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What's your opinions on best small suv

11K views 57 replies 31 participants last post by  nmum 
#1 ·
Was thinking Nissan rogue, Rav4, or honda CRV? Any thoughts, opinions?
 
#57 · (Edited)
After several years with my Mom in a Kia Sorento which became too big for her needs we went shopping FOR SOMETHING SMALLER...
- CR-V
- Escape
- Rouge
- Encore
- Rav4
- Sportage
- CX-5
- Santa Fe Sport
- XV Crosstrek
She ended up right back in the Kia, a Sportage this time
I'm a die-hard Honda and Nissan fan, and unfortunately the Rouge and the CR-V just did not work for her
It's been a bit over a year of ownership and she still loves the Sportage, it's short and wide compared to many, so small overall, but very roomy inside, and Hyundai/Kia continue to challenge the other manufacturers with incredible content for the price, and a warranty ya just can't beat
Sorry Honda, but Hyundai/Kia is kicking your asss...
 
#4 ·
My Rogue was bought new 4 years ago, it's been an excellent choice for the last almost 80,000 miles and absolutely will buy another one as well as recommend them to anyone who asks.

Clint
 
#6 ·
Drive all 3 and pic the best fit for you. All 3 will be on par as far as quality goes. I liked the Rogue but wife went Subaru Legacy. My friend has a new Forester , its nice too, no issues in 1.5yrs. Eye Sight on subi is pretty cool!!
 
#7 · (Edited)
I used to sell Nissan so I maybe a little biased. I sold my in-laws a new 2013 Nissan Rogue SL AWD in graphite blue. That has been a decent car for them. Does well in the snow. My wife has a 2015 Nissan Rogue SV AWD in Gun Metallic with the navigation and absolutely loves the car. Plenty of room, rides pretty smooth and a lot of options/equipment for the money including heated cloth seats $29,400 window sticker without sunroof or the stupid 3rd row seating.

I had new a 2013 Nissan Rogue SV AWD as a demo. I did like that and I personally tried to get it stuck in the snow and couldn't. Though the only thing I will say about the Rogue I don't like is the mpg. In the winter about 17-18mpg on 2013 and older body styles and 23-24mpg in summer.

the 2014- current rogue we've been getting around 25-25.5mpg calculating the old fashion way with a calculator even though it says 30 mpg on the gauge cluster which I know isn't right. She came from a Nissan Cube getting 27mpg in the winter months and 30-32mpg in the summer months.

I did drive a new Toyota Rav 4 just didn't care for them. The wife had a rental 2015 Hyundai Tucson SE and couldn't stand it. Yes it had some nice amenities but the ride was horrible, ugly interior, seemed a little outdated, and the seats were uncomfortable.

If your going to look at the Nissan Rogue I would also suggest looking at the Honda CR-V. You do pay more for a Honda CR-V but very reliable.


Don't bother looking at a Mazda, Hyundai, KIA, Chevy Equinox, Chevy Trax, Buick Encore, Ford Escape

GMC Terrain is nice but you'll pay more for it. Sold a lot of those I did like them just not the price tag.

I sold Ford for a short time and I will say to this day the new body style Ford Escape it garbage. It has the same interior as does the Ford Focus. Plenty of power but very very cheaply put together.
Chris Nightarmor11
 
#8 ·
Honestly when it comes time to replace my 2004 Outlander if I replace it with another cross over the only contenders i'd even consider right now are the rouge, forester and rvr but only with the upgraded engine package. To narrow it down from those 3 I'd be test driving them in the middle of winter.

Kia and Hyundai home come a long way in the past 10 years but to this date I'd still never own one. And I simply don't like the Rav4 or CRV.


A Forester STI if that becomes a reality for North America would be an ideal replacement.
 
#43 ·
My wife also has a 2004 Outlander. It has been great for us. Knock on wood. Still going strong at 145,000 miles. She loves it. +1 for the new Rogues. They are pretty nice vehicles for the price. So many other small crossovers are overpriced.
 
