Another "What Vehicle Thread", This Time For the Parents

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Joey D

Joey D

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My parents are looking for a new vehicle, my dad's G-Van is slowly dying and he would like something new and I've been granted the task of finding them something. They don't want a used vehicle, don't even mention one, and they are looking to keep the price below $30,000.

It needs to be able to pull a small 12ft boat and a small 8ft trailer with about 1,000 pounds of stuff in it. There needs to be some sort of camping utility with it as well since my parents go off into the Canadian wilderness every August to go fishing for two weeks. He also does odd jobs for people so he needs to be able to put a ladder in it and some yard tools like shovels.

It also needs to get decent mileage since this will be my dad's primary source of transportation and he has about a 80 mile round trip commute to and from work. He realises that it won't be like my car but he would like high 20's on the highway. Although anything is better than his van now which probably gets 12.

We can get both the GM and Ford discounts so he will probably consider something from either of those companies first over anything else. I'm thinking maybe an Escape but I have limited knowledge of them.

So any thoughts?
 
I4 trucks can't get out of their own way, there is no way it could pull a boat and a load of stuff effectively. The V6 one is better but it gets 15/19 mpg which is awful.

And I honestly didn't know they still made Rangers until I looked on the Ford website.
 
Joey D
I4 trucks can't get out of their own way, there is no way it could pull a boat and a load of stuff effectively. The V6 one is better but it gets 15/19 mpg which is awful.

And I honestly didn't know they still made Rangers until I looked on the Ford website.
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My mom has an I4 Escape(2006) mated to a 5spd manual. It pulls harder and faster to 60 than a V6 Mustang(2004, 3.9L) with an auto.

It can pull that stuff too.

Trust me, I love driving it, you won't regret it. Even the bottom trim level is nice 👍

And to further make you feel better about it, between me and my mom driving it we got 400 miles out of 7/8 of a tank, translating to 29.21 mpg. Mixed driving, more city actually
 
The I4 Escape only has a 1500lb trailering capacity, which is pretty much right at the limit of our 8ft trailer with stuff it in or the boat fully loaded ready to go on a camping trip. If we were going to get an Escape it would be a V6 one and it would probably be fully load considering they are pretty cheap. I built one online and pretty much fully loaded it was only like $26k.
 
Joey D
The I4 Escape only has a 1500lb trailering capacity, which is pretty much right at the limit of our 8ft trailer with stuff it in or the boat fully loaded ready to go on a camping trip. If we were going to get an Escape it would be a V6 one and it would probably be fully load considering they are pretty cheap. I built one online and pretty much fully loaded it was only like $26k.
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Yeah! I got caught up in your I4 comment and totally forgot they can be maxed out for that.

My moms '04 escape was top of the line. Amazing truck. We sold it because we wanted something with better mileage, and got a focus. turned on the AC on the highway with the focus, and got the same mileage, so we came back in '06 and bought the current I4 Escape.
 
We have a V6 Mazda Tribute (Escape twin). Great car, highly recommended. I drove it across Colorado on a 30-day roadtrip racking up 6,400 miles in 28 days and it performed flawlessly. We bought it new in October 2003 and it's been a soldier every day. I think the only unschedule trip to the dealer was for a recall.

I'd recommend looking at the Tribute or Mariner over the Escape. Both are less popular than the Escape and command slightly higher discounts. Mariner starts higher so those discounts are negated but the interior is much better, so it comes out even.

Note that the Honda CR-V became the best-selling SUV in the US last year, beating out the Ford Explorer which held the title since the Explorer was introduced in 1991. I personally am not a CR-V guy and I bet its towing capacity is unexceptional but seventy zillion Americans cannot be wrong.
 
M5Power
We have a V6 Mazda Tribute (Escape twin). Great car, highly recommended. I drove it across Colorado on a 30-day roadtrip racking up 6,400 miles in 28 days and it performed flawlessly. We bought it new in October 2003 and it's been a soldier every day. I think the only unschedule trip to the dealer was for a recall.

I'd recommend looking at the Tribute or Mariner over the Escape. Both are less popular than the Escape and command slightly higher discounts. Mariner starts higher so those discounts are negated but the interior is much better, so it comes out even.
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Good to hear. I'll have to look into the other two and see which one ends up being cheaper.

Note that the Honda CR-V became the best-selling SUV in the US last year, beating out the Ford Explorer which held the title since the Explorer was introduced in 1991. I personally am not a CR-V guy and I bet its towing capacity is unexceptional but seventy zillion Americans cannot be wrong.
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The CR-V is more expensive then the Escape and has only a 1500lbs tow capacity.

neanderthal
subaru outback
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The Outback is to expensive with the same stuff that we can get on the Ford Escape. The good engine one starts in the high 20's. Subaru's are a bit overpriced I think.
 
The only crossover in that category with a near-3000 pound tow rating (and even that is only 2400) is the Subaru Forester. And I wouldn't suggest that on anybody. Subaru's are always dogs for mileage anyways, despite being slow most of the time.
The best former heavyweight for towing was the Chrysler Pacifica, and I somehow doubt they will go down that road. Also a problem is that the Ford Ranger is a few dozen years old and the Colorado is garbage. I say go with the Escape unless I can think of something better.
 
