Replacing Toyota Highlander
 

Vehicle recommendation treads seem to be popular now. Yesterday, I got hit with a $2700 bill for my wife's Highlander. I'm not sure I want to put $3k into a vehicle worth $7k, plus my wife said she is tried of it and has been thinking of a new car. We liked the car and the functionality of it, specifically the fold down 3rd seat and reliability.

It will be used mostly for <20 mile trips and 4-5 weekend trips (200+miles) per year.

Also since moving to Pittsburgh from Dallas, an AWD makes sense. Marginal I know, but my wife does go to the gym before we get plowed out - and my suggestion of helping me shovel for her workout has not worked.

I think I want to keep it under $30k and we usually buy a 2-3 year old car, but this is not set in stone. My guess is the market for 2-3 year old cars is tight since sales plunged in 2009-10.

After skimming Edmunds, my short list right now is:
Acura MDX
Buick Enclave
GMC Acadia
Lincoln MKT
Mazda CX-9
Toyota Highlander

I plan on looking at the X5 and Q7, but I don't think my wife will think it worth the extra $.

What am I missing (better than Edmunds' review) and which should I cross off. Would like a list of four vehicles before test driving. I'm just remembering how much I hate this process.

the Chevy Terrain is a few bucks cheaper than the Arcadia, no?

the Korean offerings, what about them? you can get a fully loaded AWD santa fe for that type of money..

Add the Ford Explorer and new Nissan Pathfinder to your short list

Chevy Traverse is the same as the GM Acadia and the Buick Enclave

The GMC Terrain and Chev Equinox are much smaller

Kia Sorrento?

We just replaced our 08 Highlander w/ a '12. What happened on yours that cost you so much?

We liked the Acadia and the CX-9 a lot.

I don't like the idea of driving a car that stands for Killed In Action. :rolleyes:

I think I'm looking at a higher price point. I have a 2007 BMW 530 and she commented how nice it was when we got it, so I think the price point is probably more 25-35k

I have not gotten a second opinion, but this shop has been pretty good in the past.

The immediate issue was control arm bushings. The bushings cannot be replaced. They have to replace the whole control arm and to get them out, the engine has to be unbolted and raised up a little. I think there are ways around it, but according to the service manual... This was $1700

Then it's over 100k miles and the timing belt needs to be done. Was waiting to see if we were going to keep the car. This is $800. But while in there, water pump, $200. Rough numbers, don't have the estimate in front of me.

The upside is I had no idea what to get my wife for Christmas.

An example of what ~$30K buys:

2012 GMC Acadia SLT2 AWD

3.6L direct inject V6, 6spd auto
Power everything
Power liftgate
Heated leather
Second row buckets, flat-fold third row
Digital three-zone climate control w/ rear air/heat
Rear view camera
Integrated Bluetooth and OnStar
19" wheels (with 8-9/32 tires)
Factory remote start

Graded 4.9 of 5.0
In service date January 2012
Pennsylvania title (clean)
Just under 29K miles

I can offer this one at $29,825 F.O.B. Bordentown, NJ

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hahah..i'm pretty sure that is NOT what is stands for. there are not even any Acronyms in asian languages.

An example of what ~$32-33K buys:

2012 Toyota Highlander SE 4WD

3.5L V6, 6spd auto
Power everything
Power liftgate
Leather
Second row hybrid bucket/bench, flat-fold third row
Moonroof
Rear air/heat
Rear view camera
Integrated Bluetooth
17" wheels (with 8/32 tires)


Graded 4.5 of 5.0
Virginia title (clean)
Just under 8K miles

It's a bit NW of Philedelphia, PA
Should be $32~ish to a Pelican

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Thank Eric.

We (my wife) needs to figure out what she is comfortable driving. One of the main questions is truck SUV or crossover.

What would be a truck SUV? Like a Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade, 4Runner/Sequoia/GX470?

Do you have a need to tow or off-road? Otherwise steer her to a crossover....

I assume based on your list that you're looking at larger crossovers with a third row of seats? No RX350, etc?

If you're browsing the different vehicle classifications on Edmunds, I'm going to assume that you have already seen all of the choices. My one suggestion would be to go somewhere like Carmax, where they will likely have many of your different options available to test drive. Figure out exactly what you want then start shopping your region, or have someone like Eric (kaisen) do it for you. If you know what you want you can focus on finding a good deal.

We've always taken this approach and it has been enlightening. A few years ago my wife thought she wanted an Expedition until we drove one, we ended up in a Nissan Armada (great SUV btw). This year she thought she wanted a newer Armada until we drove an F150 Supercrew, now we have one of them. Pictures and reviews only take you so far.

You assumed correctly, heavily leaning toward larger crossover. You mentioned the Pathfinder (I thought that was truck based), and my wife casually mentioned she liked the Escalade. I really don't see her driving something that big and didn't include it in the list above.

Didn't mean to detail my own thread, just thinking out loud.

Ouch, tough bill. Didnt see the yr of your truck but I've done this job, control arms are ~$80/each. If you still like the thing you should be able to fix it for much less.

You're talking at least 25% better MPG in the crossover, generally speaking. I tried to push my wife in that direction but she likes trucks too much. The new Pathfinder is a unibody, no longer a body on frame real truck.

If your wife likes the premium stuff you could also consider the Mercedes GL, Audi Q7, and previous generation Cadillac SRX. Smaller than some of the above, but they do all have a 3rd row.

That is my plan. Right now I want to narrow the candidates down to a manageable number to test. I can probably only handle talking to 3-4 salesmen in one day. Unfortunately we don't have a CarMax here. Might have to go to 3 or 4 differnet lots.

After this weekend I'd like to have it down to two vechicles (or one) and then focus on the deal.

I've got an 01 Highlander limited (in the middle of doing a rear brake job and a right frt. wheel bearing as i type) with 155K on it. I'll run it till it's dead.

I've had a few troubles with it but nothing i haven't been able to take care of myself.
This will be the last of the four wheel bearings i've changed.
Control arms i haven't done yet but a quick search seems like less then $100.00 would buy one.
Don't go to Toyota to get it done. Find a good independent shop.
What year is your car? Mileage?

2004 with 103k. Its been about as good as a vehicle as I've ever had. After my wife said she had been thinking about a new car, I didn't even bother with a second opinion. We usually keep cars about 8 years, this has been nine.

Our daughters are now 11 and 13 so this served to haul them around when they were young and it shows. I think that might be a lot of my wife's motivation. Tired of the melted crayons in the bottom of the cup holders.