Have been looking at cars/trucks whatever these things are for my wife and got my bonus this week so going to buy. Purchase will be in cash so I don't really care about financing deals etc, unless there is some great 0% for 72 months deal that I can't find; then I will do that and ladder out bonds to pay the payments.
I really have no idea which to pick they all seem fairly similar to me, I have documented the complaints with each. I would like to get acceptable fuel economy but my daily driver averages 13.5 mpg so it is not a huge concern but if I am going to attempt to buy on fuel economy I will buy a diesel. Budget is somewhere under $60k and I would like to keep the car for 5 years as it will probably only average 8 to 10k miles a year. Wifes comments are in quotes, however even she doesn't really mind too much on any of the cars.
MB ML 350(d?) "... no real negative comments" In general I am not a huge fan of MB as the maintenance starts to get ugly, it comes in at the top of what I want to spend on a poopwagon. Options really price this thing out crazy. However I think this is her first choice.
Audi Q7 "Too big" Personally I like Audi's the most having driven three of them in four years however again the maintenance gets expensive (with brakes costing $700 every 15k miles) and they seem to eat tires quickly with the AWD. Top end of what I would spend on a poopwagon again but do like the car is setup the same cabin wise and feature wise as my S6.
Audi Q5 "Too small" Can't really disagree, too small if we are going to have another kid soon. Big enough to tether one but not two comfortably.
BMW X5 "Out of the question, I hate BMW drivers." Not going to win this one, for some reason my wife hates BMW drivers and is the reason I bought Audi to begin with.
Lincoln MKX "Ugly front grille." Can't really disagree with her, seems like a like it or hate it front end. This would actually be my top pick. We are both fairly young so the mytouch seemed intuitive, I know that is a big complaint. I like that maintenance is covered and the interior although worse than the MB in terms of quality looked like it would fair well against kids. From a design standpoint this looked like the best backseat as well.
Cadillac SRX and Infiniti FX are too small.
Buick Enclave appears too big.
Cliffs: I like the MKX the best, it seems well optioned for the money. Dealer still has some 2011's left that are almost 8k off window, which I really like. My wife is probably going to want to go with the MB.
#1 is there anything with the MKX that would change my/her mind, besides the obvious MYTouch.
#2 is there anything with the ML that would make me change my mind.
#3 Are there any cars we are missing that would be worth going to drive or test?
#4 Anything you want to add about the whole task as this seems like about the most competitive market in autos right now.
I really have no idea which to pick they all seem fairly similar to me, I have documented the complaints with each. I would like to get acceptable fuel economy but my daily driver averages 13.5 mpg so it is not a huge concern but if I am going to attempt to buy on fuel economy I will buy a diesel. Budget is somewhere under $60k and I would like to keep the car for 5 years as it will probably only average 8 to 10k miles a year. Wifes comments are in quotes, however even she doesn't really mind too much on any of the cars.
MB ML 350(d?) "... no real negative comments" In general I am not a huge fan of MB as the maintenance starts to get ugly, it comes in at the top of what I want to spend on a poopwagon. Options really price this thing out crazy. However I think this is her first choice.
Audi Q7 "Too big" Personally I like Audi's the most having driven three of them in four years however again the maintenance gets expensive (with brakes costing $700 every 15k miles) and they seem to eat tires quickly with the AWD. Top end of what I would spend on a poopwagon again but do like the car is setup the same cabin wise and feature wise as my S6.
Audi Q5 "Too small" Can't really disagree, too small if we are going to have another kid soon. Big enough to tether one but not two comfortably.
BMW X5 "Out of the question, I hate BMW drivers." Not going to win this one, for some reason my wife hates BMW drivers and is the reason I bought Audi to begin with.
Lincoln MKX "Ugly front grille." Can't really disagree with her, seems like a like it or hate it front end. This would actually be my top pick. We are both fairly young so the mytouch seemed intuitive, I know that is a big complaint. I like that maintenance is covered and the interior although worse than the MB in terms of quality looked like it would fair well against kids. From a design standpoint this looked like the best backseat as well.
Cadillac SRX and Infiniti FX are too small.
Buick Enclave appears too big.
Cliffs: I like the MKX the best, it seems well optioned for the money. Dealer still has some 2011's left that are almost 8k off window, which I really like. My wife is probably going to want to go with the MB.
#1 is there anything with the MKX that would change my/her mind, besides the obvious MYTouch.
#2 is there anything with the ML that would make me change my mind.
#3 Are there any cars we are missing that would be worth going to drive or test?
#4 Anything you want to add about the whole task as this seems like about the most competitive market in autos right now.
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