[Editor's note: This is a continuation of a blog post from a week ago.]
Toyota Venza: I've always been comfortable with Toyotas. As long as I can remember, my family has had a Toyota, and the car I've had for the last four years has been a Toyota. They're safe, dependable, comfortable, and generally all around relatively boring. All that being said, I'm on the market for a more exciting vehicle. With that in mind, I figured I'd go ahead and give the Venza the benefit of a courtesy test drive, since I haven't had any bad experiences with Toyota. For those of you unfamiliar with the Venza, it's kinda a cross between an SUV and a wago, and looks kinda funky. Anyways, I test drove a mid tier model and wasn't super impressed. For one, I knew going into going to the dealership that the Venza is a pretty pricey vehicle--loading it up with the options I want pushes the price up to the upper $30s. And given that the Audi Q5 that is my dream car is only low $40s, that's so not cool. Getting back to the point, my sister and I looked at the Venza and played around with it in the lot for a while before test driving it. The seats are very comfortable and there's plenty of room up front and in the back. The dashboard has a nice layout, although the fake wood trim looks pretty tacky. The seats also looked weird, appearing to be a leather/vinyl blend. Weird. There is plenty of storage room behind the back seats (34.4 cubic feet), and with them folded down, there's a ton of space (70 cu ft). Driving the car, the engine felt nice--it was the V6 and provided plenty of punch and power. However, there was one big thing that I didn't like--the suspension felt jittery, with it almost constantly bouncing with these tiny bumps. To clarify--it didn't bounce or waft over any actual bumps, but on a flat smooth road, it was constantly doing those tiny bumps. Very odd, and rather off putting. Overall, though, (discounting the jittery suspension) it was a solidly bland ride. No dice.
Hyundai Tucson: This is the Hyundai version of the Kia Sportage, so I was interested in checking out how good it was. However, there were about 15 people looking at cars at the dealership, and only appeared to be about 3 salesmen, so we never got a chance to do any test driving. The interior looks quite nice, and although I prefer the exterior of the Sportage over that of the Tucson, it still had a decent exterior. Plus, I like the color options that Hyundai has.
Hyundai Santa Fe: Like the Tucson, only got to look at the car, didn't get a chance to drive it. Sizewise, I prefer it over the Tucson, but the Santa Fe is getting old (current generation has been out for quite a while). It's getting totally redesigned for the 2013 model year, so I'd be pretty interested to see what the new one will look like later on this year.
Kia Sportage: I test drove an almost top of the line one--it had the turbo V4 and everything but navigation. Very sharp looking car, inside and out. Nice materials everywhere, and didn't feel like a cheap car at all. I was a bit concerned about the interior space before I got to check it out--my Avalon is freaking huge on the inside, so I've been quite spoiled when it comes to the interior of a vehicle, and like to have plenty of room for passengers and cargo. To my surprise, the interior was roomier than I expected, with plenty of passenger room up front and in the back. Cargo space is 26.1 cu ft behind the seats and 54.6 with them folded down. Sufficient room for my needs. Driving it, I found some downsides. With the driver seat, while the seat bottom is plenty comfortable, the seatback wasn't all that great. I've got fairly broad shoulders, so I could feel the bolstering on the sides of the seat, and there wasn't enough padding for my tastes. It wasn't an uncomfortable seat, per se, just not what I'm looking for. In addition, the engine, while plenty powerful, was kinda noisy under acceleration. At speed it was nice and quiet, just noiser than I expected when getting up to speed. The biggest downside I saw was the lack of visibility. To qualify--the rear window is pretty small, and the headrests obscure much of the bottom of the window, and having a passenger back there makes it even worse; the side windows, while providing a clear field of visibility through the available window area, are on the small side, since the car has a high belt line. Finally, from reading reviews online, the turbo V4 has pretty cruddy gas mileage in real life, although it has a pretty darn good rating from the EPA. All that being said...I could survive with that vehicle if it was my only realistic option. I didn't price out that particular model, but I think it was mid/upper $20s, well within my price range.
Kia Sorento: The Sorento was the last vehicle I test drove. When I'd done my online research, I'd been worried about the interior space of the Sportage, so I thought the Sorento (being bigger) might be more to my liking. I test drove a fully loaded SX V6 AWD model. I loved it! The interior is styled differently than that of the Sportage, and I prefer how it looks. The driver seat was much more comfortable to me--a good deal more padding on the back, and the bolstering wasn't an issue. There was plenty of room in the middle row, and there is a miniscule back row for if I'm ever carting my sister's cat, Argo, around. The middle row is also quite comfy. With both rows of seats down, it can hold 72.5 cu ft of stuff, so it's got more than plenty of storage. Being a fully optioned up car, it had the air cooled driver seat (if you've never been in a car with a cooled seat, it is AWESOME!), panoramic sunroof (also awesome), and nav/upgraded sound system. Driving the car, the V6 provided plenty of power, and did it pretty quietly and seamlessly--it also has a very solid and steady suspension, which is nice. A big improvement from the engine and transmission in my car. Visibility was quite a bit better than in the Sportage--bigger rear window, unobstructed view out of it, lower beltline and bigger windows on the sides, and bigger side mirrors. In addition, the gas mileage isn't half bad (for an SUV), with people reporting that they're getting around 22 combined with the AWD V6. Optioned up the way I want it, and taking advantage of the various promotions offered, as well as any negotiating I can do, the car would be in the general vicinity of $30k, give or take a grand or two. At that price, it's well within my price range to buy or lease.
