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A tale of two cars
Jun. 25th, 2011 11:32 pmI haven't talked about it much in my journal, but ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atara has mentioned in hers a couple of times that we are in the market for a new car to replace her ageing Saturn. It's not that the Saturn is in particularly rough shape, but it doesn't owe us anything, and it needs more in repairs than it is arguably worth at this point. If we decide to keep it, two things that it would need immediately are new front bearings and a new clutch. The brakes would probably need to be replaced again before winter, and I strongly suspect one of the rotors is slightly warped - though I think they are due to be replaced anyway. In all, it's enough that we've decided to retire the old boy and move on.
I won't go into the minutiae of what we were looking for in a car, but our criteria included:
- Must be a manual transmission
- Must have some cargo space
- Must seat 4 (or more) adults comfortably
- Not a minivan, but some flexibility on a smaller SUV.
After lots of reading, research, soul searching, and pestering friends for ideas, we finally narrowed the field down to four that seemed like good candidates.
Volkswagen Golf TDI Wagon
Mazda 5
Subaru Outback
Subaru Forester
After viewing one in person, we quickly eliminated the Mazda 5 because, well, it's a minivan. They can call it a crossover all they want, but it's a minivan. We haven't ruled out the Forester, but between it and the Outback the latter actually has more cargo space and about the same ground clearance, so we don't see a lot of advantage in going up to the larger vehicle.
We test drove a Golf and an Outback today and then compared thoughts later over ice cream. Some of these are subjective, some are objective. In any event it is a pretty tough choice between these two, though we are both leaning toward one at the moment.
( Some comparisons behind the cut )
atara has mentioned in hers a couple of times that we are in the market for a new car to replace her ageing Saturn. It's not that the Saturn is in particularly rough shape, but it doesn't owe us anything, and it needs more in repairs than it is arguably worth at this point. If we decide to keep it, two things that it would need immediately are new front bearings and a new clutch. The brakes would probably need to be replaced again before winter, and I strongly suspect one of the rotors is slightly warped - though I think they are due to be replaced anyway. In all, it's enough that we've decided to retire the old boy and move on.I won't go into the minutiae of what we were looking for in a car, but our criteria included:
- Must be a manual transmission
- Must have some cargo space
- Must seat 4 (or more) adults comfortably
- Not a minivan, but some flexibility on a smaller SUV.
After lots of reading, research, soul searching, and pestering friends for ideas, we finally narrowed the field down to four that seemed like good candidates.
Volkswagen Golf TDI Wagon
Mazda 5
Subaru Outback
Subaru Forester
After viewing one in person, we quickly eliminated the Mazda 5 because, well, it's a minivan. They can call it a crossover all they want, but it's a minivan. We haven't ruled out the Forester, but between it and the Outback the latter actually has more cargo space and about the same ground clearance, so we don't see a lot of advantage in going up to the larger vehicle.
We test drove a Golf and an Outback today and then compared thoughts later over ice cream. Some of these are subjective, some are objective. In any event it is a pretty tough choice between these two, though we are both leaning toward one at the moment.
( Some comparisons behind the cut )
