Little crossover for the missus - learn me

Steve_Jones said:

ddavidv said:

After researching Hyundai's engine failures, I've crossed those off the list. 

Then cross off turbo charged Tiguans. The turbos seem to last 60k miles. My Son had one, first turbo replaced at 62k as "goodwill" since it was dealer serviced. When that one went at 119k, wasn't worth fixing. I agree with the 2012ish RAV4 from above. They pop up in your budget with 80k or so miles. It's tough spending the budget on a 12 year old car, but they're rock solid. 

If those are essentially the same engine as the golf/jetta, used turbos are readily available & reasonably priced.  Many 1.8T drivers swap on larger GTI or Golf R tubos and sell their old one second-hand.  It's probably a PITA to replace, but you'll probaly get pretty good at it the 3rd or 4th time.  Pretty sure there's a recall on the water pumps for many of the 2017ish era VWs as well.

ddavidv said:

After researching Hyundai's engine failures, I've crossed those off the list. 

I didn't want to be that guy so I didn't say anything. But I think that's a good strategy.

Mine was one of the good motors, but just being around the other people that had H/K's, it was non-stop daily blown engines and dealers refusing to warranty anything without a huge fight. And it's very well documented.

Somebody mentioned the Encore. I know, I know, but we have the sedan version of that. It's almost 10 years old, doesn't even seem like a 3 yr old car, and been great. The only fly in the ointment is the PCV problem, which I've solved. If the Encore came with the later, higher power 1.4 it should be very good.

Well, following up as the trigger was finally pulled. Hopefully it may help someone doing a search.

We did get an HR-V. After much consideration, she wanted the leather interior model, so that meant sunroof and other stuff I normally wouldn't pay for. And this one (2017, 36,000 miles) also has the factory navigation. Price: $21,000-ish.

As you can see, we broke several rules including mileage and price. Some reasons for this were that high mileage offerings really weren't less expensive enough to make it worthwhile. I may have increased the budget by five grand but I got about 3x the car in options and low mileage. One owner, local car, owned by a retiree who quit driving. This thing should last us a decade, easy.

HR-V over the competition because:  RAV4 felt cheap in comparison. VW questionable reliability. Hyundai/KIA engine failures and easy theft. Escape was in second place, as they were cheaper and had comparable features but we liked the Honda better. CVT works better than I expected and it's fairly peppy; quicker than the stick shift Patriot we used to have. 

Pluses:  super quiet inside. Materials quality. Space utilization. Lots of features but without complicated controls.

Meh's:  seat bottoms are oddly firm. First trip mpg only returned about 28 (awd. Couldn't find one that wasn't). Doesn't handle like a Civic. Factory nav isn't Google and can't always be trusted.

Too late but the "easy theft" only applies to non-push button cheap cars (Rio, Forte, Accent, Elantra and bottom trim Optma/Sonata). Almost all of their new cars are pushbutton start and the problem engines are no longer used. We paid $24k for the wifes new Seltos with full warranty. 

Someone mentioned the 3rd gen Rav4,had a V6 one bought used with 60,000 miles on it.

 By 80k the rear end had failed,the a/c compressor also and a couple other items.

 I pressed toyota canada regarding those known issues and they fixed it on their dime but made me buy a $1000 driveshaft as they said the u joints were sticky.

 We traded it shortly afterwards,the squeaks and rattles in it by then was awefull.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

we have a 2018 Escape SEL which has the 1.5L 4-cylinder ecoboost and AWD.  it has been flawless so far but only has 47k on it.

in the 10k since this post, one rear trailing arm bushing completely separated from the inner sleeve and outer shell.  also, short block assembly was replaced under warranty / recall due to coolant consumption through cylinder wall/ deck.  so at 57k i can't say "flawless", although we still like it a lot.

kevlarcorolla said:

Someone mentioned the 3rd gen Rav4,had a V6 one bought used with 60,000 miles on it.

 By 80k the rear end had failed,the a/c compressor also and a couple other items.

 I pressed toyota canada regarding those known issues and they fixed it on their dime but made me buy a $1000 driveshaft as they said the u joints were sticky.

 

 We traded it shortly afterwards,the squeaks and rattles in it by then was awefull.

Wife's first gen rav was a complete pile and always needing something. at 80k it needed a rear diff, another pair of cats, an ECU. That's why we traded it.

ddavidv said:

Well, following up as the trigger was finally pulled. Hopefully it may help someone doing a search.

We did get an HR-V. After much consideration, she wanted the leather interior model, so that meant sunroof and other stuff I normally wouldn't pay for. And this one (2017, 36,000 miles) also has the factory navigation. Price: $21,000-ish.

As you can see, we broke several rules including mileage and price. Some reasons for this were that high mileage offerings really weren't less expensive enough to make it worthwhile. I may have increased the budget by five grand but I got about 3x the car in options and low mileage. One owner, local car, owned by a retiree who quit driving. This thing should last us a decade, easy.

HR-V over the competition because:  RAV4 felt cheap in comparison. VW questionable reliability. Hyundai/KIA engine failures and easy theft. Escape was in second place, as they were cheaper and had comparable features but we liked the Honda better. CVT works better than I expected and it's fairly peppy; quicker than the stick shift Patriot we used to have. 

Pluses:  super quiet inside. Materials quality. Space utilization. Lots of features but without complicated controls.

Meh's:  seat bottoms are oddly firm. First trip mpg only returned about 28 (awd. Couldn't find one that wasn't). Doesn't handle like a Civic. Factory nav isn't Google and can't always be trusted.

The 2017s are based on the Fit chassis which handles well, except you have that AWD system to deal with, higher center of gravity, and so on. 

Congrats on the purchase, sounds like you got a good vehicle for the wife, and it'll last! Those L15s are pretty bullet proof. 

Congrats.  We have added 10K miles on our 2019 HR-V since this thread started.  Will need new tires soon, but no issues have popped up for us.