[onewhippedpuppy]

I’m looking at many of the same models to replace my daughter’s GLK350, which has been stellar, except I’m looking sub-$30k. I’m yet to read or talk to anyone that has good things to say about the reliability of the late model Macan or Cayenne. Honestly I have read way less negative about the SQ5, and they are excellent to drive. I know you said no Mercedes but the GLC43 is very well made and reliable and they also drive great. Another you haven’t mentioned is the Jaguar F-Pace S, pre 2021 they were a supercharged V6, 2021 and after they went turbo. Reliability seems on par with the rest of these German options. If you really want to roll the dice there’s also the Range Rover Velar that shares a powertrain with the F-Pace, and has a big HP V8 option. They are beautiful but…..it’s a Range Rover. Finally there’s the Maserati Levante S or GTS, I drove an S and was very underwhelmed.

One thing I’m finding in this class of vehicle, nearly all of the Japanese options and all of the German base models went turbo four cylinder around 2015. In a big, heavy, tall SUV, it totally ruins the driving experience. Even my daughter has noticed on test drives, because she’s used to a silky smooth 305 HP V6. She always comments that they feel jerky and slow, mostly because they have a ton of turbo lag and need to downshift to really go anywhere. For me that’s a line of demarcation, no four cylinders in big SUVs.