My wife and I are moving from Virginia to Colorado at the end of this year. My wife gave me the job of searching for a new car. I have my eye on the a Subaru Outback, Subaru Forester, Honda CRV, or Toyota Rav4. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a decent car for us to consider. Also, would it be better for us to buy the car in Virginia or buy it out in Colorado?
If you’re planning to get awd, I’d go with the Subarus, their system is the best of those listed.
Buy it here in Colorado. We are the #1 world market for Subaru. Also, no east coast rust.
Twotone
PS: I’ve lived here for 34 years (driving RWD BMWs) and realized that real winter tires are more important than AWD. My 328i with Blizzaks will out accelerate, brake and turn any AWD with “all” season tires.
If you buy it in VA, you may have to pay taxes and tags twice, unless you buy it immediately before moving. You might check prices on line to see if there are any differences for an identical car on the lot in both places. You really don’t need 4WD or AWD unless you want to drive in the mountains when it snows. If you want AWD, then that’s different. But when I’ve traveled to Denver and Boulder, there were lots of 2WD cars around.
Our family has three relatives who live in the Denver or Ft Collins areas. None have AWD cars. They do fine with the cars of their choice and snow tires. Two of three don’t even bother with snow tires. Wait and don’t buy any car until you have weathered one winter in Denver and then decide if you need to get a new car.
What kind of driving will it be. Colorado has a very wide range of driving conditions. Unless you are headed up in the mountains, things should not be all that different there.
Yes, I would buy the car there. They are likely to come with the optional packages that make the most sense there.What are you driving NOW??
They DO have snow ploughs in Denver. Aside from that, I would only buy good winter tires, ensure my car was winterized with the proper coolant (good for -40F), winter fluid in the windshield washers, and a good quality 5W30 oil in the crankcase.
You don’t need a new car just because you are moving to Denver.
Denver does NOT get a lot of snow…The mountains do…But if you’re not planning on driving in the mountains (many people live in Denver their whole lives without ever driving to the mountains)…then almost any vehicle (rwd or fwd) will be fine. And the snow Denver does get is usually gone in just a few days…They also get a whole lot of sunshine…
Thanks for all the replies. We currently drive a 1997 Toyota Camry. We were planning on giving the car to my sister. We were interested in getting something with AWD only because my wife has family who live in the mountains (Evergreen) and we plan on driving into the mountains quite a bit.