I’ve got the perfect answer. I’m looking to “place” my 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe with 209K Miles in a good home. I was hoping to bring it to the grave now that I’ve eclipsed 200,000 miles but the company I work for has other ideas. I have to get a car and be “in Compliance” meaning get a new car. This one runs great, it would be great for camping, and it’s a 4WD with everything including heated seats if your traveling in the cold woods. My options are sell it cheap or donate it. I’ll never get what KBB says it’s worth so I want to make sure it gets a good home instead. I think it has plenty of life left. It’s been maintained well. Hope this helps.
haha… i thought you were joking at first (due to the fact that you didn’t even say where you were located), but i guess you were serious.
i’m sure that’s too many miles for me, but it seems you’ve given me something positive about the hyundai to think about, when i really knew nothing about that make.
in the past couple days i’ve been thinking maybe i should find either a (new) 2009 or 2010 hyundai tucson, or possibly kia sportage. perhaps i should bring this question up as a new topic, to see what others think. i’ve gotten a pretty good price offer on a (new) 2009 tucson, which is why i’ve started thinking about this more seriously.
The Hyundai Touring is an expanded version of the very reliable Hyundai Elantra, a car rated higher than even the Toyota Corolla. It has tons of room inside and is attractively priced. You owe it to yourself to drive one.
The Tucson and Santa Fe have more ground clearance, if that is a requirement, since they are SUVs.
i did copy the hyundai info as a new question since i thought i could get information about them easier that way. unfortunately, ground clearance is an issue.
It looks more and more that with your lifestyle, a compact pickup truck is your best bet.
The son of a friend is a forest ranger and his little Mazda truck is perfect for what he does. It has lots of ground clearance, has a cap on the back for lots of cargo, and is is easy on gas.
Nissan, Toyota, Ford, and Mazda all have thses trucks; GM has too, but they are very troublesome. In foreign countries these little trucks are the real workhorses.
well the mazda is the same as the ranger…
i didn’t hate my ranger, but there’s the problem with ford again.
this was what i was first thinking of getting, but then i feel like i’m putting more $ into a company that i feel screwed over by.
Madza and Ford divorced quite a while back, and the Mazda pickup has always been more advanced and reliable than the Ford. WHO told you they were one and the same??? Ford borrowed Mazda’s designs but their execution fell well short. The Ford Focus relies much on the Mazda 3 design, but the cars are night and day.
I have only ever met one dissatified Mazda owner, but can’t count the number of cheesed off Ford owners. For reliability and dealer satisfaction, Consumer Reports has a good listing.
It’s important never to go on assumptions and hearsay from one particular owner.
i remember reading it ages ago, & when i mentioned it at ford recently, they agreed (that they were the same).
i guess i could look at mazdas, but that puts me back in the not-having-any-idea mode again. i’m trying to limit my spending so i’m not totally broke. i’d have to get extended cab, & i don’t think mpg is very good. guess it isn’t that great even in the compact suvs, but it seems to be a little better.
Which brings us right back to where the most space for the least money is a--------minivan with a 4 cylinder engine.
I teach decison -making courses where the students are taught to list the “must Have” items, the “nice to have” items and the “not important” items. They then build a Matrix and decide within the $$$ available what is possible.
This makes for cool, rational, and non-nerve wracking decision making.
You need to sit down and go through the same process.
P.S. Gasoline is between 25 and 30% of the total ownership cost of a car if you drive the average of 12,000 miles a year that Americans put on their cars!
every time i look at minivans & think about what was said here, i feel squeemish. sorry, just can’t go the minivan route - can’t stand them.
i don’t drive that much a lot of the year, but in the nicer season (which isn’t that long around here) i drive a lot more miles & it bugs me to have to spend a ton on gas. plus, i fear what may happen to gas prices in the future.