We still have a Pacifica, although my mom is probably going to ditch that this year because it's having nothing but problems. Traction control is broke again, the brakes as messed up (probably the master cylinder going), and the trans is acting up. Pretty poor consider it has 41,000 miles on it and driven by my mom who thinks the speed limit on every road should be 20mph slow then it already is.

She's looking at getting a Clubman.
 
Joey D
We still have a Pacifica, although my mom is probably going to ditch that this year because it's having nothing but problems. Traction control is broke again, the brakes as messed up (probably the master cylinder going), and the trans is acting up. Pretty poor consider it has 41,000 miles on it and driven by my mom who thinks the speed limit on every road should be 20mph slow then it already is.

She's looking at getting a Clubman.
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:lol:

Your boat would be bigger than the car!
 
What about a Mitsu Outlander? Does everything the Escape can do, but with a better engine and a little bit better fuel economy.
 
Scratch the better engine bit. For '09 the Escape gets a better Duratec unit with roughly the same power as the Outlander mill. But still, I'd say the Outlander is a nice alternative. Essentially the same idea, anyways. My uncle has one and he hasn't had any problems with it that I know of.
 
mustangGT90210
Do they have a brand loyalty to Ford?
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Not really, we just get a discount on them since we have family members that work for them. Same with GM and we can get a Chrysler discount as well. Living in SE lower Michigan means you know someone who can get you an employee discount.

My dad had a couple of F-150's throughout the years and at one time an Econoline van which he really liked.
 
Toronado
Scratch the better engine bit. For '09 the Escape gets a better Duratec unit with roughly the same power as the Outlander mill.
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Yaay! From a brand that LOVES letting designs go to hell, Ford has done a good job keeping the Escape current. It really needed that power boost.

Odd thing re: Outlander is that despite its massive horsepower rating, it's slow. I blame it on Mitsubishi's Subaru-like inability to manufacture a decent automatic transmission.
 
Joey D
Not really, we just get a discount on them since we have family members that work for them. Same with GM and we can get a Chrysler discount as well. Living in SE lower Michigan means you know someone who can get you an employee discount.

My dad had a couple of F-150's throughout the years and at one time an Econoline van which he really liked.
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Yeah, my family gets Ford discounts too. We're from Detroit, still got the rest of the family up there.

I've barely ever ridden or driven anything that wasn't a Ford. I've rode in a few hummers, jeeps, drove a Cherokee, and rode in some chevys. I come from a Ford family.
 
VW passat

I am a bit biased because I love vw's but these are real good cars. My dad might want one when the time comes or a 3.5 altima. I think both would be a good choice for a parents car.
 
socomplayer2
VW passat

I am a bit biased because I love vw's but these are real good cars. My dad might want one when the time comes or a 3.5 altima. I think both would be a good choice for a parents car.
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I don't even think it has a tow rating on it. I looked into the VW Tiger Iguana but couldn't find anything about it.
 
A Passat 3.6 4MOTION could probably handle the job easily, but thats going to break the bank (most-likely). I know you can get a Volvo V70 for a little bit less, that could be worth looking into.

As far as the domestics are concerned, I'd likely give the Saturn VUE XR a look, and I hear the Dodge Journey is actually a halfway decent crossover.
 
The Vue weighs 7000 pounds, gets 4 mpg and can only tow 1500 pounds. V70s have really good towing ability (over 3k), but they are over the cap for the base model and get worse mileage than the Escape and Outlander. The Journey can only pull a thousand pounds.
 
Journey's are ugly and probably poorly made. My parents don't ever want another Chrysler product after what happened with the Pacifica. But they only pull a 1000lbs? What sort of crappy CUV is that?
 
I know you wante4d to stay in the GM/Ford market, but what about a Montero/outlander or some other Mitsu. SUV? Im averaging about 15mpg in my '92 and the 08's are getting about 25 on the highway with a 220hp V6, in 2WD versions

The escape is also looking like the Best option at the moment right now.
 
opendriver19a
I know you wante4d to stay in the GM/Ford market, but what about a Montero/outlander or some other Mitsu. SUV? Im averaging about 15mpg in my '92 and the 08's are getting about 25 on the highway with a 220hp V6, in 2WD versions
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Show me an '08 Montero.

BTW I've been on the entire length of US-666 in CO. They renamed it just before my trip though because the signs kept getting stolen.
 
M5Power
Show me an '08 Montero.

BTW I've been on the entire length of US-666 in CO. They renamed it just before my trip though because the signs kept getting stolen.
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Yeah,I meant Mitsu SUV, same body style.

An 08 outlander is nice, and starts out at about 20K. With towing options selected and a few other things, it was about 26,600
 
So far it's the Escape and it's twins along with the Outlander that I'm going to go look at. I want to drive these first before I recommend them to my parents. I'm really thinking an Escape or one of it's clones will be the best suited for them but I just want to keep an open mind on it all and find something good.

Anyone have any experience with Murano's? Other then being ugly as sin I don't know anything else about them. They have a 3500lbs towing capacity and "decent" fuel mileage.
 

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