small car/ awd
 

what are some small, efficient AWD vehicles for daily commuting/ light hauling that can stand up to daily dirt road travel?

i've been driving nothing but subaru 5 speed/ awd for the last 15 years. my trusty subaru mechanic is retiring. (sob!)

i'm wondering if there are any comparable cars on the market?

criteria are fuel efficient/ 4wd/ 5 speed/ sturdy...


tia...

I've had my heart set on a Subaru for quite a while now - just haven't been able to find one I can afford. But please tell me, why do you need a special mechanic for Subarus? I would not want to change mechanics.

We just sold our Subaru Imprezza AWD hatchback and it was a great car. Drove it all over up here for 6 years on paved and unpaved roads and I did all the mechanical work myself so there is no need for a special mechanic. They are actually pretty easy to work on and we sold it for 6K (bought it new for 14K 6 years ago).

There are other higher end cars like Audi, Volvo and Volkswagen that make excellent AWD cars but at the bottom of the scale its mostly just Subaru I think.

I dont know of much else Marvella unless you want to move into a small SUV like the Ford..(I can think of the name), Honda CRV etc. which are good vehicles too.

DO NOT GET A HYBRID< HONDA MODEL. Just My .02. Mine is two years old and sitting for the last two months in the drive way.

Friend had a Mercury.........
 

I think it was a Merc. Mariner, AWD........IIRC.
He pulled one or more seats out & more or less used it as a truck.
He moved down South. Not sure what he did with the Mercury.
Oh, but it wasn't real small........

If you're absolutely set on a manual transmission, your choices will be extremely limited. In fact Subaru might be the only choice.

A number of automakers are making small sport utility or crossover vehicles with 4 cyl engines and AWD. Those would be worth a look. Chevy Equinox is one we looked at which got particularly good gas mileage for what it is. But I don't think you'll find any with AWD and 5 speed.

If you like subarus, keep getting them, and find a new mechanic. As I understand they're generally reliable vehicles so even if you have to have repairs done at the dealer, it shouldn't bankrupt you. You can have oil changes & other minor service done wherever.

thanks to all who replied.

it's not a special mechanic. he's just MY mechanic, that i have had a long and trusting relationship with. he has kept me on the road for 15 years in the most economical, fast and fair way. he only works on subarus because that's what he chooses to do. there's nothing special about him except he is a great guy who has treated me very well over the years.


i'm not really interested in any kind of an SUV. i've been looking into this because my current car needs several hundred dollr worth of repairs at the moment. i'm trying to decide if i should just fix it or look for another car.

Unless the car is a rust bucket or has other impending failures, a few hundred dollars of repairs is a whole lot cheaper than replacing the vehicle.

it's really because of losing the mechanic. last time i had a brake job (not by him) it cost me $640.

it's a 96 legacy outback. doesn't look too bad, uses little oil. has an ongoing mysterious overheating problem once in a while but i know what to look for to keep it from becoming a real problem. 160K miles.

what it needs is front axles (CV joints?) and rear shocks. if brakes cost me 640, these repairs may cost me a lot more.

my mechainc would take parts off cars he had sitting around. if i showed up with the shocks i needed in my hand he would have me back on the road the same day and probably do it all for less than 200. a few years ago he put an engine in another car and charged me 450. tranny 200.

so really, i'm just wondering if i need a more dependable car and what to get if i do. it doesn't really sound like there is anything comparable.

Can you find any replacement car for the "several hundred dollr worth of repairs" that your current car needs? No idea on newer Subarus, but on older ones, the only thing that stopped them was rust up north and as they got real old, the lack of replacement parts. The ONLY Subarus I ever saw at junk car auction I used to go to were very high mile 2wds and newer Subarus with automatic tranny. I guess the automatic trannies were pricey to replace (cost more than the car would be worth after replacement). The Subaru engines (at least the older smaller 4cyl), if treated well last as well as the best of the Japanese engines and thats a long time.

Does your current Subaru mechanic have any other mechanic that he would recommend. I am sure he has other customers that will be scrambling to find a replacement mechanic too.

