Legacy 3.6 R Limited.

Honda CR-V with all wheel drive.

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Jim

I drove one. Once. The automotive equivalent of eating cardboard.

I cant get on with the subie love. Sure they make a great car but the insides are so boring. They need to hire a new interior designer.

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1984 300SD Orient Red/ Palomino
1989 560SEC
2016 Mazda 6 6 speed manual
1995 Ford F-150 reg cab 4.9 5speed manual

I just picked up this for a winter beater and highly recommend it.

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

Nice!

With all of the rebates out there now, you should be able to pick up a 2016 Jeep Patriot of Compass for under $20K with Jeep lifetime warranty. If you choose to go that route, you'll want the lifetime warranty if you get one with the JATCO CVT transmission. I picked one up in September with 2.4L, Freedom Drive I, 6-speed auto-stick. On the highway, with dog, son, wife, and cargo shelf on the back, I got 26.5 MPG. We're taking another trip sans kid, dog, and cargo shelf, and expect to see at least 28 mpg. Not stellar, but something I can live with.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Wow lots of feedback here. So we have looked at Subaru, the legacy is larger than we want (or at least certainly feels much larger) and the impreza isn't there with refinement yet. We have a 2016 legacy in the family and it's very nicely designed...just soulless and rather cold. Also automatic is a must, subie uses cvts for their newer cars which neither of us like despite it being one of the more robust designs. The lovely lady wants a sedan, something I haven't been able to argue away, I'll be in the market for a cheap 4x4 soon for beach driving and hauling anyways. Audi has been in the running but mainly the new a3s which are beyond our desired price range. We drove an a4 and didn't like it as much as the benz.

BTW we are keeping to CPO for the warranties, so really nothing older than 2013. 3rd party warranties are an option but we haven't found a situation where it's a better option given our choices. After my BMW I am very wary on reliability and warranty coverage.

Fun to drive, comfortable, nice design and reliability are the blend we are looking at. Basically treating ourselves to something a little nicer and hopefully worry free to spend hours a week commuting in...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Tapatalk

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Lexus IS. Upscale nameplate and trim backed by Toyota mechanicals. No brainer - pull the trigger.

If a Subaru is out, definitely consider a Lexus IS. Not much else I can think of fits your requirement as well as that does.

Well, perhaps a Porsche C4s, but that's a whole different can of worms.

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-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

We tried to find an is locally within the price range and with a reasonable mileage on it and they were just a bit too far out (which is a shame). The 2013s are the old design which I find very pleasing but the interiors are very dated. Match that with the 250s carbon buildup problems and the 2014 350s are just too much. Anyways, we drove home in a beautiful s60 sport today, which has glorious seats and a 7 year bumper to bumper no questions asked warranty. We got a pretty fair price on it too, so quite pleased. We redrove all the cars again to make sure we were happy (long day). The particular s60 we got made all the difference. First one we tested was white with tan interior and was just sort of blah. We've got a deep silver/tan with black interior, white stitching that really set it off. Bigger wheels and stiffer suspension, much more fun to drive.

The ats we were looking at had the dash sort of starting to separate, and I could not find a comfortable driving position. The while chair would adjust up and down, but the bottom cushion couldn't be adjusted for angle, so I was sliding off the front and it just didn't feel right. The chassis was absolutely excellent though, I'd take a rwd 2.0 with a manual as my next car. Also their cue infotainment system absolutely sucks. Take a piano black piece of plastic and make sure to put controls on there that require your fingerprints to get all over it. The older gm rotary switch on the steering wheel was much much better.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I was unfortunately brought into this car world needing a big, reliable new car for my new career profession of territory management. My new 1974 Cadillac Sedan DeVille fit the bill best for me at the time. Years later, I realized how great the Japanese cars were. I'd still like to own a new Japanese car of some sort someday. However, I don't need the AWD feature living in Texas. The new or slightly used Subaru Outback has outstanding everything financial and dependable going for it.