I've decided to go with the Sorento AWD SX. I'll go in and get it next Saturday. Gonna take my car to Carmax to have it appraised before I go to the dealership, so I'll decide whether to trade or sell before I go to the dealer. This time next week, I should have a new car! Woohoo!
Hyundai Tucson: This is the Hyundai version of the Kia Sportage, so I was interested in checking out how good it was. However, there were about 15 people looking at cars at the dealership, and only appeared to be about 3 salesmen, so we never got a chance to do any test driving. The interior looks quite nice, and although I prefer the exterior of the Sportage over that of the Tucson, it still had a decent exterior. Plus, I like the color options that Hyundai has.
Hyundai Santa Fe: Like the Tucson, only got to look at the car, didn't get a chance to drive it. Sizewise, I prefer it over the Tucson, but the Santa Fe is getting old (current generation has been out for quite a while). It's getting totally redesigned for the 2013 model year, so I'd be pretty interested to see what the new one will look like later on this year.
Kia Sportage: I test drove an almost top of the line one--it had the turbo V4 and everything but navigation. Very sharp looking car, inside and out. Nice materials everywhere, and didn't feel like a cheap car at all. I was a bit concerned about the interior space before I got to check it out--my Avalon is freaking huge on the inside, so I've been quite spoiled when it comes to the interior of a vehicle, and like to have plenty of room for passengers and cargo. To my surprise, the interior was roomier than I expected, with plenty of passenger room up front and in the back. Cargo space is 26.1 cu ft behind the seats and 54.6 with them folded down. Sufficient room for my needs. Driving it, I found some downsides. With the driver seat, while the seat bottom is plenty comfortable, the seatback wasn't all that great. I've got fairly broad shoulders, so I could feel the bolstering on the sides of the seat, and there wasn't enough padding for my tastes. It wasn't an uncomfortable seat, per se, just not what I'm looking for. In addition, the engine, while plenty powerful, was kinda noisy under acceleration. At speed it was nice and quiet, just noiser than I expected when getting up to speed. The biggest downside I saw was the lack of visibility. To qualify--the rear window is pretty small, and the headrests obscure much of the bottom of the window, and having a passenger back there makes it even worse; the side windows, while providing a clear field of visibility through the available window area, are on the small side, since the car has a high belt line. Finally, from reading reviews online, the turbo V4 has pretty cruddy gas mileage in real life, although it has a pretty darn good rating from the EPA. All that being said...I could survive with that vehicle if it was my only realistic option. I didn't price out that particular model, but I think it was mid/upper $20s, well within my price range.
Kia Sorento: The Sorento was the last vehicle I test drove. When I'd done my online research, I'd been worried about the interior space of the Sportage, so I thought the Sorento (being bigger) might be more to my liking. I test drove a fully loaded SX V6 AWD model. I loved it! The interior is styled differently than that of the Sportage, and I prefer how it looks. The driver seat was much more comfortable to me--a good deal more padding on the back, and the bolstering wasn't an issue. There was plenty of room in the middle row, and there is a miniscule back row for if I'm ever carting my sister's cat, Argo, around. The middle row is also quite comfy. With both rows of seats down, it can hold 72.5 cu ft of stuff, so it's got more than plenty of storage. Being a fully optioned up car, it had the air cooled driver seat (if you've never been in a car with a cooled seat, it is AWESOME!), panoramic sunroof (also awesome), and nav/upgraded sound system. Driving the car, the V6 provided plenty of power, and did it pretty quietly and seamlessly--it also has a very solid and steady suspension, which is nice. A big improvement from the engine and transmission in my car. Visibility was quite a bit better than in the Sportage--bigger rear window, unobstructed view out of it, lower beltline and bigger windows on the sides, and bigger side mirrors. In addition, the gas mileage isn't half bad (for an SUV), with people reporting that they're getting around 22 combined with the AWD V6. Optioned up the way I want it, and taking advantage of the various promotions offered, as well as any negotiating I can do, the car would be in the general vicinity of $30k, give or take a grand or two. At that price, it's well within my price range to buy or lease.
I've decided to go with the Sorento AWD SX. I'll go in and get it next Saturday. Gonna take my car to Carmax to have it appraised before I go to the dealership, so I'll decide whether to trade or sell before I go to the dealer. This time next week, I should have a new car! Woohoo!
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