Dog friendly hatch/SUV?
 

The girlfriend is looking into getting a new car to replace her '03 Nissan Xterra. We've looked at all the brands, and narrowed it down to 3 options.

She needs an automatic, sunroof, dark interior, and something that will hold her 100# chocolate lab (Jack). She's looking at cars right around $22k, but as long as it fits her requirements, she's happy. We also need better than her current average of 16mpg, and something a little more reliable. The Nissan is great, but it can't hold an alignment worth shit, which means it goes through $500 in tires in 1.5 years. It's not exciting to drive, and much too big for what she needs. We're trying for 28+mpg highway. She also doesn't want something with a unknown history, so anything with 20,000+ miles is out, which usually means '08 and newer.

Too ugly: Nissan cube, Kia soul, VW Golf, VW Jetta Sportswagon, Honda Fit, Hyundai Elantra Touring, Toyota Matrix, and any Scion.

Too expensive: Kia Sorento, Subaru Outback, Ford Escape, Mazda CX-7, Chevy Equinox, Hyundai Santa Fe, Hyundai Tuscon, and cars made in Germany.

Won't fit dog: Subaru Impreza. This was one of her best options going in, but Subaru's sloaping roof in the back give it less room than a Honda Fit.

Other eliminations for various reasons: Toyota Rav 4, Mitsubishi Lancer hatchback and Outlander, Honda CR-V.

The possible options are:

1. Mazda 3: This is her best bet so far, although the room in the back is questionable. We're both only about 85% sure Jack (the dog) will fit. She likes the looks, and in her price range, it comes very well equipped.

2. Subaru Forrester: A little too expensive and gas mileage isn't great. Once you get the sunroof and automatic, it's about $2000 too much.

3. Ford Fiesta: This is a great car for the money, that's for sure, but she hasn't looked too much into it, and I'm fairly certain that Jack won't fit.

These are all either '10 or '11. We're not eliminating anything older, but dealerships full of brand new cars have usually only had one or two that fit her criteria, so the chance that they have a random '08 or '09 or anything else she'd like is slim to none, and we haven't hit the point where we want to spend hours on craigslist.

She current spends $303 on her Xterra loan, which she owes $10k on, and it's only going to be traded in for about $5k. She spends $200 on insurance (old accident on record) and $170 on gas each month. That totals $673, and is the figure we're shooting for. She'll have to spend $30 more a month for insurance on the new car, but will only be spending $90 on a 30mpg/tank car. So that's $353 left over for a loan, and she's willing to spend an extra $100 a month to get out from under her current vehicle and into a new one. So we have $450 a month to play with for a ~$20k vehicle, no down payment, and $5k in negative equity. If you followed all of that, congratulations.

Any financial gurus think this is possible? Or do you have any tricks to try at the dealership? I have experience with one purchase, my '08 Lancer, and I pretty much just took whatever they first offered, but I know dealerships have lots of wiggle room.

Anything vehicle we're over looking? Anyone with experience putting a big dog in the Mazda 3, or anything else for that matter?

Cherokee

No Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, or Chevy. For financial reasons. ;) Not sure why we looked at the equinox.

If you can find them , Volvo V50 (small wagon) Same platform as Mazda 3. I don't know about price compared to the Mazda. SO umm. ill just shutup now.

Sure you're not refering to the C30? That starts at $24,600, vs. the Mazda 3 at $19,685. If you're correct in saying the V50, that starts at $28,700. I should have specified. No German or Swedish cars. American, Korean, or Japanese.

Scion XB

Mazda 5??

Mazdaspeed 3
then post video on your dog banging around in the back as you bomb through corners

That settles that. Purely a looks thing for her, and I don't blame her.

If it weren't for the fact that it's a van, than it may have been in contention. She already put a few cars in the "too ugly" list purely because they're wagons, such as the Jetta sportswagon, and older Subaru Legacy Outbacks. This is why the CX-7 was previously on her list of Mazdas to buy, but in order to get their sunroof, you NEED to get a CX-7 with the turbo and AWD. Not that I wouldn't like either of those, but both her and I don't like the starting price of $25,000. That's if you build it on Mazda's site. The one we saw at the dealer were $27,000+.

Addition: I just priced one out, and it's $22,235 for the correct 5, and $22,630 for the correct 3. I'll give her the extra $395 to go with the 3. That and it's even 2mpg less.

I wish. He actually whines sometimes when we go driving. We gently brake check him into the pet barrier to shut him up.

The 3 is pretty impressive actually. Cars I've physically sat in are: Mazda 3*, Elantra Touring*, Tuscon*, Santa Fe, Forrester*, CX-7, Honda CR-V*, Chevy Equinox*, Jetta wagon*, Golf*, and Tiguan. The "*" means I test drove it. Out of all of them, the Mazda is the best equipped with bluetooth, aux input, Bose stereo, automatic, 30mpg, cruise, sunroof, alloy wheels, actually fits the damn dog, and all at roughly $23k. Every other vehicle on that list and everything else we've looked at, doesn't include every one of those features. Only issue we can find is she doesn't like the blue or red colors that Mazda offers.

