Thread: Vehicle purchase considerations ............

Next year this lifelong railroader is planning on 'pulling the pin' (46 years come April), anyways 40 of those years I've had the luxury of a company vehicle (current ride, Chevy Traverse LTZ). So, the first thing I need to do when I retire is buy a vehicle.

My vacillation is taking me between SUV/Crossover and a small pick up.

What I'm considering.......

SUV/Crossover

Chevy Traverse or Blazer RS
Ford Edge ST
Honda Pilot or Passport
Porsche Cayenne (CPO)
Audi SQ5

pick-up's

Honda Ridgeline
Chevy Colorado
Toyota Tacoma

Anybody care to share their thoughts on any of these ?

Originally Posted by Mikado463

Next year this lifelong railroader is planning on 'pulling the pin' (46 years come April), anyways 40 of those years I've had the luxury of a company vehicle (current ride, Chevy Traverse LTZ). So, the first thing I need to do when I retire is buy a vehicle.

My vacillation is taking me between SUV/Crossover and a small pick up.

What I'm considering.......

SUV/Crossover

Chevy Traverse or Blazer RS
Ford Edge ST
Honda Pilot or Passport
Porsche Cayenne (CPO)
Audi SQ5

pick-up's

Honda Ridgeline
Chevy Colorado
Toyota Tacoma

Anybody care to share their thoughts on any of these ?

My wife and I are considering the Honda Pilot. We really like it. You won’t like the ride in any of those pickups. You either need the top Ford F-150 or too Chevy with magnetic ride for a smooth ride. Porsche and Audi are $$$ for repairs and maintenance.


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Dave.......Congratulations on your impending retirement. You earned it.

Originally Posted by vortrex

The Ridgeline is a very smooth ride. Likely far better than any big truck no matter the suspension. It drives more like a car.

Don’t care for the looks myself. My F-150 Platinum rides amazingly well. Everyone comments about the smooth ride. The base model F-150 was awful.


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Originally Posted by nicoff

A few Questions:
- How many total cars in your family you plan to end up with?
- aside from the vehicle that you plan to purchase what is the make and model of the other car(s)?
-you said buying not leasing, correct?

well mama has her Subaru(Outback) and I have my 'toy' ('67 BB Corvette) so my purchase or lease will be my daily driver.

Originally Posted by jdandy

Dave.......Congratulations on your impending retirement. You earned it.

Thank you Dan, yeah April 1, 1974(day I hired out with Penn Central) actually seems like yesterday, my golly how time flies !

Originally Posted by Mike

Don’t care for the looks myself. My F-150 Platinum rides amazingly well. Everyone comments about the smooth ride. The base model F-150 was awful.

Interesting Mike, buddy of mine has a '18 F-150 Platinum and you're right, superb ride but I do not want nor need a full size pick up anymore. In the world of small pick up's with respect to ride quality Honda has NO competition. Vortex is 100% correct, smooth as silk. Will it tow and or haul compared with body on frame construction, of course not, but I don't need that. One other thing, if there's a better N/A V6 out there that surpasses the Honda 3.5, I've yet to see it.

As for the Porsche / Audi thought, well I I just might want one more 'fun' vehicle before I settle down and get practical !

Dave, Congratulations! What kind of driving / hauling do you plan? My friends who have BMW sedans and a crew cab F150, always take the F150 on long drives. Eg up and down I95. If you plan on that and need to still carry loads, a crew cab pickup is perfect. Luxurious in the right trim and comfortable for long trips. If you don’t need to haul things, think take care of a yard, pull horses, race cars etc, an SUV would be even better. But not necessarily ride better than a long wheelbase pickup. My wife and I bought an X5 to meet our needs. It is awesome. Craig

Hi Craig, my 'hauling' days are over(race car and snowmobiling no longer) thus the small p/u thought. The Honda Ridgeline is a crew cab and IMO has 'the' most ingenious pick up bed out there not to mention its tailgate.

Truthfully my current company ride (Chevy Traverse) has been a great vehicle, thus the thought of it. Truthfully I have not given the BMW much thought, I will do so !

Originally Posted by crwilli

My wife and I bought an X5 to meet our needs. It is awesome. Craig

Craig, did the two of you look at the X4 M40i ? if so, thoughts ? Granted it appears less utilitarian than the X5 but I assume a better handling / road vehicle. With a back seat that folds down and a rear hatch I would think I would have no trouble loading up my gun gear, especially my gun buggy without issues.

Hi Dave, congratulations on your retirement.

Jeep Grand Cherokee?

You can tow if needed, you can fold down the backseat and haul items, you can go off road without issue, the cockpit is luxurious & comfortable and with the 5.7L Hemi option, has power in spades.

I'm unsure if you need four-wheel-drive or not, but the Jeep Grand Cherokee is no slouch in the 4x4 capabiity dept.

Originally Posted by MikeCh

Hi Dave, congratulations on your retirement.

Thanks Mike, while I can go anytime I want, plans are 'later' next year. But I want to get going on vehicle research.

Jeep Grand Cherokee?

maybe, but truthfully, I've never been a 'Jeep guy'. As with Craig's mention of BMW I need to look further , thanks !

Originally Posted by Mikado463

Craig, did the two of you look at the X4 M40i ? if so, thoughts ? Granted it appears less utilitarian than the X5 but I assume a better handling / road vehicle. With a back seat that folds down and a rear hatch I would think I would have no trouble loading up my gun gear, especially my gun buggy without issues.