#9 ·
We just bought one last October(a 2014 model year). I really like the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport the woman got, albeit one aspect, the electric power steering, it really is dead feeling and I don't like it, but I understand they did some tweaking on that for 2015. I also really like the engine and underbody layout from the little time I've spent poking around on an oil change, seems easy to work on. It is leaps and bounds better than the POS chevy equinox we had that was failing apart all over by 65k miles, AC failure, oil leaks, emissions equipment failures, etc. I almost feel sorry for the Hyundai dealer that took it on trade after I reset all the service lights lol.

CR-V is probably the go too safe bet, though I'm not a fan of the styling.

If you really need all wheel drive then the Forester, though there are a lot of complaints about the seats and noise levels. Maybe toss in the Outback as an option for more refinement.
 
#12 ·
The V6 in the wife's Sorento has surprised the hell out of me. We were pulling 28-29mpg on a trip from NY to Florida earlier this year. I also agree that transmission tuning in it is spot on. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Sorento after the year we have experienced with this one so far. Also the thing was a beast in the snow this past winter. I was loving turning off the traction control and doing some all wheel drifting during some of the storms.
 
#14 ·
I have had a kia Sorento and a couple hondas and they have been fantastic to me over the years. They are reliable and economical so i think those are very good. Rav 4 is a bit small in my opinion in the back seat.

I also love Audis and have a sQ7 so a sQ5 or a q5 are great too but they can break the bank on the price tag.

Those are my 2 cents
 
#15 ·
3 years ago we were in the market for a small and safe suv.to mine own suprise we ended up with a VW Tiguan 4 motion. It's a great city car or a long road trip. Raced it on the Lime Rock snow track this past winter. It's that kinda ride.It's a differant breed and driving experience.Loves to rev. Almost impossible to get stuck in the snow. The interior is minnalmist VW somthing I like. We haven't had any problems with it even after Lime Rock...
 
#20 ·
i agree with the juke being kinda ugly but i disagree with your toyota statement. i have found them to be a lot better quality and reliability compared to all the Nissans i have owned so far. I Love my frontier but as some people on here know i have had way too many issues.
 
#17 ·
Didn't see the Acura RDX mentioned here.
Obviously it's an upper end Honda product.

We love ours.
Plenty of power (turbo), very, very well equipped, AWD and not many around here, a fact that we like.
We don't have one single complaint about it.
 
#18 ·
Consumer Reports puts the Subaru Forester on top and it is available with a 6 MT. But if you want an automatic it has a CVT which I wouldn't like.

The RAV4 which is next on their list does have as 6 speed automatic (no manual transmission) and is about the same price as the Forester.
 
#19 ·
Question of the day: What do you want/need to do with the vehicle?. How many people do you need to carry? Dogs? Haul or tow anything?

The "utility" part of Sport Utility Vehicle will depend a lot on how you answer those questions. To me, if you are looking at the three things mentioned, the carrying capacity in therms of both people and cargo isn't much more on the "utility" side than a car.

For my wife, we looked at all of those (this back in 2011) but we were mainly considering them because she really wanted all wheel drive for our harsh MN winters. We ended up going back (as we usually do for her) to a Subaru. This is her third Subaru - a 2011 Imprezza wagon. We rarely carry more than two people and 4 adults is plenty of room for us (no kids). With the back seats folded down I think we actually have more cargo/dog space than any of the three SUV's you mentioned. That said, the 2012 and later Imprezza's went with a smaller, less powerful 2.0L in place of our 2.5 so noticeably less power but better MPG.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Not sure if it applies, but I didn't see Toyota Venza mentioned above, I don't know what the heck it is, (crossover, suv, station wagon, Camry with a hatch), but anyway, we like it alot.

My wife is on her second one. The first one she ran 80k without any major issues, we traded it in a few months ago, for the AWD version, because the FWD version is not good in the snow.
 
#23 ·
Yeah, i dont disagree with you that toyota is expensive however the Japs seem to be very good at quality. I don't see that in American cars but i Would pick a silverado over any truck any day.
 
