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SUVs Suzuki Grand Vitara/Vitara Suzuki Grand Vitara vs Subaru Forester vs Hyundai Santa Fe vs Jeep Liberty vs Ford Escape vs Saturn Vue
4940 messages, Last post on Sep 24, 2009 at 9:33 AM
You are in the Suzuki Grand Vitara/Vitara Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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Forester: everything you expect from Subaru. Nice ride, great AWD system standard, great crash test scores. 2003 model looks much better. I'd go for the Impreza TS wagon for a few grand less or the WRX wagon (woo-hoo!) for not much more, but if you need the SUV look it's hard to fault the Forester. Santa Fe: The cushy cruiser of the group. Smooth, quiet, roomy, great warranty. If you like the looks it's hard to beat for the price. After 18 mos. and 24k miles ours is trouble free and as tight as the day we bought it. Best rear hatch design in the business. Liberty: As you might expect, the mountain goat of the group. My neighbor bought one and uses it to go rock hunting out in the desert - takes it places that would leave any other ute here quaking in its all-season radials. If you're not a rock hopper, be prepared to deal with tippy handling and lousy gas mileage. Triscape twins: The athletes of the bunch. Plenty of power, decent handling. If you want the sportiest mini-ute, it's a shoot-out between these guys and the Rav4. 2002+ models seem to have fixed most of the initial quality problems. Vue: Haven't looked at or driven one. Plastic body panels, neato-jet CVT tranny doesn't seem quite ready for prime time. Great Saturn "no-stress" dealership experience. There's something for everyone here. No need for slams on other people's rides, you get what works for you. Since this forum seems to be cycling back into name-calling and posturing I'll be looking for somewhere else to hang out. If you have any questions about the Santa Fe I'll check in that forum from time to time. Later, all -Jason |
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CVT / VTi is ready for prime time now at your local Saturn dealer. It's been out for a few months. At least they fixed it before it was released rather than the other way around. K |
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You folks will excuse me if I found that debate about which SUV was "less bad" in reliability amusing. Just look at the top of the chart on their Car Issue and what will you find? The Subaru (american owned!) Forester. -juice |
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jaserb: Thank you for breathing some fresh air back into this forum! I agree with everything you said (although my experience with a new 3.7 Liberty 4x4 has been yielding an average above 20mpg in mixed suburban traffic -- apparently not so unusual and not nearly as bad as many expected). steve: Interesting to note that Foresters are now coming out of Vancouver, Washington, although much of what I'm reading still refers to the model as coming out of Japan. Funny, Subaru isn't making any big announcements about that. Regardless, it's a very nice machine. |
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I think Vancouver is just the sole point of entry for them? (i.e., they are still made solely in Japan). Steve Host SUVs, Vans and Aftermarket & Accessories Message Boards |
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juice.... you mentioned that Subaru is American-owned (I'm curious because I live not too far from SOA HQ). As far as the design/engineering and manufacturing decisions...are they made here or in Japan? dindak....your testimony runs pretty much contrary to every consumer rating I ever read or 95% of the word-of-mouth recommendations I ever heard! I was talking to my brother's mechanic two weeks ago and we were discussing what his new car should be. He recommended Nissan, Toyota and Honda, said Hyundai had made "great improvements and has no problems to speak of since 2000" and put the American cars at the bottom of the list, especially Ford. That's just the latest of consistent car recommendations I've heard over the past 5 years. scape....you can tout whatever view (not necessarily VUE!) you like, but please don't put words in my mouth! I have no regrets about the Santa Fe....none... yeah, I mentioned a couple of negatives like leg room, but its still tolerable. I'm just being objective about the vehicle. I complained about leg room in a Lumina I owned for six years, so I guess I'll always complain about leg room. My only "regret" about the Santa Fe was that I could not get the Merlot color! (I got stuck with feminine Pine Green instead...just couldn't find enough of these cars, so I opted for features ahead of color). |
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But, anyone whom has had economics 101 knows, you send your wealth overseas, you don't see it come back.. Beat the drum of globalization.. until of course you lose your job or your friend loses their job to "downsizing". We are so short sighted here in America sometimes, all out just for ourselves, until you lose your job of course. Carseeker, you sent your hard earned money overseas and put a foreign worker to work. You put an Amercan, actually many North Americans out of work. How are you going to make that payment when you lose your job to Yong Lu? I live in a part of the country where unemployment is over 8 percent. 800 jobs lost at Epson to Indonesia, 1200 at HP to Malyasia.. 30,000 over the years at Boeing to China, Japan, Mexico... 500 at my employer to Indonesia.. |
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| Buy North American, buy built here in the U.S., Canada or Mexico. Honda builds here, Toyota builds here and thier quality is just fine with American workers. | |
| You are constantly justifying your purchase of a Hyundia product, why? The looks of the Santa Fe are its down fall with the majority of buyers. Granted, you like the looks, but when you go to resell it.. good luck.. | |
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Nothing like a little jingoism to get the U.S. economy back on track, huh Scape? I'm wondering if you really live your philosophy though. Do you hunt through clothing tags to make sure your closet only has U.S.-made clothes? Are you willing to pay more to ensure that? Do you limit your diet to produce that is grown in the u.s. (picked, btw, mostly by non-Americans, so maybe you should boycott that too.) Do any of your favorite sports teams have foreign players? How can you continue supporting them? Do you know how much money Ichiro must be just siphoning out of the U.S., directly to Japan! Scandalous! How about that computer you're sitting in front of? Lots of foreign-made parts in there. Maybe you should stick with a thoroughly American-made typewriter. |
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