used auto choice

Hi--my husband totalled his car last week and now we have to get a new used car, trying to stay under 17k. It's amazing what that does not buy you these days in a car.
Our leading contenders are Toyota Rav4 or Subaru Forester of maybe Nissan Xterra. Downsizing from Yukon and he wants better gas mileage but he hauls a lot of stuff around and we have two large dog kennels when we travel.

We have a toyota now and it is the most reliable car I have ever owned. That makes us lean toward toyota. We had a subaru before and loved it but it wasn't as reliable and seemed more expensive to fix. But he really likes the Forester and it's big enough. The Xterra is kind of a wild card--it can tow more, so if we wanted to tow with it, it would be acceptable. Go back and forth on towing--he used to have atruck, so this is part of our downsizing efforts, but he still would like to tow a trailer for things like getting the rider mower fixed, etc.

Any ideas??

My long-time mechanic said the best bang for the buck seems to be Toyota and Honda. After trying some others, we are now back to those. Good luck with the car hunting!

I have no idea since I am only allowed to buy Ford products.

We bought a new car this week, a Ford Bronco Sport. The only reason we got rid of our 2009 Mercury SUV is because it was wobbling off and on, and neither DH or the mechanic could see anything wrong with it. It had a bit over 100,000 miles on it.

I am too old to drive a car that is unreliable, I did that in my youth.

I have lots of friends with Subarus who love them.

I just read an article about the Subaru Forester that opined that-while the author was drawn to it--it had a lackluster interior, was expensive to fix, and got poor mileage.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews...foresters-now/

I've only had Toyotas for decades, but would probably be OK with a Forester, too. I don't think the Xterra gets as good gas mileage and would check consumer reports for reliability before I'd go that route.

Thank you, everyone, this is awesome input! We have eliminated the xterra because the gas mileage is so poor. I think he ought to test drive the two contenders, as I am a big believer in buying a car because you like the way it drives.

I love Toyota--I have had my Prius for 23 years now. But how about a Toyota Tacoma? It's a pick-up truck, so this might be an out-of-the-box suggestion. DH swore we needed a pick-up trick when we moved to Vermont and I thought he was just playing to stereotypes, but we love his Avalanche (Chevy). It does come in handy if you're hauling stuff around a lot.

The Tacoma is a small, lower-to-the-ground pick-up--at least they were. Trucks have been getting bigger and bigger these days. If not the pick-up, I like the idea of the RAV4 or Suburu Forester.

Yes, the Tacoma pick up is kind of a dream car someday. But with these two big dogs, we would need a cap. but that's doable--hmm, will plug that suggestion into Car Gurus, thanks.

I have a crew-cab Tacoma, and a couple of large dogs fit fine in the back seats.

I would shy away from the RAV4 if I wanted actual 4WD/AWD capability in bad weather, their system for a variety of reasons is terrible.