Advice on potential new car

I found the ground clearance more than adequate. It’s AWD system is far superior to that in my GFs CRV, which also has less ground clearance.

I get the appeal of Subaru’s. It’s their engineering arrogance over their head gaskets that kept me from buying one.

Where I get lost is vehicles like the Rogue. How they can sell quadruple the number to Mazda boggles my mind.

 

Yeah, I hear ya about FWD platforms. That’s one of the reasons I loved my AWD QX70. 100% rear biased unless slip was detected.

 

My wife has a '14 Outback with the CVT and I really don't get the hate for it. We haven't had any problems and it's still absolutely a beast in the snow.

 

I personally don't mind the behavior of CVTs. Especially some of the new ones, which can have a feel almost indistinguishable from conventional autos. My son's Kia is like that. The concern has been the history of failures. Subaru seems to have had a spate of them. One would hope that's since been resolved through better engineering. It's possible that a CVT is inherently less durable -- in principle -- but in practice we all know the reality comes down to engineering and materials choices. If the manufacturers want to make CVTs that last 200,000 miles, I expect they can.

Meanwhile we know that the 5 Spd in our 4Runners will outlast cockroaches lol.

 

My Forester was great in the snow and had the turbo 2.0. It was fun. There were recalls on the CVT in the early years which I assume have been ironed out by now.

 

The new Mazda CX-50 looks pretty sweet

 

Yup. Only thing that gives me pause is the torsion beam rear end.

I’m more excited about the CX70 with the inline 6 and RWD biased platform.

 

Not a whole lot of options for rugged SUVs these days. No more Xterra/body-on-frame Pathfinder, no more Isuzu, Mitsubishi SUVs (real ones).

Not a fan or domestics but the Bronco coming back is a good sign that there is a market for real SUVs. I would really like Honda to try their hand at a ladder frame SUV, that would be some real competition for 4Runner.

 

AWD is better, AWD on snow tires is a tank. Just remember when you test drive that anything without a turbo is gonna feel less powerful at elevation (3% loss per 1000ft elevation), a turbo will mitigate most of that loss. My gf has a Subaru, it's pretty good in snow.

As for that ice storm a few posts back...I had a blast driving around after that. Went to a concert the night of the storm (Aerosmith), figured I'd shower in the morning, woke up to no power for the next 11 days. People were stealing running generators...

 

100% without a doubt its best to dump the RWD. Worthless and dangerous driving in snow and ice.

 

It may partially be CVT durability/sturdiness, too. I think most CVTs are on lighter-duty platforms with lower HP and torque. Not sure of this, though. But I'm thinking that might be partly why the GR Corolla is only offered with a manual transmission. A small CVT that fits the car may not be able to handle 300HP/273lb.-ft. and hard driving.

My son recently bought a used 2016 Corolla with maybe 175k miles on it (CVT). It wasn't the smoothest or quietest thing when he bought it. We took it to the local dealership to have the fluid replaced, and at the same time they upgraded the software, and it's a lot better now. There's still a 1-second lag between putting it in Drive and the trans actually engaging, but that's probably due to the mileage. All in all though, it does well since the servicing months ago.

 

Isn't the 4WD T4R also a RWD in disguise ?

 

^The 4Runner sucks in snow in 2WD. Put it in 4WD and it's better than AWD in snow, without a center diff to lose traction on.

On another note, the Subaru CVT can't tolerate wheelspin, even with traction control off, which will strand you in deep snow. I don't know if the Toyota CVT with a torque converter can handle wheelspin.

 

Most of the trims It’s RWD until you shift it into 4WD (either turning a dial or pulling the stick)

The Limited trim though is full time AWD.

 

I'd make one small refinement to this: The Limited is full time AWD until you lock the center differential (via knob on center console), then it becomes full time 4WD

 

As a fan of heat, is not moving to CO an option? Lol.

 

There are so many options out there that it can feel a bit overwhelming. First, consider what you need. Are you looking for something fuel-efficient for commuting or something more significant for family trips?