Typically I receive hand me down vehicles from family members (Galaxie 500 w/390, 88 Dodge Aries, 88 Plymouth Reliant, 94 Camry), but this time I will be buying a car.
I am leaning toward the Corolla Cross as it will give more ground clearance than the Camry. Cargo access is helpful, as well.
Do the CVTi-S cons outweigh the pros? Is AWD with the XLE significant, I drive in southern state with ice more common than snow. Should I consider a different Toyota model?
Thanks for all you do!
Reading that makes me want to go to another 1992-2001 Camry.
I just keep finding red flags on used RAV4 within 100 or so miles. For instance, a 2018, at 21,639 miles reported at Auto Auction.
If I plan to put 240-330k miles on the vehicle, the "hit" of buying new seems negligible.
Run away from auctions.
My next door neighbor is a Toyota guy and converted me into one, lol. He bought a brand new Cross last year and absolutely loves it. I have an older Matrix so we have been talking back and forth a lot. He was thinking like you but didn't want to get the RAV4 due to it 'being too much'. The price, extra specs, etc made him drift away from it and get the Cross. We live in Florida so he just does highway and suburb driving, never hauls anything, very easy driving. He likes it because it's so basic, no extras. Plus he was able to get it brand new for 30K. Guess the main problem is that this car hasn't been around for decades so we don't know how it will hold up but so far so good.
Corolla cross is actually a toyota matrix. They canceled the matrix, realised it was a bad idea, brought it back, called it corolla cross.
Awesome!
BTW, with the '94 Camry, no heat in the winter. Local garage backflushed the heater core at my request. They had to repeat three times and it worked!
I personally also love the RAV4s
Any other thoughts with this added information:
I won't be putting many miles on any vehicle for the foreseeable future.
I know of a great garage to check out a used vehicle, yet I currently do not have reliable transportation to visit various dealers and find one.
I will be keeping this vehicle "forever", based on previous experience.
My area is not ripe with private sellers of the RAV4.
The stopped at traffic light/raining/stall/can't start issue seems to have a workaround of turning off the auto on/off feature each time you start up the car. Oddly, I'm at this point because my car died while stopped at a traffic light due to a fuel system issue.
I suggest you take a look on what is avaliable in you your area and tell us here what you like. You can also use our search to see if any of these vehicles are already reviewed by our members.