Seems like manufacturers are trying to eliminate manual transmission option from anything but entry level econoboxes and maybe some sports cars. Also just try to find a car without power door locks and power windows and all the other high profit "power" and "automated" accessories that become pain in the rear to keep functional after first 100k miles. Part of problem is that dealers for most part only stock high profit cars with all the goodies. Even if a stripped model is available you would have to special order it and then wouldnt get any negotiating room on price.

Can your current mechanic recommend a replacement for himself? He may have quite a few customers in the same panic as yourself.

I would LOVE to have a stickshift Subaru Forrester myself but not for a few years. The minivan is just better with the dogs.

Peg

Oh, think the Sante Fe or whatever the AWD Hyundai mini suv is called does offer 5spd, but maybe only a V6 engine. Hyundai used to be a step up from a Yugo and thats all you could say, but over the years has become respectable and simular to Japanese cars in reliability.

How about a Suzuki SX4? They are small, AWD, and come with manual transmissions. I don't know what your budget is but I seem to recall them being a bit less than a Subaru.

Sounds to me like you just need to find a new mechanic. Start asking around.

I use my 2002 Subaru Legacy wagon as a truck. With the rear seats folded up, there's 5'9" back there. Ten 8-foot 2x4's is manageable over and around the front passenger seat. Ten foot sticks of pipe or conduit fit inside diagonally with the windows closed, or, if you have a passenger, are easily strapped to the stock roof rack with electrical tape. Depending on the size of the bale, 2 to 4 bales of hay can be hauled undercover. I got a trailer hitch put on it and have a 6x8 foot aluminum trailer with a drop-down tailgate that makes it 6x10. The trailer itself only weighs 450 lbs so I can pull a lot of sheet goods, or more hay if the weather's good.

Meanwhile, I get 25mpg regularly tooling around town (best tank ever was 32 mpg on a long haul on 50 mph roads) and can extract myself from twelve inches of snow while pointing uphill. I can carry 5 friendly adults, or 4 not-so-friendly ones. I bought it used for $10K at 4 years old with 70,000 miles on it, and have since put another 50,000 miles on it with nothing but routine maintenance.

Prolonged engine braking (like coming down a miles-long hill) will turn the check engine light on, but it turns itself back off after twenty miles or so.

If they keep making them like this I doubt I'll ever own anything else.

Sounds like you need to shop for a good reasonable mechanic, then buy the kind of car he likes to work on.

I own the kind of old vehicles I can work on myself. If I couldnt work on my own stuff, no idea what I would own or who I would take it to for repairs. I have yet to see any truly and absolutely honest mechanic in my area. The closest was some guy that used to specialize in Volvos that I met back when I was into old Volvos, but even he wasnt above doing a bit of padding of the bill. Many mechanics are just outright incompetent or outright thieves. I remember that old Readers Digest investigation of mechanics across the country. Their investigators took an absolutely perfect condition car, and would pull off one spark plug wire before taking it in to a shop. Of all the mechanics, dealers, etc big and small they went to across whole country, only 2 came across as halfway honest. One dealer they just put wire back on the plug and didnt charge a dime, said they'd catch them next time. The other was some guy who sold them a new set spark plugs and new plug wires. EVERY other shop was out to screw them for BIG bucks. One wanted to rebuild their transmission for several thousand dollars.......

You have to change mechanics, like it or not.
I don't understand why you think you also have to change cars, too?

I have a Hyndai Santa Fe but it's an automatic. I love it! Best car I've ever had plus handles great in the snow. We had a lot of that this year to test it too.

We just bought a Subaru Outback and we love it. My husband loves it because he can do most of the work on it himself. I think that it might just be declared the "state car" of Idaho. They are incredibly popular up here.
My Mom has a CRV and loves it.

it's quite mountainous here, as i imagine it is there. subarus really are the best car for the job.

i was just wondering if there is another comparable car, but apparently not.

i call myself a suba-holic. :-)

thanks to all!!

my kia
 

my kia sportage outlasted my last sabaru/

I have a 97 subaru outback sport with 138k miles on it.

when I first bought it 3 years ago there was only one company in my county who could work on it. now, there are at least 3. the economy has forced mechanics and car dealers to look for additional income sources.