What about a 4 door Golf?

edit:
NVM, I see that is "too ugly"
lol

What about the lancer sportback?
(It may suffer from the same problem as the impreza)
http://www.thetorquereport.com/2009_...rtback_new.jpg

If the Fit wasnt on your ugly list I would suggest it. GF just got an 07 with 15K miles, for about 15K after trade and everything. Its very spacious on the inside, gets roughly 32mpg (I think) and the 07 model is before they made it ugly. And its the sport edition, so its alittle better looking then the non-sport.

The Golf, especially the TDI, was first on my list after we test drove them. Unfortunately with a weak reliability history, and expensive repair bills, we're not sure it's not worth it. Looks like you can get it for a grand or so less than the 3, I'll have to mention it to her again.

The Mitsubishi's are out because I have an '08 Lancer. So with the Outlander or Lancer wagon, she'd essentially have an identical car to mine. Even the Outlander has the same grill. We looked at the interior, and all three cars are nearly identical. We're not that couple, we can't have the same car.

http://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/cro...-12_460x0w.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...untitled-4.jpg

See what I mean?

I tried briefly, she wouldn't have it. We glanced at it when we were looking at the CR-V (which BTW, is the blandest vehicle ever, I felt so bored) and I was surprised at it's rear room. Oh well.

If it were up to me, the list of desirables would go like this:

Mazda 3, Honda fit, VW golf, and some sort of Scion.

Do you have a Mazda Motorsports account? If you do then you qualify for S-plan pricing on new Mazdas. Friends and family can get it too. Supposedly it's really close to dealer invoice, and you can still get incentives on top if they're running any. I have no direct experience with it but I know a couple track friends that have taken advantage of it.

I'm also looking for a new DD that will fit an infant car seat and possibly a dog. The dog requirement is not definite at this point but we do have a 100+ lb german shepherd that might occasionally need to ride in my car. So you don't think a big dog would fit well in a Saab 9-2x (Impreza)? Would fit in a Forester though, right? How about a Mazdaspeed 3? I also had the Legacy GT wagon and Outback XT on my hatch/wagon list. Obviously I'm looking at used cars, and I need to get off the internets and go look at/drive some myself.

It'd definitely fit in a Forrester. It won't fit in the new Impreza because of the sloped roof in the back. The Golf, Mazda3, etc, have a very flat rear hatch.
http://images.mjmi.com/new400/SUBARU...%20WAGON_1.jpg
vs
http://emotorauto.com/wp-content/upl...chback-141.jpg
See the difference? From the picture Full Tilt posted, it looks like the Lancer has the same issues.

The Saab 9-2x is the older Impreza wagon body, and I think it'll be big enough.
http://images.gtcarlot.com/gtgallery/13968377-640.jpg

Doesn't seem like a huge difference, but I'm sure the floor/rear seat design of the new one is part of it too. We opened the hatch of the new '11, and one look inside was enough to see it's just too small.

Dammit I don't have a MS account. Fuck fuck fuck.

S-plan pricing is for friends and family too, because Mazda knows it's good PR when your friends & family know you track or autocross and they see you choose a new Mazda. We're all friends here. I'll PM you how to print out the certificate, and you can see where that gets you with the dealership. I'm kind of curious myself, just not in the market for a new vehicle at this point.

As an owner of 3 dogs, and a wife that's a groomer, I'd recommend a Mazda3 hatch.

We just got the wife a 2010 Mazda3 hatch with 10k miles for $14,400. She loves it. Already installed the RacingBeat sways and have the springs sitting on the kitchen table.

Traded a 2007 VW GTI for it, and she's so much happier.

End result:
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She bought a 2010 Mazda 3 sport, with automatic, pearl white paint, and the sunroof/bose/6 CD changer package.

First of all, the day was hell. I had woken up at 9am the previous day, slept from 6pm-8:30pm, then worked from 10:30pm-7am, and she had gotten up at 4pm the previous day, and worked from 7pm-7am. When we got home we spent an hour detailing, washing, and cleaning out her '03 Xterra, and drove right to the dealership. After all the haggling, negotiating, paperwork, test driving, and then showing it off to her family and best friend, we finally got to sleep after she had stayed up 29 hours, and I was at 25 hours and 2.5 hours of sleep.

It all paid off though, as she ended up getting it for 19,9xx, which was about $700 under invoice. That was part of the reason we didn't get any sleep, was I had to drive home to grab a Comcast bill, go to the DMV and wait an hour to do 5 minutes of paper work to change my registration address to her new address, so my 17 year old Miata could get her $500 off in owner loyalties. Mazda also extended the Claim your Mazda Summer Sales Event into September for all 2010 models. Our goal was 6-7% APR, and a payment of under $475/month over 72 months. Sounds high, but her trade-in had negative equity, so her $20,000 car ended up costing $25,000. Anyways, we finished with 0% APR over 60 months, with a payment of $430. We're very happy.

I also think they were listening to us. While we were in the room "alone" and they were out appraising her trade-in, we said we wouldn't take anything under $5k, and we'd be incredibly happy with $6k. They came back 5 minutes later offering exactly $5k. Eventually we shut our traps and communicated via iPhones, and got $5.5k for it.

Car rocks, everyone should get one.

Side note: Yesterday her family came over for dessert, and we had to clean the house. She rolled my iPhone 3G into the sheets and it went through the wash. The above photos were taken with my new iPhone 4, which I'm incredibly happy with. The difference in picture quality is superb.
Old phone reference:

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