My friend is looking -- recently seperated, two small boys, and a small budget for a car of about $5k Canadian. I found her a sweet 2010 Mazda3 with a manual transmission, but she seems to be drawn to the SUVs.
She's found the usual suspects of Escapes/Tributes, and Tucsons/Sportages -- all in the 2006 to 2011 model year range. It will be an appliance for her. I found some threads on the Ford products that didn't terrifiy me, but I can't find anything on the Hyundai/Kias . . .
Mazda CX-7 with 2.3L turbo engine should be avoided at all cost. But in 2010+ they gave the base version of the car a 2.5L NA engine and a simple fwd setup. These are the ones (and only ones) you want.
I wrote about it all in this thread
What I wrote is from a US perspective. Adjust accordingly if Mazda offered different in Canada.
escapes and tributes rust really badly in the rear shock towers and will no show it until its terminal.
While I adore the beta engine and they run forever, the 09-up Tucson/sportage would be the ones to get. They have the newer engine and 6-spd autos. Great utility vehicles.
also I've worked on enough newer fords there is no way I'd own one. Nope.
Avoid the hybrid Escape and it's Mercury counterpart. IIRC the controller for the hybrid drivetrain is a common failure point and is only available from FoMoCo at the tune of over $5k. I was considering one about 3-4 years ago and after seeing how frequently this seems to occur I quickly looked elsewhere.
We have an '04 Escape (basically it's a Mazda) and it's still chugging along with nearly 200k on the clock. The major failure it has had was a transmission repair at about 170k followed by a transfer case failure 3000 miles later. I think the people who serviced the trans may have goofed on the fluid levels...
Other than that, it's been consumables, to include ball joints, etc.
If she's ok with manual, they DID make manual Escapes. They are slow but they're easy to work on and have less to go wrong. Basically a fat Focus Wagon. I've worked on more of the escape/tribute than the sportage/tucson, if that tells you anything.
MrChaos said:escapes and tributes rust really badly in the rear shock towers and will no show it until its terminal.
This. If the vehicle will be used somewhere they salt the roads, I'd look elsewhere. They litter scrapyards up here due to this exact issue.
John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:Mazda CX-7 with 2.3L turbo engine should be avoided at all cost. But in 2010+ they gave the base version of the car a 2.5L NA engine and a simple fwd setup. These are the ones (and only ones) you want.
I wrote about it all in this thread
What I wrote is from a US perspective. Adjust accordingly if Mazda offered different in Canada.
I've been told the automatic in those era trucks was also a bad plan.
I worked at a Hyundai dealership for a while during those years, and while not a big fan they are decent cars. You just have to do the maintenance on them. The engine is an interference engine and if the timing belt breaks when the engine is running it's a major expense. And we had some that if they didn't use a Hyundai oil filter, the engine would knock. If one came in knocking, the first thing we checked was where the oil was changed and what brand of filter it had on it. They really seemed to hate the orange ones.
In reply to drock25too :
That would be the 05-08. 09-up used the newer nu and theta engines with timing chains.
My wife has a 2011 escape that we bought new. It has 130,000 miles on it, and no major problems.
I do the typical stuff change oil, filters, replaced ac condenser when it got a puncture.. front suspension rebuild at ~110,000. Rear shoes lasted over 120,000 miles.
Check engine light came on last month.. cleaned egr and tube.. fixed that code.
We even tow a 2500# travel trailer with it.
The transmission filter cannot be changed without dropping trans and splitting the case so i change the trans fluid with mercon LV every year.
It has the 3.0 v6 which i suspect is a great little mill.
Greg
Lots of first-gen Escapes and Mariners running around near me, so they seem to hold up, mechanically. Most of them are getting rusty, though.
We had an '04 Mazda Tribute. There are better vehicles out there, for sure, but I'm not sure that there are much better deals out there. I really enjoyed that little cute ute, and it was a lot more ute than I was expecting.
Watch out for the shock tower rust. MPG is atrocious. But for the price that you can get reasonably equipped versions, I love the cars.
The Koreans seem to be good vehicles, I'd defer to Bobzillas direction on those. I will caution that prior to 2006, the Sportage was arguably the most dangerous vehicle you could buy new in the US in terms of crash ratings. I would not even consider a first gen - although you're not, I just wanted to make sure that it was put on paper how bad their safety record was.
In the rust belt the escapes, tributes, and Mercury versions are all rotted out underneath really bad.
Why you no CRV or RAV-4?
We bought an early Escape new put 160k on it before selling to a friend who put another 29k on it before trading it in on a new car. Reliable and really only thing we replaced was a couple coil packs. Our son has a Escape and Tribute both have 180 k plus relatively problem free. They are driven by teenage boys and been passed down among four boys. Escape spit out a spark plug at 160k which was Heli-Coiled and is still going great. Friend of out daughter rolled an Escape in an accident while pregnant and walked away injury free along with no harm to unborn child. All these are in the south so rusted suspension has not been a problem. I'm considering buying a new AWD Escape now.
Ours has not rusted too bad yet, of course I have been spraying drain oil in the rails and under cariage for almost 10 years... it helps keep the salt and rust away.
Greg
mtn (Forum Supporter) said:We had an '04 Mazda Tribute. There are better vehicles out there, for sure, but I'm not sure that there are much better deals out there. I really enjoyed that little cute ute, and it was a lot more ute than I was expecting.
Watch out for the shock tower rust. MPG is atrocious. But for the price that you can get reasonably equipped versions, I love the cars.
The Koreans seem to be good vehicles, I'd defer to Bobzillas direction on those. I will caution that prior to 2006, the Sportage was arguably the most dangerous vehicle you could buy new in the US in terms of crash ratings. I would not even consider a first gen - although you're not, I just wanted to make sure that it was put on paper how bad their safety record was.
First gen Sportage was a body on frame 4wd. Mazda engine. complete crap.
I had a 2001 Escape 4 cyl. manual for a while. Nice basic vehicle, with no rust issues in Central Florida. I still see it being driven down the road occasionally by the person I sold it to maybe 13 years ago.
My daughter had the Mazda Tribute counterpart in higher trim level with V-6 and automatic. Much nicer. A speeding, impaired driver on I-4 sent her into a series of rollovers in the median but the vehicle's structure held up and protected her pretty well.
She's decided on a 2008 (maybe 2007) Santa Fe with the six. It's a one owner car, always serviced at Hyundai and it is super clean. Needs tires . . . but she seems really happy and that's the key I guess.
I test drove it, and it was pretty sweet.
See if you can talk her into getting real all-weather tires, so she doesn't have to do the winter/summer dance. As a single Mom with two small boys, she probably just isn't ever going to have the time and the money simultaneously to get it done, and this way it won't be an issue.
ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:She's decided on a 2008 (maybe 2007) Santa Fe with the six. It's a one owner car, always serviced at Hyundai and it is super clean. Needs tires . . . but she seems really happy and that's the key I guess.
I test drove it, and it was pretty sweet.
Thats a solid platform. One of my wife's friend leased one, then bought it because she loved it. It got t-boned at 220k miles. She bought another.
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