Uh, who told you they weren’t one and the same? The Mazda B-series trucks were identical to the Ford Ranger from 1994 until they stopped making them in model year 2009. Some of them came with Mazda engines, but these same engines were available in the Ford version. Mazda has a Mazda-only truck overseas (although still based on the Ranger chassis), but not here.
Although buying a Mazda truck might be a good option if you wanted a Ranger but didn’t want to support Ford. Mazda is still definitely an independent company.
jack - ok, i thought so!
i don’t know what i want to go with… my head is spinning.
The Mazda CX-7 added a 2.5L 4 cyl engine to it’s model lineup this year. It’s rated for about 23 mpg combined(20/28 city/highway). Though it starts out at around $21k for the i SV model. If you look at used ones(07-09), they only offer the 2.3L turbo charged 4cyl engine which gets 19mpg combined(17/22 city/highway)
If you are buying new, let me try to bring you back to basics. A 2wd extended cab 4 cyl Toyota Tacoma. I had one in v6 and one 4 cyl and they have excellent road manners with good tires unlike 4wd and give good mileage. The 4 cyl I had was consistently over 25 mpg highway, the newer will do better with much better power. You need a Ranger v6 to equal the performance along with it’s terrible gas mileage.
The newer Toyotas all come standard with a limited slip rear differential, which gives you an excellent traction compromise between 2 and 4 wd drive w/o the hassle and they all have stability control which CR said was the best safety feature since seat belts. They are equipped with these standard features like NO OTHER compact 2wd truck. It has always been my favorite vehicle for all round use at the most reasonable price. They were very easy to sell for top dollar when it came time, unlike crappy obsolete, more unsafe at highway speed Rangers. You will get your money back trade in time while driving a much more capable and more trustworthy vehicle.
Having a frame underneath, they will handle forest roads with the occasional rocks much better than any “car” regardless of it’s ground clearance and the limited slip gives you much better rough road traction than any traction device on a car.
All Toyota trucks have ALWAYS had much better satisfaction ratings by CR (good) by owners than ANY compact truck. Ranger/Mazda has always been poor.
…good luck in your purchase which ever you choose.
well i’ve given up on the ranger, cuz i don’t want to support ford.
i would buy the tacoma exactly like you said if i could get it in the green & i could get some sort of rebate, plus a good trade-in value for my taurus.
i read an article of some cars being delivered at dealers being marked ‘carsdirect.com’ (circumventing use of salespeople, etc.) & i’d really like to do something like that… except how can you really get away from all the haggling crud when you still have to fight for a decent value for the trade-in?
so i feel a little uncertain about that stuff, even tho i’ve again been thinking about a truck.
guess what? i was told by the fleet manager of a dealership about a half hour from me (since i didn’t want to deal with the local toyota dealership) that toyota doesn’t manufacture the 4cyl access cab in automatic, which is a necessity for me.
would i be absolutely crazy in going with the regular cab? that was a little tough to deal with back in my old ranger (reg cab) days, but i guess not the worst thing in the world. hmm…
added: actually there is Model 7114 (4cyl access cab auto).
have to find another couple fleet managers to contact & see what their prices would be.
(so far: Sell @ $20985, plus tax, title and fees + Toyota’s just announced $500 customer cash that ends on March 1, 2010)
Uh, according to Toyota’s web site they make the access cab in a 4cyl with automatic. Your dealers just want to sell what they have on the lot. They don’t want to order or swap.
yeah, see note added above. i would be ordering it, since i want the timberland mica.
Right…it’s the 4wd they don’t offer auto with 4cyl. I know color is important… but can you give dealer several colors to work with ? I would just order on line and let the area dealers come to me through the web site with offers and colors I would consider. There’s no commitment on your part. I’d be more flexible with color as having your favorite color broken down in a less reliable truck is no consolation.
i wasn’t going to get 4wd no matter what, so it’s kind of a moot point. it’s almost too much for me to even get the extended (access) cab, to be honest.
not only does the mpg go down with the addition(s), but the price goes up. can’t afford either, & definitely need the 4wd much less than i need the inside room.