HI , any recommnedations about what to look in order to buy a SUV , I need to buy a reliable car and in this times it is very hard to find a reliable car and no as pricey as they are . what year do you recommended and I know Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Subaru are the good ones . what year is more reliable and the price I have a budget of 10000 dollars ans I really do not wan to get in debt
thansk
I'm not familiar with all types of SUVs like Scotty is. But I bought my 2014 Nissan Xterra S new and so far it has held up well. It has 49,000 miles on it. It is a comfortable ride compared to my Mustang. It takes a bit getting use to foreign engineered cars like these since they're a bit different than American cars such as the controls. My Xterra is a 4x4 which comes in handy during the winter. Having a garage to put it in helps a lot too.
I recently purchased an 07’ Highlander 3.3 V6 2WD 103000 miles for about that price. You could also find a Highlander with AWD and 3 row seating. I would recommend looking for model years 2005 - 2007 with the V6 engine as they have fewer problems from the first generation Highlander.
common problems I made note of during my purchase. The water pump craps out around 100000 miles, make sure that’s replaced. Look for the Valve cover gasket, if that’s leaking it can cost you 700$ to fix. The shocks can get spongey around 150000 do check that. The alternator can go bad if the battery wasn’t changed from time to time.
Other than that I would recommend taking it to a known independent mechanic. And sit through the whole inspection so that you know what you are getting into.
Here are other great cars recommended by Scotty:
