Unicorn Search: mid-sized 4WD/AWD New England vehicle with decent gas mileage

[Andy Mink]

@Andy Mink, fix that head gasket. Easy peasy. Unless diesel, but probably still is.

They want more than it's worth and I have discovered I don't enjoy working on vehicles as much as I used to. This would be a project that, as I got into it, would likely require other parts to be fixed or replaced.

 

[DanoT]

I don't care where they get built, I would choose Toyota or Honda over Ford, GM, LCA all day, every day. And European car, after 100k miles I would sell to avoid the risk of high cost repairs.

In the past Toyota would have a new generation car for sale in Japan for a year before bringing a car to the very important North America market, so any bugs or quirks missed in pre production could be taken care of post production but before being sold in N.A.

For Tundra and Tacoma that Toyota only sells in N.A., they have first come out with the low volume sales vastly all new generation Tundra for 2022. The next generation Tacoma will share many components with the new Tundra but the next gen Tacoma which is a huge seller for Toyota, will not happen for a few years yet, giving them time to get things sorted with the Tundra and then applied to the Tacoma.

Disclaimer: If you haven't yet guessed, I am a huge Toyota fanboy.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

My crosstrek was $30k and is FULLY LOADED. Only thing it doesn't have is a heated steering wheel which isn't available on the outback. However, my heat is killer I haven't really felt I was missing anything. Hyundai makes a great car. So many good choicies for cars now.

 

[lisamamot]

Only thing it doesn't have is a heated steering wheel which isn't available on the outback

Did you mean the Crosstrek? It is available on the new Outback Touring, which I am excited about.

 

[Philpug]

Yup, as long as it isn’t pathetic, I don’t care about 0-60 ratings, I do not want a car to drive for me so many assist features are not a want, and I don’t give a rats a$$ about a stereo upgrade, but a car has me when “heated” precedes seats and steering wheel, lol.

Are used to say to customers when I was selling cars what I think is important is a relevant what do you think it’s important it's important.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Did you mean the Crosstrek? It is available on the new Outback Touring, which I am excited about.

Yup I meant crosstrek. Was looking at outbacks initially but they get expensive and I didn't care for the body. Crosstrek ticks all my boxes including great gas mileage, luxury features and good ground clearance. Happy car hunting.

 

[lisamamot]

Yup I meant crosstrek. Was looking at outbacks initially but they get expensive and I didn't care for the body. Crosstrek ticks all my boxes including great gas mileage, luxury features and good ground clearance. Happy car hunting.

The Crosstrek is super cute. I am not jazzed about the body styling of the Outback either, but I need the space, so it is a fine trade-off.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

The Crosstrek is super cute. I am not jazzed about the body styling of the Outback either, but I need the space, so it is a fine trade-off.

I get it, it's all about what your needs are. It's just Michael and I with rarely a back seat passenger so we can load up the back. We never have to carry skis anywhere but Killington in the spring but we can fit it all. We usually have 6 to 7 pairs of skis, a snowboard, coolers, 4 chairs, folding table and 2 boot bags so it's fine. One cool thing is even with all that there's still room underneath the folded seats headrests on the floor behind the front seats. It's pretty unreal what we can fit. If we had a third person we could still fit it all with just folding down the wider seat and stack everything on top instead of spreading out along the full area. Our friends have crosstreks and fit their kayaks inside as well. Can't beat the gas mileage too.

 

[Snowfan]

Wait, a hybrid?! Be still my heart….

I was just hoping for a reasonable overhaul since it hasn’t been updated in a decade!

Yes! The new 4Runner should be all-new from the ground up, and Toyota has said every vehicle will have an electrified option by 2025.

The 4Runner will likely have two engines, a turbo four-cylinder, plus that same engine with a hybrid system tacked on for extra power and economy (in the city, at least).

No significant changes for 2022 4Runner.

 

[Philpug]

No significant changes for 2022 4Runner.

Other than it looks like it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. I really don't know what Toyota (and Lexus) is thinking with their grill designs.

 

[Tony]

Other than it looks like it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. I really don't know what Toyota (and Lexus) is thinking with their grill designs.

I think they are also trying to maximize repair revenues from minor front-end collisions.

 

[lisamamot]

No significant changes for 2022 4Runner.

Right - I didn't expect to see them until 2023.

 

[DanoT]

Other than it looks like it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. I really don't know what Toyota (and Lexus) is thinking with their grill designs.

From what I see with the all new 2022 Tundra, Toyota has maintained their ugly front end styling with this truck. I suspect the Lexus design team lent a hand.

Ironically the current generation Tacoma is one of the best looking trucks out there, midsize or full size.

Toyota: Always embracing consistency and slow to change.

 

[nay]

Yup, as long as it isn’t pathetic, I don’t care about 0-60 ratings, I do not want a car to drive for me so many assist features are not a want, and I don’t give a rats a$$ about a stereo upgrade, but a car has me when “heated” precedes seats and steering wheel, lol.

Ok so you need to try ventilated seats, you’ll be stunned at how much they increase comfort. There are times when I think it’s cool enough for heated and then I keep the ventilated seats going. As ms. nay said the other day, when you seat temp is right you don’t have to manage it with the car’s climate control. Except for a bad driver, having one person need excessive climate control management is the sure thing to make everybody else unconfortable.

Ventilated seats are money. Go try some. You never knew how uncomfortable you were most of the time.

 

[nay]

Did you mean the Crosstrek? It is available on the new Outback Touring, which I am excited about.

I was going to mention that the Outback might be the vehicle since you don’t need the third row. We had a XT loaner for 5 days because the dealer broke our windshield on the Ascent during the “We Owe” service for hitch install and some other goodies and then the new glass didn’t arrive on time because there is only OEM glass with all of the driver assist features that rely on the windshield for light signaling to the driver (don’t buy the OEM glass rider policy with your car insurance, they have to use OEM glass either way).

I like to pick on the Outback as a car without a purpose, especially with its low seating cockpit position for something that supposedly off-road biased, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t grow on us while we had it. It’s just an absolutely huge car for 2 people in terms of cargo space and it drove really nicely with a solid suspension. I’d say 30 mpg on the highway is perfectly reasonable as it was 3-4 better than the Ascent and you do get the paddle shifters if you want to have some fun. Everything is run through the huge entertainment interface - I like that the Ascent kept a bunch of buttons and knobs visually and at night, but you can’t argue the clean style and “right there” access.

We were personally really happy to be back in the Ascent Touring, but we’re big vehicle people both by need and by what we like and the luxury stuff is just a level up. Also, the XT didn’t have ventilated seats so we were back sweaty and that’s just not cutting it anymore .

It’s big in the garage, that space was occupied by a first gen Sequoia that isn’t all that much longer.

 

[nay]

From what I see with the all new 2022 Tundra, Toyota has maintained their ugly front end styling with this truck. I suspect the Lexus design team lent a hand.

Ironically the current generation Tacoma is one of the best looking trucks out there, midsize or full size.

Toyota: Always embracing consistency and slow to change.

The front ends on the full size trucks are all like this now, because they have to drop them really now to push fuel economy to restrict air flow under the vehicle. The Tacoma is still positioned to be an offroad vehicle so you can’t rob approach angle, but the Tundra’s days with any notion of off-road are over.

I think it’s all super ugly, but you have to interface a sea of plastic into the fenders to make it all integrate, and across the board, it’s ugly and uglier and ugliest. Lexus went for ugliest, I have no idea how anybody will dethrone them, but OEMs are only going to have room for one model that can take the aerodynamics hit to be “off-road tough” looking while maintaining CAFE requirements.

That’s why Toyota just won’t bring back a real off-roader. They’d need a compact sh*tbox to offset it and there’s more money in pretending a RAV4 can be off-road capable than in the real thing. The Wrangler and Gladiator are the only reason Jeep has the Compass, and even then there are now diesel offerings to help with CAFE. I don’t think any other OEM can off-road to exist so much on the two ends of the spectrum, they leave out too much market in trying to be #1.

 

[John O]

We were personally really happy to be back in the Ascent Touring, but we’re big vehicle people both by need and by what we like and the luxury stuff is just a level up.

I'm curious to know specifically what you felt the Outback was missing, and whether that's primarily due to the difference in trim levels since the loaner Outback wasn't a touring. My understanding was that the Outback Touring has most of the same luxury goodies as the Ascent Touring, including the ventilated seats.

 

[scott43]

I'm at the Yukon XL or bust point... With a Nissan Leaf as car #2. I think it's impossible to have too much space in your big vehicle. Maybe just me.

 

[Muleski]

I'm at the Yukon XL or bust point... With a Nissan Leaf as car #2. I think it's impossible to have too much space in your big vehicle. Maybe just me.

We have had three Suburbans followed by four Land Cruisers, going back 30+ years.
Totally buy into that.

 

[François Pugh]

I'm at the Yukon XL or bust point... With a Nissan Leaf as car #2. I think it's impossible to have too much space in your big vehicle. Maybe just me.

LOL. I can relate. I have owned a few full-sized wagons, and driven a lot of Company trucks that were crew-cabs. The current company vehicle is Ram 1500 4-door pick-em-up with the 5.7 Hemi. It is fun to drove and has good response from the loud pedal, but handling leaves a lot to be desired, and it's not just the poor grip of the tires.

I guess everybody needs a quiver of cars, like a Suburban AND a Corvette.