend <$1 on electricity for my daily commute. 
If it still has the 2AR four cylinder, expect it to need an intake cam phaser when it's just out of warranty. Toyota allegedly updated the part but they still fail.
That's about all the bad I can say about them, that and a really crummy OE brake pad composition that seems to encourage rotor rust.
If she is parking on the street in Philadelphia, I wouldn't probably buy a brand new car. I'd be looking at something used 1-2 years old.
dxman92 said:
If she is parking on the street in Philadelphia, I wouldn't probably buy a brand new car. I'd be looking at something used 1-2 years old.
+1 on pre parked
Dealers around me charge a substantial markup on anything Toyota or Honda because sheeple want them no matter what. So you'll save on depreciation. Not sure how the interest rate on the loan will impact the calculation though...
Our 14 forester has been nearly flawless for the first 98,000 miles. Just before 100 it received a new short block courtsey of Subaru for an oil consumption related recall. Today at about 102k miles, its sitting at the dealership where they're diagnosing what is probably a failed timing chain tensioner.
It has stellar safety ratings and the visibility from the drivers seat is outstanding, but would I buy another? Not sure - particularly since the new ones come with "eye sight" driver "assistance" tech.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
I have no comment on what, but rather, how....
Earlier this year we bought my wife a 2019 Grand Caravan from Hertz and we're very happy with the purchase. I know they have Rav4's and Subarus too. Might be worth a look. The latest news is that Hertz has to sell 185k cars (of 500k car fleet) before the end of the year. Compared to when I bought, the price of Grand Caravans through Hertz have gone back up but as we get closer to the end of the year, Hertz will have to slash prices to meet the sales numbers.
My wife has a 2019 Rav4 hybrid and it's averaging 5.5 L / 100 km with mixed city/highway driving. The only real complaints are lack of headroom due to the sunroof (I'm 6'3", she's ~5'-11") and the powered lift gate (we'd prefer manual). When we bought it the up charge for the hybrid was $1400 compared to the regular AWD, so it was a pretty easy call to go hybrid.
I have a 16 rav4. Great car. Brother had a Forester from new. Overheating problems started at 40k. Constantly reported it to the dealer. Dealer kept ignoring the obvious head gasket needed. Finally stranded him and his wife in the middle of nowhere Maine. Dealer diagnosed it as head gasket but he was 3k miles out of warranty. Want him to pay 5k for a motor swap. I told him to burn the car on the dealers lot. Eventually gets Subaru to pay for the short block but he paid for labor. A month or two go by and he is in for an oil change and the dealership call him up and has him to come down. He comes down and it told by the servic person he needs a head gasket. It will be 2-4K. He looses his E36 M3 on the dealership demanding to speak with the owner (I guess he loosely knows the owner). Bottom line the dealership backs down and said to put k seal in the motor and they will keep an eye on it. They do this and he then took the car across the street to the Toyota dealer and traded it in on a RAV. That was 3 years ago and 50 k miles and he has not had any issues with the RAV.
After my fiasco with the oil burning 07 Rav4... I'd buy a CRV.. I think I'm done with toyota after the way corp treated me on that one. My dad just bought one from here https://www.davishonda.net/.. He went all over, but the dealer in burlington NJ wanted to deal the most. Mike Piazza in Fairless hills.. the least.
amg_rx7 (Forum Supporter) said:
dxman92 said:
If she is parking on the street in Philadelphia, I wouldn't probably buy a brand new car. I'd be looking at something used 1-2 years old.
+1 on pre parked
Dealers around me charge a substantial markup on anything Toyota or Honda because sheeple want them no matter what. So you'll save on depreciation. Not sure how the interest rate on the loan will impact the calculation though...
A 1-2 year old Rav or Forester are pretty close to the price of a new one, especially since they were both refreshed for 2019, I've seen used examples of both priced higher than a new one. She's not doing a loan, so that helps some. The plan was keep the Jetta for another year until she buys a house with a driveway/garage, but someone took out 4 cars on her block at 2am, which totaled her car. It sucks as it was a 2015 TDI with 14K miles. I'm pushing for a older used for now then new once it's off the street. Her work has spots to charge so I think a rav4 prime makes sense once she has a house.
I jusst looked at Hertz. They have 2019 Rav4 with miles in the 30s and the "no haggle" price is $2200 less than a new no miles one. Seems dumb to buy used.
I'm pushing for a 2017 Escape for $16k for now then upgrade if you feel the need later. I appreciate the advice, looks like if new the Rav4 Hybrid makes the most sense, I just hate to watch it get beat up on the street
The current RAV4 Hybrid is hands down my favorite small SUV, for whatever that's worth. Honestly nothing else really comes close to it at the moment.
Cars are precision assemblies of steel, alloys, composites. They are the product of precision engineering and heavy industy. Don't buy one that only advertises their product based on Love.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
Yeah, for only $2,200 off, I'd buy new.
Hertz seems to be in a weird time where they are trying to maximize shareholder/debitholder return with big prices. The same van that I bought for $15,090 is now $18,090. That is same model year, same trim, same miles, from same location.
Wow. Missed the part about street parking in Philly. I'd get a reliable beater until I had a place with off-street parking.
Would an HRV be easier to street park? The CRV and RAV4 have gotten bloated in their old age.
If I were street parking in a big city I'd have a beater. Making payments on something that gets vandalized/stolen/snowplowed would suck.
Edit: Google-fu shows the HRV is almost a foot shorter than the CRV or RAV4.
After doing extensive research on all these cars and also driving them all, I'd recommend the RAV4 if you want a super reliable (as reliable as they can get) appliance. It uses port/direct injection (no carbon build up problems), uses a traditional automatic (I think CVTs drive like crap and many manufacturers seem to have reliability issues with them, specifically Nissan/Subaru), and is practical overall.
The problems with the Forester are the seemingly usual Subaru issues (wheel bearings, oil consumption) and the fact that they have a CVT which also has shown to have problems. Also, I don't like the fact that it has auto-stop start which you have to adjust manually every time you start it up deep into a menu.
Also checking on the CRV, it has oil dilution problems and its just direct injection (and turbo), which will probably lead to long term issues in regards to carbon build up. It also uses a CVT. Hondas CVTs are still unknown to me, I haven't heard many problems with them but that's still something to think about. The CR-V does have the best cabin dimensions though.
