I want to buy a Recreational 4WD.
Will be mostly used for city driving.
Don't want to spend more than A$40,000 (US$20,000).
Which is the better option, especially as the car gets older,
5+ years & clocks up over 100,000 Km.
I don't want a car that starts to fall to pieces & costs a fortune to
maintain!!!
Options available in Australia:
Honda CR-V
Toyota RAV
Ford Escape
Nissan ????
Hyundai Santa Fe
Holden (General Motors) Frontera
Renault ????

Thanks for any advice from anywhere in the world.

Is the RAV mfg in Japan? The V is.. And yes, my V offers a lot more room
than my neighbors RAV...
kathylowell@...
`????,??,????`

I can tell you that The V' doesn't cost a fortune to maintain and it has
been rated as one of the most reliable SUV. Its 4wd system performs really
well in the snow too! It also has plenty of cargo room. I did manage to put,
a dresser, shelves, 5 boxes (the type you get at OfficeDepot when you buy 10
000 sheets of paper) and a tower rack! And that is the old model!!
Apparently, they got rid of the suspension bumps in the cargo area in the
new model which is going to make it a lot easier to load!!!!

>

Hi

I live in Brisbane and have a '98 50th anniversary CR-V which is immaculate
and only has 32000 K's on it. It was definalty the best option around when
we bought it (April last year).

It really depends on what you want! The CR-V isn't the best 4wd on the
market, so if you want to cross the simpson or go to cape york, it's not for
you! But it should be quite OK for light off-roading.

Space wise the CR-V has it all over the Rav4, Forrester and Grand Vitara,
and gets much better fuel economy then any of the V6's (tribue, Explorer,
Santa Fe and Frontera). I'm yet to hear a kind word about the Renault
Scenic RX4.

Having said that I really like the Frontera, but it's got a reputatoin for
being quite thirsty, it's probably the best off-road of the lot.

The Nissan X-trail looks to be quite good, the 4wd system is (on paper)
better, but it's got 5cm less ground clearance. If I was buying a new car
now I'd have to look very closely at it and the new CR-V.

m1m2m3au writes:

> I want to buy a Recreational 4WD.
> Will be mostly used for city driving.
> Don't want to spend more than A$40,000 (US$20,000).
> Which is the better option, especially as the car gets older,
> 5+ years & clocks up over 100,000 Km.
> I don't want a car that starts to fall to pieces & costs a fortune to
> maintain!!!
> Options available in Australia:
> Honda CR-V
> Toyota RAV
> Ford Escape
> Nissan ????
> Hyundai Santa Fe
> Holden (General Motors) Frontera
> Renault ????
>
> Thanks for any advice from anywhere in the world.
>
>
>

Quallity tends to follow a company as much as a car, so go test drive
used cars with 75k+ miles on them and you will get a feel for how
each brand holds up.

I investigated and liked both the RAV4 & CR-V.

Ended up purchasing 2002 CR-V EX as similarly equipped it was actually
cheaper & larger than the RAV4.

It annoyed me to spend more for less