My wife and I had been thinking about replacing her '04 Honda Pilot with a smaller SUV now that we no longer need the extra seating capacity. The Pilot has been an amazing vehicle, 145K trouble free miles with no work ever performed except for maintenance. It is by far, the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. It was hard to justify getting a new car when the Pilot was still running so well. Last week our decision was made for us when a teenage driver ran a stop sign and totaled the Pilot (luckily no injuries).
We had 4 cars on our short list: Honda CRV, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester and the CX-5. We wanted all of the latest safety features which ruled out the RAV4. Based on my previous experience with Toyotas, the RAV4 is probably a great car for people who just want a transportation appliance. The CRV is a nice car, but my wife didn't like the styling and I wasn't too excited about the CVT transmission. The Forester has great safety features that are even available in lower trim levels, but again the styling is boring and the CVT takes the fun out of driving.
That left the CX-5 GT. We were only about 5 minutes into the test drive when we decided this was the clear winner.
Likes:
Handling and steering response is excellent for an SUV
Sharp styling, especially the GT with the 19" wheels
Very nice interior and infotainment system
Overall high quality feel
Suggested improvements:
Needs memory seats in the fully optioned GT model
A few more horsepower would be nice (I'm biased, my other 2 cars are a Corvette Z06 and a Cadillac CTS-V)
Overall we both love the CX-5. I can now understand why most of the car enthusiast magazines give it great reviews.
We had 4 cars on our short list: Honda CRV, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester and the CX-5. We wanted all of the latest safety features which ruled out the RAV4. Based on my previous experience with Toyotas, the RAV4 is probably a great car for people who just want a transportation appliance. The CRV is a nice car, but my wife didn't like the styling and I wasn't too excited about the CVT transmission. The Forester has great safety features that are even available in lower trim levels, but again the styling is boring and the CVT takes the fun out of driving.
That left the CX-5 GT. We were only about 5 minutes into the test drive when we decided this was the clear winner.
Likes:
Handling and steering response is excellent for an SUV
Sharp styling, especially the GT with the 19" wheels
Very nice interior and infotainment system
Overall high quality feel
Suggested improvements:
Needs memory seats in the fully optioned GT model
A few more horsepower would be nice (I'm biased, my other 2 cars are a Corvette Z06 and a Cadillac CTS-V)
Overall we both love the CX-5. I can now understand why most of the car enthusiast magazines give it great reviews.