My wife is currently driving an '06 Sonata. It has been a great car. We bought it new maintained it well, has almost 160,000 miles on it and still runs great. I just started thinking about a new car for her. I've considered another Hyundai, but like the looks of the Chevy Impala, and Equinox. Anyone have any experience with either of them? She's on the road without me from time to time going to see the grandkids, and I've begun to worry about the Hyundai on the road so much.

My wife loved the Impala. I was sure it was going to be her next car (we wound up with an AWD Ford Edge....we wanted AWD and the Impala is only available in AWD as a Buick). We really disliked the Equinox. It stopped at every traffic light and lurched when it cranked back up. Ford did the start/stop thing much better (but we still hated it). We bought the V6 edge because it didn't start/stop and didn't need premium (or didn't prefer it, however you wish to consider it) like the turbo motors.

I would look into the Cruze as a family car. Don't think it comes in and but it does have a diesel. Never owned one personally but several friends with them that love them, including hard core muscle car guys.

It's certainly a different class of car, but my wife and I both love our Honda Fits. They are low on power but big on room, and GREAT gas mileage (36-40). And you can get a top of the line for just under $20k.
That said, if your current car still runs great, has been serviced since new, and doesn't have any problems creeping in, why buy a new car (if cash is tight)? When the old car starts to cost 1/2 - 2/3 as much in repairs yearly as new car payments, then its time, IMO.

Have you looked at the Taurus lately? When they're well optioned, they're really nice. You can even find SHOs for under 20k. I test drove a SHO for my mom recently and even though I expected it to be decent, I was surprised at how much I liked it even ignoring the power.

what's the budget?

The new Sonatas and Kia Optimas are really, really nice. They seem to have good reliability and they blow every other brand out of the water in terms of options packages. You get a lot more for your money than you would even with Japanese brands. I’d take a good look at those if your current car has been good to you. Hyundai has really stepped up their game in the last few years. I used to be a hater, now I’m considering getting one for myself.

The leases on kias are rediculous in our area... stupid cheap. And rightfully so... theres a death yard behind each dealer of bought back cars

We have Wisconsin's largest Kia dealership in my town. They come with lifetime warranties and good options for the money. But like you pointed out with the graveyard. They are still kias. They sell like crazy but have no resale value

I wouldn't be opposed to owning one under warranty, but I'm more interested in other vehicles

The budget is in the mid to upper $30's, but I'm cheap, so the lower the better. We started out looking at a 2013 Honda Cross Tour, (around $13,500), but it sold. I started looking around a bit, and realized with the deal they're offering, we could get a new one easily enough. That Sonata has been tough, but we would like to start traveling a bit and wouldn't mind a newer car. She will definitely want something with enough room for a baby seat, (grandkids!), and I would like something with a little grunt, and good looks. The Equinox looks nice but a 1.4 liter turbo doesn't sound like enough engine to me.

If you think Kia is bad with that, you should se how many lemons Subaru and FCA are turning out right now. My mom bought a 16 Grand Cherokee -and she’s on her third one. First two were complete lemons. You think they would have at least got the second one right for 50 grand.

I'd stick to Honda or Toyota, considering the type of vehicles you're looking at. The CR-V just won SUV of the year. We've owned a 2009 EX-L and now a 2016 EX-L Navi. IMO, can't be beat for the quality, durability, fit/finish, performance and resale. They are indeed a benchmark in the industry. 2017's should be discounted nicely. We got our 2016 as a left over in March of this yr. $2000 below invoice.

Since your budget is that high, I'd also suggest Infiniti. We've been extremely happy with our M37x which is our 2nd. We had a G35x for a long time and some idiot crashed us on the interstate, spun at nearly 80, went in a ditch backwards and the whole family walked away. It's also very reliable, just a Nissan underneath plus some nicer features, and AWD was a must. After that was totalled we got the M, bigger for the family, smoother ride and more features. And since it's a "luxury" car, buying a few year old car is way cheaper. And it's less pretentious than say a Lexus or Benz.

And just for numbers sake, the G was 2006 45k miles $20k in 2009, and the M was 40k miles $30k beginning of 2016 and I've seen them way cheaper but this was in exceptional condition, new car smell, certified, and we were in a hurry to buy, but good ones can still be found in the 20s just avoid the first years of electric steering.

This post has been edited by mikedamageinc: Dec 21 2017, 02:14 PM

I know 2 people that owned the Equinox. Both hated it and had tons of issues. I do not recall anything major but they were always taking it to the dealer. They both only kept them for about a year

Oh you're higher than I was thinking. Dude, Volvo. Super safe, quality over flash, good resale without high entry price, lighter than you think and decent turbo engines, most comfortable seats ever, designs are more timeless than trendy so they don't look old soon. Come in all sizes while being not terribly different in quality/permformance/price so just pick your favorite size/shape. I drove a v60 Cross Country recently and the turn in was surprisingly really good too, probably the least amount of understeer compared to any of the sport sedans we've looked at.

This post has been edited by Mastawyrm: Dec 21 2017, 06:24 PM

Drive the Honda CRV first (I'm sure you will). My wife's Accord was totaled earlier this year and I was sure she was going to ultimately end up in another Honda. We drove the HRV (it's tiny), the V6 Accord (has a timing belt that needs serviced at some point, steering wheel had too many controls on it and the dual monitors in the dash were just distracting) and the CRV. She didn't like the turbo motor and CVT (as I remember) in the CRV and when you put on the right turn signal, the screen on the dash flipped to the backup camera (irritating and distracting). They did that because the rear visibility of the CRV makes an F-body (even a convertible with the top up) look like it has excellent rear visibility. I really expected her to love it and after driving it, she hopped out and said "I'm NOT buying one of THOSE" (your results may vary). Knowing my wife likes Honda products, I really figured it would be coming home with us.

Honestly, we drove a lot of cars and disliked most of them. Hmm....maybe there's a pattern here. (I'm not sure we'd buy another Ford Edge if we were doing it again today, but I can't say that for sure).

Pretty much the same here. 1.0T Fiesta, average 38mpg when it's sub-30F and about 43 or so on summer gas. Will knock down 50mpg all day long in good weather on the highway and it will 3 wheel it's way through rotaries with lift-throttle oversteer. Fun little commuter with lots of practicality.

Mastawyrm, I coach "Street Survival" driver training occasionally, and recently had a student in a Volvo wagon. I think it was an AWD V70 or something. and very impressive. I don't know what I'm going to do. We may hang on to the Hyundai, and if it dies on a trip, we'll fly home or buy something else.

This post has been edited by rpoz-29: Dec 21 2017, 11:13 PM

My wife had a Nissan Murano. Very nice car, but I didn’t care for the CTS transmission. Although it worked well, it gives a really disconnected feeling. The new ones now mimic a 6 speed manual, talk about weird.

The FX37 is an amazing machine. We had one for a while but needed more space. It was so fast and handled amazing.

Her current car is a Mazda CD-9. Mazda really does build great driving cars. The CX-9 is damn near a minivan but it drives like a car half it’s size. Decent power and responsive handling. She bought it used and now has over 100k miles but looks like new. The only downside is the fuel economy, 22 highway is about it.

If that’s too big for you guys, I’d be the CX-7 would be perfect, although I’ve never driven one.