#24 ·
Lots of interesting replies so far. To answer your question it will basically just be for my dog and I and an occasional buddy. I don't have a family so I don't need something big. I live in New England and the winters here can be hell so I want all wheel drive. I've never owned a 4 cylinder engine just because I like having a little power under the hood. Don't want to spend more than 25 grand. That about sums it up.
 
#28 · (Edited)
For 25k or less...at least talking MSRP you're gonna have to get a 4 cyclinder. If all wheel drive is important and you want to be under 25k the forester or an outback(maybe) are about your only good options, Subaru's all wheel drive system is far superior to everyone else's, with the possible exception of jeep. If you're willing to take a chance on a Chrysler/fiat product then you could consider jeep.

A lot of the options discussed here have been on "Talking Cars with Consumer Reports" this past year...The new rogue might be the only one that hasn't been yet. They have a youtube channel with all the episodes(like 70 of em).
 
#25 ·
Best SUV of any size: whatever Jeep makes.

This is the easiest question I've answered all week.

Nothing else in the SUV world stacks up to what Jeep has to offer. That's just the way it is. I could get into pages of discussion on why, but it's not worth it.
 
#38 · (Edited)
The Subaru Forester is something that I've always considered from time to time. If I ever decide to give up an open truck bed I might seriously look at it.

It has decent room for the passengers and one of the things that I like about it is how the reviews says it has good all round visibility.

I like the looks of the Kias but their windows are tiny. Maybe more so the Sportage then the Sorento(or whatever they're larger SUV/CUV is called)

I started to get interested in the Outback again recently after seeing it profiled in the local paper last week. But then passed a couple on the road and saw how small that cargo area is. So it's probably off my list.

I might be mistaken but I don't think the RDX comes with turbo anymore. There were complaints about the low mileage of the turbos. So I think the newer models only come in a V6 now.

I used to like the RAV4 mainly for it's V6 option but think that they only come in 4 cylinder now. So I consider it basically the same as the CRV now.

Did you all test drive all of the cars you're considering? Sometimes that will quickly take a choice off the list.

---------------------

Also one thing that gets me about driving my wife's Toyota are the small side mirrors shaped kind of like a triangle. Every time I make a comment about it, my wife says it's not an issue for her. It might just be a matter of perspective compared to the nice big square mirrors that we have with the Frontier. But I noticed the Venza has similar mirrors with the triangle shape. So maybe check to see if the RAV4 has useable side mirrors as well.
 
#39 ·
Since we're splitting hairs here.

If you want a small-ish SUV pick one of the following:
Xterra
4Runner
Wrangler

That's pretty much all there is.

Now if you want a CUV, that's another story.

Also, it doesn't sound like you need a CUV, go get yourself a Subaru or one of ze German wagons in AWD form like the Audi A3.
 
#40 ·
Since we're splitting hairs here.

If you want a small-ish SUV pick one of the following:
Xterra
4Runner
Wrangler

That's pretty much all there is.
Not surprisingly, the last three body-on-frame models...

Lot to be said for unibody, but it won't be said offroad.
 
#42 ·
I got a Frontier Crew Cab this time vs the King after looking at many AWD CUV's because I wanted 4 doors for passengers and more lockable weatherproof storage, but I also wanted a truck bed to haul dirty wet stuff and buy lawn care purchases.

Does that count as a recommendation ?
 
#45 · (Edited)
Did i miss it or did nobody mention Mazda cx5. I've been a Mazda tech for a while and there has been very little to nothing wrong with these SUVs that warranty won't cover. Its much better looking than most SUVs, very comfortable, great on fuel, lots of tech savvy stuff. What it doesn't have is a v6 option. But if you drive it you'll want to buy it. A lot of the other companies have gone very cheap with their builds Honda/toyota/Chrysler/Chevy feel all very cheap and Lego-ish. Mazda's build quality is far beyond what it used to be, like I said take a look at one you'll love it forsure.
 
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