LOL. You need to take wife-control lessons from my son-in-law, God bless him.

Hell, I need to take wife-control lessons from my son-in-law.

The more I read this thread the more I'm disgusted with yours and your wifes choice reasoning.

"I won't buy this car despite it being good, because my friend has one" is one that is really blowing my mind in particular.

What I can't figure out is:

What's your main priority?

Something bigger than your CX-7 (and how much bigger?)

or

Something that gets better MPGs than your CX-7.

The CR-V, Rav4, CX-5 will certainly get better mpgs than your CX7. Heck the newest CR-V is probably bigger too (interior space).

I don't know of any gasoline 7+ passenger SUVs that get the sort of gas mileage you seem to want, at least not for $$$$. Yes it's 2013. Yes engine technology is way better than it's ever been. Minimum BSFC, actual BSFC, and BMEP numbers for the newest engines are better than ever. That doesn't mean physics has changed. Most 7 passenger SUVs are 4500 lbs, are not very aerodynamic and have huge wheels and tires. No matter how amazing the engine they still don't get that good of gas mileage.

WAIT

new recommendation

Brand New 2014 2WD Acura MDX. All of the space and luxury your wife wants. And you'll get 25mpg all day long combined.

Should be about $43k out the door.

/thread

He wants his cake, and eat it too.

"oh hi guys I want a semi-truck and I want it to get 100mpg and I want to pay 2 dollars for it IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!! "

My uncle just got a new MDX very nice car. But he has like a 4mile commute so gets like 18mpg...Get a 08-13 (I think) year forester xt and flash tune it and you'll get better gas mileage. My dad wants a downpipe and tune becau it'll be more powerful and efficient.

Weight. That's all their is too it. If cars didnt have all the luxury, safety and security amenities they would be much more fuel efficient. But would you really put your family into a 7 seat death trap?

Probably not. But if you do, get a turbo caravan from the 80s. I bet you an tune it to get at least 30mpg.

QFT

Hey ThirdGen, any of your wifes friends have a Mercedes RL?

But seriously, CX-5 Diesel.

Truth. Here's a prime example from my garage:

This:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1365715717

weighs about 300#'s more than this:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1365715717

Surprising, no?

I second 18psi's assessment, and also would like to see the answers to efini's question.

There are 4 ways you'll meet your apparent goal of larger + more economical. The explorer with 2.0 ecoboost is not one.

1. Used grand cherokee diesel I mentioned earlier
2. Used ML mercedes diesel
3. Used audi q7 diesel
4. Used R class benz diesel.

Yes there's a trend... diesel is the only way you'll get better mileage with a larger vehicle.

Also: I think it's completely ridiculous that your wife thinks she needs something larger than a CX-7 or equivalent to haul around ONE CHILD and his crap. seriously nuts. Either she needs a spacial clue or kid needs less crap.

I guess it's part of planning ahead for kid number 2 in the future. Also due to cx7's having a huge list of issues after warranty period ends.

OK, so, what are your priorities? space or economy? reliability?

although you haven't really answered questions posed, so perhaps I will refrain from rephrasing till you do. I'm sure you will once you have some more time though.

I have a car magazine (Motor Trend IIRC) and they have a cx5 as one of their long term testers and they were commenting how slow it is. 0-60 in 9.6 second.

I dont think I could happily drive a car that slow everyday, I like to be able to accelerate whenever need be.

How bout all of them.
The CX-5 seems decent because great economy, but I don't beleive it's much bigger than the CX-7. CX-5 seems like a great pick, but wife wants something a bit larger.
I like the Volvo XC-90, cause I love the styling of it and I favor the inline 6. It's not like we're going out tomorrow and buying something, so we have plenty of time to decide.
That's how I do it, I find exactly what I want and then I start to shop. I don't understand people who drive past a dealer and say, "I want that", and then go buy something without researching it and shopping around.

I don't understand impulse buying a car either.

but what you want doesn't exist except in the rare cases stated above..

It's interesting how this most recent post of yours is almost exactly the same as your very first post on this topic. After three pages of discussion.

(I try to shop like you do. sometimes I get the gotta-have-it's though.... hence why I own the Miata I do :giggle: )

I feel the same way, but I'm willing to sacrifice acceleration for fuel mileage.
I just need to find a happy medium. Right now the XC-90 does it for me. I will consider checking out the Acura MDX though, and others that were mentioned. I really don't care what we get, as long as she's happy and it doesn't break stuff every few months and cost me all kinds of money. I need to be a little less ---- about the car that she parks in her garage, and just worry about being meticulous about all the shit parked in my garage.

The miata was something I had to have. I really wanted a 93 RX-7, but I'm not spending 20 grand on a car thats 20 years old and has an engine that is know for nothing but problems. The amount of pleasure I get from my car almost evens out the amount of negative stereotypes I get about it at work.

I don't know what year XC90 you're looking at but I think I mentioned before, all the data I've seen has the XC90 pegged at ~18mpg real world combined. Not sure how the works with your goals.

The MDX was kind of a joke recommendation. The current ('08-'13) MDX does not get especially good gas mileage. We just took an '11 on a 1500 mile round trip, mostly highway, and I think overall we got just over 20mpg. 20.5 or something. That was 80%+ highway. PLUS it requires Premium...

However, the brand new, still yet to go on sale, 2014 MDX in 2WD form has much improved gas mileage. Huge gains over the current model. In real world use it should get better gas mileage than any other gasoline non-hybrid 7+ passenger SUV.

The Mercedes GLK Bluetec diesels get amazing gas mileage for their size, but the initial purchase price and maintenance costs blows the cost of ownership out of the water.

I like the XC90 too. We briefly considered one, I can't remember what model year it was but it was a bit older. Apparently that generation of XC90 used some GM sourced trans that was a humongous POS and they had lots of issues. I'm not certain about the newer ones.

...

Used Touareg TDI?

I will say this:

If you are accustomed to Japanese car reliability, you should stay away from European models. Volvo used to be the European exception, but I've heard bad things lately.

Hard to say how much they've been influenced by Ford ownership through the years. Now of course they are under Chinese ownership...

2014 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring First Test - Motor Trend
I thought this was relevant to those who expressed interest in the CX-5. They've apparently attempted to strike a better balance between fuel economy and performance, adding 29 horsepowers and 35 more torques to the 2.5L Grand Touring model.