My wife is the reason we have a Macan. Go test drive one, or better yet let her test drive it. In normal mode, it rides great and is a very comfortable ride. Punt the sport button and the shifts are at higher RPM, and it is more. fun.

Just get your wife to drive one, and also the Cayenne, she will fall in love. My wife has a group of ladies that are of similar age. One drives a brand new Cadillac SUV and fell out of love with it quickly, and now wants a Macan after riding in my wife's Macan. One of the others has a Rover, and loves it, but it has spent a lot of time at the dealership with repairs.

On the rare occasions I drive her Macan by myself I poke the sport button right away. It steers and drives much like my 911. The PDK transmission is just amazing.

It doesn't matter what you buy, as long as she likes to drive it and you can install a trailer hitch. I have owned one 4 door pickup truck after another and last year gave my F150 Crew Cab to a business that I am 15% owner of (the business also has 2 T250's, 1 T350, and 2 Connects, along with another crew cab pickup and 13' long flatbed). I am trucked out. After all of these years, I'm simply done driving them and parking them...

Get a nice little, single axle Big Tex trailer with a fold down ramp and store the trailer in a spot that is quick to hook up/drop. Buy a pallet jack from CL or Northern Tool. Buy your HD, Lowes, Floor and Decor orders online and specify to the Pro Desk that you want your orders palletized. They will do it an no additional charge. When you make your run to pick up supplies, they will use a forklift to drop the pallet on your trailer and then when you get home, just use your pallet jack to pull it off of your trailer and put it in your garage/barn/shed.

I have owned ghetto apartment buildings since the late 1990's (Los Angeles County). I "retired" in late 2014, sold everything, and moved to Cincinnati in summer of 2015. I now have a 40 unit C class apartment complex that my 17 year old will inherit. The smartest Landlord/Rehabber vehicle I ever owned was a 1990 Isuzu Trooper 4x4 with the 2.4. It pulled a trailer like nobody's business. I should have kept that forever instead of following the crowd and switching over to crew cab pickups.

I am done with pickup trucks. I absolutely hate them. My plan is to buy one of these Fake LR Defenders when they come out next year or the year after...
https://www.motortrend.com/news/2021-ineos-grenadier-first-look-land-rover-defender-style-off-road-suv/

DL

A used Tahoe or the GMC equivalent is easy to get into at under 40K used and is a really nice driving vehicle. Very comfortable seating, etc. The LS engine is dependable, great parts availability, and long-lived.

Tows, hauls stuff and people, very comfortable to drive. I know it's not as "cool" as a Cayenne but cost of ownership, repair, etc., is much more reasonable for the GM SUVs.

If you drove one, you would not even consider the Toyota 4runner... Weird cheap looking cramped interiors on those and my mother in law's gets significantly WORSE gas mileage than the GM trucks (compared to the 5.3 LS engines, not sure about he 6.2). After driving my MIL's 4Runner, I'm honestly flabbergasted at the drop in quality of Toyota in general. It is not the same company/product quality from years ago....

angela

if German
then Lease
end if

This is primarily going to be a vehicle for the missus, and she doesn't want a truck.
I'm sure she would love a Macan and I would too, but she also doesn't want to spend that much money.
The missus doesn't want anything that big.

We drove a 2019 Toyota Highlander Platinum edition today. It was super snoozy, and felt huge. Neither of us were fans.

We also drove a 4dr Wrangler. We both actually liked that quite a bit and were surprised at how comfortably it rode. The suspension was less compliant than many of the others, but the seats were very comfy (much, much more so than the seats in the Audi which were hard as a rock).

I would love to get her a nice Wrangler, and I think she'd enjoy it, but I think she's decided that she'll be happy with an Outback Touring (loaded) with the 3.6L flat 6. They are relatively inexpensive, loaded with options and a bunch of those are safety options. With the 6 cyl, it's reasonably zippy.

I say "good call" on the Outback Touring with a 3.6. That would have been my car of choice had we not wanted something with 3rd row seats.

Surprised you weren't fans of the Highlander. The thing just glides down the road like you're on a cloud. They do look and feel big for some reason but with the 360 birds eye view (platinum feature) blind spot monitoring and other safety features, I'd figure you could get around that. But the LTD Platinum is probably a lot more than the Ouutback with a 3.6 and roughly the same safety features.

I don’t have any opinion on the Subaru, I’ve only driven a new WRX recently and used to own a modified Legacy GT, which was a pretty good car. But I’m not surprised on the Highlander, my parents have one and I hate driving it.

Ouch.

Here's me RAV4. It's much larger than the Highlander and the Sequoia. Seriously, it's not meant for loads like this.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1606662797.jpg

oh
 

* landcruiser !

I was also surprised by the highlander when I pulled out in the rain and tried to accelerate away and got wheel spin and wheel hop on the front end. I guess it's FWD with optional AWD. Ugh!

Hop and spin with the 4cyl, FWD RAV if wheels turned and exiting a place onto the main road. You have to be giving it moderate beans, though.

Also hydroplaning with good tires.

Gotta be 500 lbs lighter than Highlander.

Yeah, I was full beans when we got hop and spin and it was very wet. I figured the highlander would be AWD or RWD. I didn't realize it was FWD (blech!). I'm sure there are some really great FWD vehicles, I've just never driven one.

When I test drive something, I try to hit anything that I could run into, accelerating and cruising slowly, spirited acceleration both from a stop and at around 35-45 (getting on a freeway) and at around 60-70 (passing on a freeway) and cruising at highway speeds. I'll also run a vehicle up to around 80-85. I want to make sure that I don't feel or hear vibrations, noises, weird/odd stuff at any operating range or feat that the vehicle may be asked to do at any point.

The suspense is killing me!! It seems that no real fun to drive Japanese SUV exists. Maybe an a-spec RDX or there is a new performance highlander XSE coming out. MDX with awd used to be fun...they look not so cool these days.

I'd get a LandCruiser and call it a day.

Mazda w/turbo would be the closest, but it ain't no 930

I didn't read all the replies but I had a extended cab pickup for almost 20 years. It was my wife that wanted it and it was her vehicle. Great for a second or third vehicle. For a "100 year old rural home on some" land you'll need a truck.
6.5' bed was great for hauling. Good clearance for back roads. Built strong to tow. About as big as a Cayenne 203" versus the Cayenne 194"
The 3rd door gave good access to the back seats which were comfy enough for short trips. Plenty of them out there.

If my short test drive in a Highlander was any indication, there's no way in hell that a highlander in any spec will be fun/sporty. Too big, too heavy.

Maybe Mazda.

For sporty SUV/crossovers, I think you've got to look at German or American.

4 Runner with a utility trailer, working since 2004.

Mazda CX-9 is the answer for fun and quality. They just don’t have a good third row seat.

I'm not a huge fan, not sold yet, on high HP turbo-4 cylinders for moving big vehicles around. In a smaller vehicle, sure, but big stuff seems like it puts a very high load on them.

My 2014 Armada is solid as hell and problem free. I’d want a pickup for dirty hauling though.