RuskiTrombone Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 You guys really think it would be safe for my wife to go from a Mini straight into a behemoth? God help everyone around her But hey, at least our child/children will be safe, right? The American way! That's where you went wrong. Should've put your wife into a minivan the day you got married (before you even had kids). This way she knew her place was to reproduce, get groceries at the store, cook and clean. Why spoil her by getting her a mini? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuskiTrombone Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Since you want a crossover or whatever they are called, I recommend the CX-9, but get a warranty since they tend to have expensive transmission problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 Fishbone, You might remember talking to me on the phone once, did I sound like someone with any literacy or reasoning skills? Well, did I? Wait, don't answer that I explained in my post that we're going to be on our own timetables and then you asked if we really don't have an alternate car that can overcome whatever shortcomings the one we purchase would have. To me that says carpooling, or at least swapping cars. Carpooling we can't do, and swapping cars ... well, great, then I'll be the one struggling I do remember that and I also remember you saying next time you're down here and have time to kill you will let me know so we can grab some brews. That's where you went wrong. Should've put your wife into a minivan the day you got married (before you even had kids). This way she knew her place was to reproduce, get groceries at the store, cook and clean. Why spoil her by getting her a mini? I kinda dug my own hole. Not only did I say yes to a Mini but the previous 2 cars she owned I talked her into buying the trim/options I thought were better and kinda reproached me for it. For example, I said to get the supercharged instead of the base model because the CVTs at the time were not trustworthy and the S came with a standard 6-speed auto. So this time around as we are walking around the dealerships looking at cars, my balls are in her purse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuskiTrombone Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I bought my wife a crossfire when she was straight out of college, but she was a smart cookie and wanted a minivan the day we knew we were having our first. Now the car is paid off and we are well through our second kid and still have he same mini..............van. The fun part, is we are watching numerous of our friends go through the hassle of trying to unload their cars to minivans now that they are having their second and/or even third kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiskeyTango Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Has anyone asked for pics of the wife yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiskeyTango Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 She is from Nebraska you sure she doesn't want a tractor? http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XKr1Xyxbwms/Ta4Saqh4eJI/AAAAAAAABS0/bBVckpJgzXQ/s1600/kubota-tractors-1.JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 She is not from Nebraska originally. And no, you can't have pics. Ruski, first we gotta see how we like our first. THEN we'll see if second is a possibility. Because if a second is on the way, then we would be having an entirely different conversation here about what cars we would get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuskiTrombone Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 All up to the neighbor and postman if you have a second or not, isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiskeyTango Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Kids are a bad idea. fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Well, did I? Wait, don't answer that Well you do choose to live in Lincoln, Nebraska so I am forced to wonder about your reasoning and sanity. At any rate I think your wife would adapt to a larger vehicle pretty quickly, my wife will drive the Tundra and found it to be a little intimidating at first but after some familiarization she does as well as any female can. Backup cameras and proximity sensors make a big difference in her confidence level. If you get a larger vehicle than you think you need you have the long term ability to grow into it and avoid the extra expense in the future of another car purchase. In the end it will save you money to buy something that can meet current needs, as well as some potential future needs. That is why I bought a 1/2 ton pickup instead of a little truck or another car. Now I have a vehicle I can keep for a long time since it exceeds my current needs and will keep me covered in the truck and winter vehicle front for quite some time. We did not do that for my wife's car though, and bought her a little Scion Coupe back when I worked for a Toyota dealership. That car is very limited, but it is paid off with only 38K on the odometer. The reason it has only 38K on a 2006 is that we don't drive it much since it is cramped for two people and any stuff. The small crossovers you are looking at will be the same way with a baby seat in back. Most baby seats take up more space than a 400lb lard ass would so the narrow back seat in a small crossover will be pretty tight once the crib midget is in place. Plus short wheelbase crossovers don't have a lot of leg room, not important you say? Wait until your toddler is kicking the backs of your front seats while sitting in his/her car seat. So you'll immediately find out that the small crossover is tight on space once you start hauling around the small baby stuff, plus you and the wife's luggage if you are going to travel to see relatives etc. Then in about 18 months or so after arrival of your no doubt wonderful child, he/she will start to kick the back of the front seats in the small crossover that is still full of huge baby car seat rendering it barely a 3 seater, and one front seat has to be run up to the point of being extremely uncomfortable to get out of range of your aspiring soccer star. Alternately you can think of the constant thudding as a back massage. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiskeyTango Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 my wife will drive the Tundra and found it to be a little intimidating ...she does as well as any female can.:lol::lol::lol: You hear about the fool that tried to clime Mt. Rushmore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 So you'll immediately find out that the small crossover is tight on space once you start hauling around the small baby stuff, plus you and the wife's luggage if you are going to travel to see relatives etc. Then in about 18 months or so after arrival of your no doubt wonderful child, he/she will start to kick the back of the front seats in the small crossover that is still full of huge baby car seat rendering it barely a 3 seater, and one front seat has to be run up to the point of being extremely uncomfortable to get out of range of your aspiring soccer star. Alternately you can think of the constant thudding as a back massage. :lol: And the Crosstour won't have these issues? It has 1 less inch of rear legroom than a, say, Forester. Another car that has less rear legroom than a, say, Forester is the Sienna. Granted we are talking 37.6in vs 38in but smaller is