I just had a hub bearing replaced (they thought it might be an axle but ended up being a bearing) and it was around $375. a ball bearing on my escort also needed replaced recently and it was $225 if those figures compared mean anything.

at the same time I needed front brakes. you can get that done around here for $149 at midas which is who I usually use.

the most expensive thing I've had done to it is calipres. they cost $200 a piece plus labor :(

great car, have been told I can get 200k+ if I'll just maintain it and am going to aim for it. too bad it's such an ugly car, I love the way it runs. (its bright red, with ski bars on top and that two toned sport paint job. intended for young men but I think anyone of any age looks stupid in it! but it runs great).

are you SURE it only needed brake pads? all the way around the most I've ever had to pay was $250 per axle and I sure went shopping after that (ANYBODY can do the brakes).

I had to have brake pads on front, front calipres, front rotors and a new brake line all on front and it was $1000. as I said above, the calipers were half the cost :(

oh and my local mechanic who didn't use to work on them told me now that they can work on anything their computer can talk to the cars computer. if they can't communicate, they can't work on it. but like i said, when I bought it 3 years ago the only thing I could have done locally was tires and brakes because nobody worked on subarus :(

oh, rear shocks. ugh. on my escort they cost me $700 this winter ($500 in parts because they used a shock kit on each).

one reason I bought a subaru instead of crv or rav4 is because I was told the subaru has a truck body, engine, transmission and suspension whereas the other two are cars with awd.

I run a paper route and can really tell the difference after putting 30k miles on my escort and about 35k on the subaru. the entire suspension system just about on the escort has had to be replaced and nothing besides the hub bearing so far on the subaru (they both have about 140k miles on them).

the subaru really stands up to the 1000 pounds or so I carry on saturdays in papers. it also will tow 2500 pounds.

I'd fix the subaru you got or sell it and buy another one ;) I just wish they sat about 3 inches taller. mine has trouble running my route in deeper than 8 inches. just hard to get going again from a dead stop in that deep.

the only other thing I would look at would be a tracker or sidekick. about the same price to buy but cheaper to fix (sister has one).

I almost bought one instead of this subaru but everything I read online was that subarus were much better made and reliable.

My thoughts as well.

BTW, the absolute best vehicle I've ever had for getting around in MUD, snow, etc. was my front wheel drive Metro. Including my 4WD Tracker.
So long as I had clearance (and it has more clearance than any other car I've had), I could go anywhere.
In fact, just last night as I was sliding sideways in the mud, down a hill in my Focus, I was wishing for that Metro. lol

details please? in what ways did it outlast??

i can tell you that with reasonable care it will last 300+K miles. my back up car (93) has 250k and is stil roadworthy.

no midas or any of those kind of places. it's very, very rural.

no i said brake job- calipers and all. my mechanic would have done it much cheaper. i am not at all sure that it needed everything that was done. it was one of those- single woman, tell her it's undrivable/ dangerous, ( i had just driven from SC to TN) tell her around $300 then charge 640 when she picks it up. i was scammed.

i hear ya. i can go where i want in most any weather as long as it's not piling up over the hood.:-)

after this discussion i'll fix the one i have, but keep my eye peeled for the future. i may as well stick with subarus, trusted mechanic or not.

I hve to vote for the SUZUKI LINE ALSO.:thumb: My brother has owned them for over a decade and none have lasted less than 250,000 miles. He just moved, but lived in northern Vermont on the North side of a mountain for years. He swears by them. None will win a race, but they get good milage and hold up like a tank. I got to ride in a SX4 and it was quick and comfortable, and I have a munged up spine. Mike

Your Subaru doesn't have a truck anything. I've been around Subarus and repaired them as well. The only thing that is remotely truck like is the engine placement (the engine is a north south arrangement instead of transverse like a front wheel drive car). The body is of unit construction, a true truck has a frame, the suspension is a pretty conventional Macpherson strut type that just about 90 percent of cars use. From my own experience with Subaru is that they are heavily built more so than most cars but they are not built like trucks by any stretch. There is only one car built today that I'd consider truck like, a Ford Crown Victoria. The entire drivetrain is used in the F-150, plus the body is on a full-frame just like a pickup.

