Bigger on the Inside, but not on the Outside- SUVs for large dog transport?

Hi GRMers, 

My wife and I just put in our names to adopt an Irish Wolfhound in the next year or so (waiting on availability) and I don't think the current car stable will accomidate our needs, so I'm thinking/speculating ahead.
She currently drives a 2016 Forester, which she really likes in terms of the visibility, ability to go on forest roads, easy enough to park and AWD. We are in the Seattle area, so mostly rain to consider, but we do like to hike and go snowshoeing in the mountains. 
 

We also have 1 dog already, a 50lb Mutt and he does great in the back of the car even with the seats up, but that will change once we have the Wolfhound. Planning on getting a male dog, which can be 3ft tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 180 lbs. 

So that leads me to the question of what do we look for? I would want to stay at 2016 and newer for safety and technology, and budget will probably be around 40-50K all said and done. We don't want anything super huge, something that is 2 row only (we will never use a 3rd row, it makes no sense to buy a car with a feature I don't want), tall and with some light off road capabilities.  I thought about wagons, but I don't think any of them will be tall enough unfortunately. 

She does like Land Rover Range Rovers (or maybe a Discovery?), but I'm a bit concerned with the reliability issues I see all over the place. I think from a footprint standpoint that they might work though. They have the height and space in the back where we could have the dogs as well as people in the rear seats. We also wouldn't be looking new, so I think a previous generation is kind of our sweet spot. This may be overkill from an off roading perspective, but that's fine as long as the day to day driving is nice.

Also in my head are the Audi Q5, Honda Passport, Bronco Sport? Should I be looking at Jeep, Hyundai/Kia, Toyota in this range?  Help me do some speculation here

Oh, and current doggo for the dog tax.

Our household is currently between Irish Wolfhounds.

Ours have ridden in a range of cars between a Chevy Cavalier wagon (rocked back and forth as the dog panted at a stop light) through an Expedition and on to a Tahoe.  The latter two were also the tow beasts for my wife's horse trailer.

I'm sure you know that giant breed dogs live a rather short life, relatively speaking.  Lifting Lily's elderly dead ass into the back of the Tahoe was quite an effort for my wife-- what would really suit her needs is a minivan, with a low load floor for the dog, that was somehow able to tow 7,500 lbs of horses and trailer.  

Or just put the dog in the trailer.

We are aware of the short lifespan, the price you pay I guess. My wife is a Emergency Critical Care Veterinarian so we are pretty well setup for an older dog when we get there. We may also have a horse eventually, so it may be nice to have the capacity, but not a necessity.  

I don't think I will be able to sell her on a minivan, but yeah, the low load floor would be ideal. I wish there was a more modern version of the Honda Element, that would be fantastic. Good friend of mine uses his with his Great Dane. 

In reply to LifeIsStout :

My wife is a veterinarian as well! Used  to work in the Seattle area at the Aurora Animal Hospital. 

In reply to Karacticus :

She has worked at the Downtown Blue Pearl up until a year ago, and recently was working out in Bellevue/Redmond at the new Lakefield place there, but is currently doing some relief work outside the city due to having a non compete, but very possible they know each other since she's one of only a few Criticalists in the area.

In reply to LifeIsStout :

Possible, but unlikely-  we left the area in 1999.

Our dog isn't anywhere near as big as a Wolfhound, but the hop up even into the back seat of the Mini's going to get hard for her in the next couple of years or so. Minivan more or less seems like the only thing that won't result in having to lift her in (which neither party enjoys). It'll also be easier to have a ramp handy with the extra room.

We have two 70lb long haired GSD's. The wife's Seltos works flawless for hauling. We can collapse the two crates in the back with luggage, and they ride in front of them. Seltos is based on the Forte/Elantra platform, gets really good fuel economy and drives like a smaller sedan.

Maybe opt for the trailer now before upgrading to a full size horse? Did NOT realize they were that big.

Back when we had greyhounds, we had minivans anyway for kid transport. 

This thread reminded me of stopping at a rest stop, and as Im walking the hounds this tiny car (Carolla?), pulls up and this great dane explodes out of the car and starts galloping around the grass.  No idea how he fit in there...