No. We only looked at the comparably sized Mercedes (Hated the look of the touch screen) and Volvo, Range Rover. Zeroed in on BMW and then drove an X3M..., 2018 X5 and 2019 X5. Momma fell in love with the 2019 X5. The X3M has a V6 with lots of pop and if you don’t need the room of the X5, it would be a great road eater.

Craig, I assume your X5 has that 'start / stop' set up, can it be easily disabled ?

Originally Posted by Mikado463

Craig, I assume your X5 has that 'start / stop' set up, can it be easily disabled ?

Yes and Yes. Easily disabled. But it defaults to ON so you have to turn it off each time you start it OR always drive in SPoRT mode and it always disabled. The car has waaaaay too many ways to customize dozens of functions.

My wife fell in love with the X3 for her around town use. All the amenities and comfort she desired. The start/stop is disabled by the press of a button found attached to the actual “start” button. Always turned off in her X3 as it makes her uncomfortable. It has functioned perfectly in my 5 and 7 series so always turned on in my vehicle.

Originally Posted by crwilli

Yes and Yes. Easily disabled. But it defaults to ON so you have to turn it off each time you start it OR always drive in SPoRT mode and it always disabled. The car has waaaaay too many ways to customize dozens of functions.

Thanks ......

Originally Posted by Drrsutliff

My wife fell in love with the X3 for her around town use. All the amenities and comfort she desired. The start/stop is disabled by the press of a button found attached to the actual “start” button. Always turned off in her X3 as it makes her uncomfortable. It has functioned perfectly in my 5 and 7 series so always turned on in my vehicle.

Did you compare against either Audi or Porsche ? Does the X3 fall in line with Q5 and Macan or is it closer to Cayenne ?

Dave,

Have you considered an electric car? The Jaguar i-Pace looks like a winner and Audi and Volvo have electric SUVs as well.

Originally Posted by asindc

Dave,

Have you considered an electric car? The Jaguar i-Pace looks like a winner and Audi and Volvo have electric SUVs as well.

Anthony, I have not. Given the fact that none that I know of can go 350 plus miles on a given charge they don't make much sense for me. I know one person that owns a Tesla and unfortunately got into an accident, the wait on parts for repair was almost 2 months !

Originally Posted by nicoff

Regarding your SUV/Crossover considerations...
I assume that you are aware that size-wise the Cayenne uses the same platform as the Audi Q7. The AudiSQ5 uses the same platform as the Macan.

Yes and a friend of mine who's Porsche 718 was in for a recall let me put some spirited miles on his loaner (Macan S) and while I loved driving it I do think after a couple of months I would probably be itching for something bigger. Funny thing on the SQ5, it just seems bigger ?? Is there an 'S' version of the Q7 ?

Have you considered the VW Arteon?

Nope, gotta take a look. Anytime I've had a VW as a rental (twice) I hated it, the least intuitive vehicle I've ever been in.

FWIW... I just read an article that lists the cars with the worse depreciation and several BMW vehicles make the list.

Oh I know, hands down all the BMW guys that come to our 'cars & coffee' claim the way to go is CPO.

As for CPO, so far it appears Porsche is the best, 2 years, unlimited miles.

Originally Posted by Mikado463

Anthony, I have not. Given the fact that none that I know of can go 350 plus miles on a given charge they don't make much sense for me. I know one person that owns a Tesla and unfortunately got into an accident, the wait on parts for repair was almost 2 months !

Understood. The relative lack of charging options for long distance driving seems to be the biggest obstacle at the moment. The parts availability issue, on the other hand, seems to be exclusive to Tesla. They do things differently than other electric car makers.

Originally Posted by asindc

Understood. The relative lack of charging options for long distance driving seems to be the biggest obstacle at the moment. The parts availability issue, on the other hand, seems to be exclusive to Tesla. They do things differently than other electric car makers.

I suspect all those issues will be resolved in the coming decade

Originally Posted by nicoff

Here is a video of the Arteon.

https://youtu.be/prJ85-3xlNI

The exterior looks a lot like the Audi RS5 sport back or the A7. The interior borrows a lot from Audi too.

just watched it, thanks ! while the color is not for me it looks good, but honestly, a 4 banger with noticeable turbo lag is not for me.

I'll second the Jeep Grand Cherokee. I've got 80,000 miles on my 2015 and it's a great all 'rounder.
Its the bastard stepchild of the Mercedes/Chrysler merger.

Whatever you choose, if you are in snow country I'd get a good perspective on the various 4x4 systems available.
Of the 4x4's I've owned from BMW, Toyota, Audi, and Jeep, the Jeep wins hands down in snow and the Toyota was by far the worst.
I've heard from Minnesota friends that own one that the new Audi 4x4 system is very competent.

Thanks Tom, FWIW, I'm from Buffalo, NY but live outside Philly now. It's truly comical what people call 'winter' down here !
My wife has been a 'Subie' person for some time now and they along with Audi have been doing AWD probably longer than anyone else.

Buffalo....I don’t need to tell you about snow. Yikes!
Here in Colorado I think Subaru is the state car. They are everywhere. People love ‘em.

I have a BMW X5 5.0 M, and love it. Tons of power, great in Minnesota winters


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