smaller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuskiTrombone Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I find that hard to believe. You can move the seats in the Sienna back. I bet that measurement is for when the rear seats are pushed up against the front seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 I looked it up on MSN Autos. It's my usual stop place when I need to look up shit like that. To be fair the Sienna has 2 more inches of legroom in the front so the argument could be made you have more room to slide the seat forward. As to how they measure the rear legroom, I have no idea but I am sure they do it the same way across the board. http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/spec_Interior.aspx?year=2012&make=Honda&model=Crosstour&trimid=115227 http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/spec_Interior.aspx?year=2012&make=Subaru&model=Forester&trimid=115010 http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/spec_Interior.aspx?year=2012&make=Toyota&model=Sienna&trimid=114582 I'm not dumb enough to argue a Sienna doesn't have more interior room than a typical crossover but Penguing was talking about toddlers hitting the front seats and rear legroom dimensions, so there you have it A Sienna is on average 20 inches longer than any of the crossovers I have looked at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuskiTrombone Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 To be fair, if you have less legroom in the rear you can crush the kids legs just enough so they don't have any room to kick the back of your seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 I got no problem slapping the shit out of them if they're being brats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spec.B Dream Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 You might want to test fit a child seat in your Legacy before you completely decide to keep it. I installed mine rear facing on the passenger side this weekend, and you have to move the passenger seat rather far forward to make it fit. My wife isn't happy about her loss of front seat space but not unhappy enough for me to get a bigger car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Fishbone, Might as well go buy child seat now and take it with you to test for both room and ease of access. Also if you have friends with a toddler see if you can borrow the kid for awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gire Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I agree with the other Minivan guys here, Fishbone. Here's Mrs Gire's auto progression in the last 10 years: Got married, bought her a cute red EG Civic. No children. Had a baby- upgraded to early 2000's Altima sedan. Had 2 babies- upgraded to a 2003 Grand Caravan. Currently have 3 kids and a new Grand Caravan. A seriously great people mover. I went with another Grand Caravan as my older one was reliable, and the upgrades they did from 2010 to 2012 are immense. Plus the Honda or Toyota van with similar options in Canada are about 20K more. No thanks. Get a Forester or some other small cross-over now if you only have one kid, and get a bigger auto if you ever have 2+ kids. My wife didn't want a minivan when she had zero or even only one children. They are not the coolest vehicles out there. Now she can't live without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 After some more test driving we've narrowed it down to the Forester and Rogue. We will let the price be the deciding factor. Ideally we will be able to find a 11-12 Forester Premium with all-weather package as close to MSRP as we can get or below it. Local dealer is low-volume so they won't budge on price, want close to 28K for a new one. The Sportage and Tucson were fine and actually better equipped for cheaper but we didn't like the awkward angles, thick A-pillars, poor visibility and excessively "busy" interiors as if trying too hard to impress. Now we gotta sell the Mini first Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spec.B Dream Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Did you ever drive the Outlander and Sport? What was the reasoning for crossing those off the list? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 We have not and honestly that will be the "wildcard" if you wanna call it that, meaning while we're trying to sell our car we will go look at it. I'll be honest with you, I'm weary of CVT trannies just because I've heard of so many horror stories from various manufacturers. With Nissan at least I know on a 2011 it comes with a 10 year /120K miles warranty so no issues there. Mitsubishi's is an unknown for me but I can do some research. It's not winning on MSRP starting price for the AWC trim and I can't find out for sure if it comes out ahead on options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 Well, that didn't take long I was looking on the site as I was writing that post http://www.mitsubishicars.com/MMNA/jsp/outlandersport/12/trims.do Looks like it does come better equipped. Is yours CVT? What do you know about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spec.B Dream Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Ours is the 2007 LS V6 AWD model with the 6 speed auto. Honestly, it is the best automatic I've ever driven. The AWD is not the AWC (I think that came out with the 2010 version), but it works well. Ground clearance is great, no problem in snow with all seasons (I can't convince her to get dedicated winters). The AWD is 2 or 4WD selectable. The rear hatch also has a fold down tailgate that can serve as a seat for 2 adults. It is also a very handy feature for loading and unloading things like lumber for my basement finishing project. We got hers used with 30k miles in 2008 for $18k. We've had it for 4 years and put 60k on it. I continue to be impressed with the car. It is a Mitsu, and a first model year after a redesign, and it is completely solid. We got the 100k mile Diamond Care power train warranty that includes free oil changes as long as you do the regular 30k service at the dealer ($300 every 30k and $900 every 60 for the timing belt). Aside from the 30/60/90k services and oil changes and one new set of tires, the only maintenance we've done is brakes/rotors/fluid that I did once myself and a power steering flush at 45k (that was the old shady Omaha Mitsu dealer, so I don't know if it was necessary or not, they said the fluid was dirty and needed to be done and my wife let them). Oh, I also changed the cabin filter at 60k. That thing was filthy, probably due for a change again. The Diamond Care warranty/service has been great because I really don't have to worry about her car's maintenance, Mitsu takes care of it for me. And now that the Infiniti dealer bought the Mitsu dealer here, we're treated to the life of luxury every time we go in for service. This car has been solid and the local service is great. I'm really impressed and would buy another one. In fact, if I ever get that 3 car garage and can have a project car, I'd probably trade the Legacy for an Outlander Sport (better mileage), and get an Evo or 2g DSM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spec.B Dream Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Just looked at the link you posted. I didn't realize the Sport AWC starts at 23xxx. That is really tempting now. Of couse my as configured price is nearly $30k. If you want Navi with a backup camera, that adds $4k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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