Have a 2022 Outback lease. The lease ends in February. Purchase is $23k. Wife likes it fine.
Budget $27k max. Considering wagons or 5-seat SUVs. Favoring hybrids. Preferably Japanese. Preferably Toyota. Maybe a Venza but haven't driven one yet.
Things wife likes about the Outback: cargo space, side mirrors with lane presence alerts, radar cruise control, Apple Car Play, great leather interior.
Things I don't like about the Outback: it's quarter mile time can be measured with a sun dial. Long term durability of a CVT. The AV system goes berserk sometimes and the warranty is expiring.
We should probably buy the Suby.
WWGRMD?
This is the last year for the Venza as Toyota goes to a Crown SUV based off the Crown Sedan.
However, I really like the current Venza. I have not driven one but it seems nice on paper. It just seems to be the tarted-up RAV4 but that's not a bad thing. Across the street at the Lexus dealership, the Venza is the NX
My wife is a big fan of the Venza, they seem to be a much better value than the equivalent RAV4. She was seeing relatively new ones for around your price range, and they don't seem to hold their value as well as the RAV4. They're discontinued after this year, so that will probably lower price and reduce resale value (not sure if that's important to you). Parts availability in the future could be more difficult (and expensive) because it's a short run - but I would think the mechanicals should be the same/similar to the equivalent Toyota/Lexus models.
FWIW, the Subaru CVTs seems to be some of the more reliable ones out there, although I can't speak to the particular model that's in your Outback. AV systems seem to be a pain point for just about everything these days, and with all the integration it can be tough to get an aftermarket replacement. Are there good options in the aftermarket?
The Subaru FB groups seem to be helpful, are you in one for your generation of Outback? You might get a better sense of CVT reliability & potential solutions to your audio issues in there. FB groups tend to skew negative from what I've seen, they seem to draw in the complainers (I probably fall into that category).
2 year old Venzas seem to skew hard toward past rental use. Hertz does have 12 month 12,000 mile warranty so that might make one of theirs favorable. I do know a really good Toyota mechanic for a PPI.
I think the smart choice is probably to purchase the Outback at this point. It's our 2nd Outback and it's a good car with only 36k miles. Frequent CVT fluid changes should keep it in good shape.
In reply to OHSCrifle :
I'm pretty anti-Subaru, so I would suggest a mini van of some flavor.
Mndsm
MegaDork
10/20/24 3:16 p.m.
John Welsh said:
This is the last year for the Venza as Toyota goes to a Crown SUV based off the Crown Sedan.
However, I really like the current Venza. I have not driven one but it seems nice on paper. It just seems to be the tarted-up RAV4 but that's not a bad thing. Across the street at the Lexus dealership, the Venza is the NX
the nx is a great place to be and mostly forgotten about by the Lexus crowd. You can get a very nice hybrid for reasonable $$$
FWIW, I've only seen one Toyota CVT fail, and that was covered by warranty. The venza seems to use very expensive sized tires.. But around here you wouldn't find one in you're stated budget. Your market may be different.
