Which compact SUV to buy?

My sister needs to replace her 2001 Astra. She wants a compact SUV, with auto trans and won't pay a penny more than $30K, drive away. She keeps asking my advice but I loathe SUVs with a passion, so i don't know a peach from a lemon.

She has a teenager and an 8 year old, they all have bicycles, she lives in Bne and her daily commute is 50km round trip, all urban, the car will never leave the bitumen or tow a trailer.

Are there any dogs which must be avoided, any pitfalls to lookout for? Any particularly good ones to consider?

I have heard good things about the Mazda....

I haven't looked at the market for a couple of years but here are my thoughts


one are you thinking second hand or new


if new the nissan x trail crv cx5 rav 4 are probably all great cars but will push you into the higher price bracket. Mitsubishi have the challenger which I haven't heard anything bad about.

about 5 years ago I had to by something like this for the in laws and after discussing the time they wont to keep the car for etc the best value for money compared to size you get for the money I went for the Hyundai Santa fe. I the reason was based on the fact they klms they do they weren't going to offload it with 7 years so resale wasn't a issue after this time they are all worth nothing anyway it came with 5 year 100000 klms warranty so maintenance was not a issue.


now days you have more in the and haven't read heaps about them lately I do known the Holden is a piece of shit. mates I have recently decided at cars were 5 years and throw away regardless and are giving the great wall SUV a go which they are quiet happy with. I'm pretty sure it is on the previous model kluger chassis not sure about the rest of the spec


second hand I personally like the kluger which you would get a late model for around the 30 g. It is a good size for the kids hut not to big either

Thansk Benny, she's defintely looking at new or demo, not used. she'll be keeping it for years and years, she bought her 2001 Astra new, it only has 115K on the clock.

dont go a CRAPtiva

Hi David, So many choices involved and a lot is depending on what she is intending to do. Does she need a SUV AWD or does she want a 4x4. I have gotten into 4x4's lately and now have a 30 member group that goes on trips 1 or 2 times a month. First and most, don't buy new you lose too much straight out of the box. A good alternative for new is to look for cars less than five years old with less than 100,000 klms. Soft roader you can't really go past a RAV 4 or a Suburu. 4x4, Patrol, Landcruiser, The new deisel Challenger's do look quite good. Stick to the big names and on trips shouldn't have any problems with parts. Rule of thumb, Nissan or Toyota. I have a old Pathfinder and the thing is as tough as nails.. Good luck with choice.

W26

oops really old post, my bad lol
W26

No worries Wally. she went for the Captiva and has done a little over 20,000km in 12 months. Zero problems and she's very happy worth it.

I'm just glad I don't have to drive or wash such a hulking contraption.

G'day Wally   
Haven't seen you around for ages, are you still Sim racing ?
Your welcome to come race with us, we have the TCL' s still going on Sunday's fortnightly ATM and HistoricGT's on the other fortnight.

David Paterson wrote:No worries Wally.  she went for the Captiva and has done a little over 20,000km in 12 months.  Zero problems and she's very happy worth it.  

I'm just glad I don't have to drive or wash such a hulking contraption.

They are actually not that bad Patto!

We have a 2013 Captiva LX Turbo Diesel 4X4 and it goes really well, 9.1L/100KM in stop start peak hour traffic, heaps of room in them (we fit a garden shed into it flatpacked from Masters and got it home no worries).

We got the 3 years free servicing with it too, Lowndsey convinced us this was a good deal in his TV add

Never thought I'd be a fan of them SUV type vehicles, but being a family man now they are quite practical! I'm getting old mate!!

TTR-CortyGT wrote:G'day Wally   
Haven't seen you around for ages, are you still Sim racing ?
Your welcome to come race with us, we have the TCL' s still going on Sunday's fortnightly ATM and HistoricGT's on the other fortnight.

G'day Corty, No I haven't done racing for quite some time. I didn't really want to drive with anyone else except maybe race 2 play but when I left racing I was into flightsim for quite some time and now into 4 wheel driving and do 2 trips a month up till recently when it got too many members to handle myself. I made one of the long term guys a admin and now we do some camping overnight stays as well. All good fun but more expensive than online racing. Like the xb in your pictures I had an ex police xa once that was quite the rocket in the day 15.5 secs down the /4 mile. not by any means fast today but for those days for a six was quite rapid.

W26