In reply to bobzilla :

I think the Seltos is a touch smaller than the Forester, and if we were going to be sticking with under 100lb dogs, that would probably be fine, but in this case we need to go a bit bigger. I think the Sportage would probably be the smallest of the Kia ones, but I don't know anything about them

In reply to Jesse Ransom :

Yeah, our last dog was about 75 lbs and he learned to put his paws up in the cargo area and we would lift him the rest of the way (German Shepherd mix), and that was fine for us, so I expect something similar. But we would be 6-8 years away from that once we get the wolfhound.

You said not a Honda Element, but I'd still say do a national search and get the best, newest Element you can find. We have had a 2003 manual since 2005 and Mrs AAZCD took 6 dogs (2 that were >90lbs) to the park every day for many years.Current crew of 4 loves the Element. Mrs AAZCD will not let me replace it.

The low entry of a Boxster is good with a pad on the seat for our Wolfhound mix, but that leaves no room besides the driver.

My dogs own a hopped up mk6 Golf R two door. Together they just peak over 100#. Plenty of room for them and probably two more if we had them. Back seat down and they are happy to curl up in a ball together and snooze a trip away.

Oddly enough they are not allowed into their namesake car, my wife's Karmann Ghia.

You couldn't give me anything with 'Rover' in the name other than a dog.

They key is to shop for vertical lift gates. Too many hatch vehicles have sloped rear glass areas that steal doggie headroom. We had no trouble transporting three 'full size' dogs in our Forester and Jeep Patriot. Our current Jetta Sportwagon is also pretty spacious back there. All are available with stick shifts too. Not clear on how old you are looking. I'd seek a Patriot with the 2.4 Pentastar engine but without the CVT, or the Jetta with the 2.5 5 cylinder over the unreliable 2.0 turbo.  Despite the logos on them, all were/are surprisingly reliable vehicles.

Our 4Runner was a great family machine for toting the 4 of us and a pair of great danes. YMMV

Agreed, the sloped style back hatch areas are always the difficult part. We want to be able to transport the dogs without having to lay down the back seats, as we sometimes have other folks with us on road trips (we put a rooftop carrier up there sometimes for extra space.  

Wife doesn't drive a manual, so automatic is the preference here.

Trying to stay the same or newer than her Forester, so that would be 2016 and up.

My 120lb miniature Saint Bernard mutt loves my newly acquired van, both she an the van are getting up there in age and she doesn't struggle to get up into it like she did the Sequia or my gmc half ton. 

VW wagons typically have a low load floor. I miss my 1.8t wagon. Plenty of room for the three greyhounds we had at the time. Now we make due with the i3 and a recalcitrant Safari van. 

Our newest rescue is 55% whippet, 37% greyhound, 3% polish greyhound (apparently a thing), and the rest a mix of wolfhound, deerhound, and borzoi. He's 60 lbs but acts like the 30 lb whippet he wants to be.

This would be my answer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq2b5WK9RjM

If it's just the two of you plus the dingo(s) I would suspect the forester with the back sets folded down plus a roof box is ideal.

Do you think it's not tall enough for the wolfhound?

My 66.6# pitbull Chewie fits nicely in my Crosstrek.  But I think my 1st gen xB had even more interior room without being larger on the outside.  (I used to joke it was like a Tardis.)  If you could find a nice 2003-2006 Scion Xb you'd be surprised at the room.  My ex had an Element, good on space as well.

LifeIsStout said:

In reply to bobzilla :

I think the Seltos is a touch smaller than the Forester, and if we were going to be sticking with under 100lb dogs, that would probably be fine, but in this case we need to go a bit bigger. I think the Sportage would probably be the smallest of the Kia ones, but I don't know anything about them

 

 

Depending on your needs, the Sportage actually had less room for stuff in the back than the seltos. PArtly because of the rear slope. Partly because it has more doo dads and stuff in the way. 

Went and visited the breeder yesterday, they had 5 wolfhounds we got to meet. The 5 month old pups were about 60lbs, they had 2 female adults (140lbs) and one male (180lbs), but they have had a male in the past that was 220 lbs!! Such sweet doggos

We have a 2018 Q5. Fun to drive, roomy , comfortable. Bought new. 41,000 trouble-free miles. 2.0 turbo and 7 speed DCT. My wife picked it out and loves it. Relatively small outside and roomy inside.