I have no idea what kind of physical shape your in but maybe you could try your hand at some simple repairs. Replacing brakes is simple. I've done it on Subarus a few times. I could have the front brake pads replaced on a Subaru in under 20 minutes. Even a brake caliper is a fairly simple job. Perhaps you could pay your retired mechanic a little bit of money and he could teach you how to replace simple wear items. Working on a car isn't rocket science. The hardest to figure out fixes usually involve sensors (main reason why I like old cars, no sensors). Subarus have a different engine layout than most cars and it does make things easier to work on.

I'll say one thing, Subarus are more expensive than the average car when it comes to parts. I was comparing different part cost between a 96 BMW and a Subaru one time and the BMW was actually cheaper :huh:

This unfortunately happens all too often. The local Ford dealer tried to scam my ex-wife on an oil change/tune up for her Explorer (it was winter and my shop was full at the time with a bike rebuild) and when she brought it over to me to look at it it was clear they had done nothing other than charge her $350.00. It still had the Fram oil filter I used from the last oil change instead of Motorcraft etc. I got her money back for her and that dealer is not out of business.

i'll look into them. do they come in 5 speed??

The older ones did.
My Metro and Tracker were both 5spds.

Don't believe everything you are told! Subaru is a car!

Back when I had my '82 wagon, 4x4 was an option and the dealer had the story of how the parent company of Subaru was making one-off 4x4 cars for the Japanese Forestry Bureau while a US entrenpreanur was touring the auto plant. He talked them into exporting the cars w/ the 4x4 option otherwise the 4x4 and later the full time AWD would have remained a one-off special project...The initial US Subaru franchise was US owned & based in Cherry Hill, NJ; later the parent corporation took over making Subaru the same as Honda, Toyota & Nissan.

They ARE a well built car and sell for a good price and can be expensive to repair. My '82 had a exhaust Y pipe that included the catalitic converter and when it failed I had to spend alot more than if I was just replacing a Y pipe on any other vehicle.

The opposed design engine, like the old VW beetle and BMW motorcycle engines, makes a good low profile compared to a V configuration and is a reliable power plant BUT it is not a truck engine!

Google "Subaru head gasket". The old 2.5's are notorious for blowing out the head gaskets. I found mine was blown when I was chasing down a mysterious overheating problem.

FWIW

I've found that a good front wheel drive is just as good as an AWD with less maintenance and usually better fuel economy. This is over the dirt roads and snow of Vermont.

I've never had AWD, so I have no comparison, but as mentioned, the vest vehicle I've ever had (even 4WD cute-utes and full sized pickups) for slogging around in mud and snow was a Metro.
Front wheel drive subcompact.

Interesting note: Subarus are really popular in Denver and the ski communities. Not so much in the ranching areas of rural CO. Why?
It's not because the ranching areas have better roads. If anything, they're far worse.
It's because the poorer areas use cheaper cars. And seem to get around just as well. :shrug:

thanks but it was the first thing replaced. along with the thermostat. and hoses. and water pump. it's been going on for about 3 years now, once or twice a year, even with the radiator full. as i said, it's a mystery.

about the front wheel drive- there is a big difference in mountain areas like where i live. 4wd makes all the difference in getting up and down a snow covered hillside.

Yea, 4wd makes difference on steep slick hills though if you want to hassle putting chains on and off, that works too. Some of us though need 4wd AND ground clearance which the little AWDs tend not to have, they are mostly for slick streets/highways, not rough rural roads. They also dont have low range which is very handy. The old Subarus used to offer option of part time 4wd with low range. They lost my interest when they went to only AWD.

I replaced a head gasket on a car once and it had the same symptoms that yours did. After taking the head off again I found out I had a crack in the head that needed to be repaired. You could have a similar problem.