New Car Feedback

bob6180

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Welp... it looks like my 2005 Highlander needs more parts than it's worth to pass inspection, so the wife and I are looking for a 3 row SUV.

Looking at the VW Atlas, and the wonder twins Palisade/ Telluride.

We have 2 kids(for now) and 2 large dogs so we need the space.

Any feedback or experience with any of the three?
 
VW is a nightmare of problems, electronic and otherwise. Run away.

Honda Pilot is excellent, as is the Toyota whateveritscalled. Dunno about Hyundai but their warranty is supposed to be great.

Don't buy from any Autofair dealership.
 
We bought a 2019 Kia Minivan and we are pleased with it. The new Telluride has 3rd row seating. They have the 10 year/ 100,000 mi powertrain warranty.
 
Telluride / Pallisade are brand new models with unknown growing pains, that you have to pay MSRP at a minimum for. I am watching them closely, as my wife will likely be getting a 2021 late next year.
 
We’ve had a new Honda Pilot going on 2years now. So far nothing to complain about.
Any SUV with a 3rd row seat short of a Suburban is useless for most adults. Our 3rd row stays folded so we have room for the 2 dogs. (Labs) if the 3rd row is up you have barely enough room for 2 full size suitcases.
The Pilot at that time actually had one of the larger cargo areas too!
 
We’ve had a new Honda Pilot going on 2years now. So far nothing to complain about.
Any SUV with a 3rd row seat short of a Suburban is useless for most adults. Our 3rd row stays folded so we have room for the 2 dogs. (Labs) if the 3rd row is up you have barely enough room for 2 full size suitcases.
The Pilot at that time actually had one of the larger cargo areas too!

That's been one of the major reviews of the Atlas in that actual adults can fit in the 3rd row. Plus, my wife likes bells. And whistles. And we can get a very well equipped Atlas for the same price as a Pilot Ex. I've also peeked at Subaru Ascents ... but I'm not sold on CVTs
 
I rented a VW Atlas for a week a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it was just "ok". FYI, Toyota has a brand new, totally re-designed Highlander coming in 2020. If I were in the market for a three row SUV, though, I'd probably be seriously looking at the Mazda CX9, which is, in my opinion, quite sharp looking. But since I no longer need a third row, I'm now leaning toward getting a Jaguar F Pace (not that that helps YOU at all).


Frank
 
If a Toyota is too much maintenance for you, you're in for a whole 'nother world with a VW product.
I was hoping for more reliability. But ive replaced at a minimum of a brake caliper per annum (after having the system professionally flushed and replacing all the flex brake lines, water pump, power steering pump, master cylinder, backing plates on rear brakes, a number of O2 sensors- and that's on top of routine maintenance etc. Currently it has an EVAP leak that no Toyota tech can trace down. I've replaced 1200 in parts on that alone. This one just had more gremlins than most
 
I was hoping for more reliability. But ive replaced at a minimum of a brake caliper per annum (after having the system professionally flushed and replacing all the flex brake lines, water pump, power steering pump, master cylinder, backing plates on rear brakes, a number of O2 sensors- and that's on top of routine maintenance etc. Currently it has an EVAP leak that no Toyota tech can trace down. I've replaced 1200 in parts on that alone. This one just had more gremlins than most
Brake calipers on my ‘03 4Runner would regularly freeze up. I replaced calipers a bunch of times.

But in contrast, I’ve owned my 2013 Land Cruiser for several years and never replaced a caliper. It has been highly reliable. It had about 28k miles on it when I bought it. Now up to about 80k.
 
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I've owned several VWs over the years. Never had an issue beyond routine maintenance- other than a precocious wheel bearing on my 05 Passat
I owned a 2000 GTI GLX. I bought it new and sold it after 40k miles. In the first year, it was at the dealer 11 times. I can’t remember everything that broke on that car.

- Rear shocks and top mounts twice, and needed to be replaced again when I sold it
- Turn signal stalk.
- starter motor
- spark plugs and plug wires
- coil pack
- rear pads and rotors at 15k miles!
- ac condenser
- thermostat
- almost every external light bulb, some multiple times

I maintained that car at the dealer per the manual. No, it wasn’t because my car was assembled in Brazil or Mexico — my GTI was assembled in Germany.
 
I owned a 2000 GTI GLX. I bought it new and sold it after 40k miles. In the first year, it was at the dealer 11 times. I can’t remember everything that broke on that car.

- Rear shocks and top mounts twice, and needed to be replaced again when I sold it
- Turn signal stalk.
- starter motor
- spark plugs and plug wires
- coil pack
- rear pads and rotors at 15k miles!
- ac condenser
- thermostat
- almost every external light bulb, some multiple times

I maintained that car at the dealer per the manual. No, it wasn’t because my car was assembled in Brazil or Mexico — my GTI was assembled in Germany.
Funny enough my brother in law is having issues with his brand new GTI.
 
My advice is to seek out the enthusiast message boards for the makes and models you are thinking of.
They are usually pretty honest about issues and not populated by fanbois who think their car can do no wrong. You will find better info there than you will here.

Vwatlasforum.com and VW Vortex's Atlas subforum for the Atlas.

For the Kia there is kiatellurideforums.com and tellurideforum.org.

For the Hyundai there is palisadeforum.com and palisadeforums.org
 
That's been one of the major reviews of the Atlas in that actual adults can fit in the 3rd row. Plus, my wife likes bells. And whistles. And we can get a very well equipped Atlas for the same price as a Pilot Ex. I've also peeked at Subaru Ascents ... but I'm not sold on CVTs

I wouldn't have a problem with an Atlas, see if you can get a 2019 with the 6 year warranty. All VWs go back to 4 years for 2020.

The Ascent is a very good car but they're having problems with the first year (2019?). Get a 2020 if you get one. The latest Subaru and Honda CVTs are excellent, wouldn't hesitate to buy one over a conventional automatic.

I don't know if it's in the price range of an Atlas but the Volvo XC90 now has 7 seats and optional captain's chairs. Used ones are pretty reasonable, but won't have the captain's chairs.
 
Funny enough my brother in law is having issues with his brand new GTI.

I was ready to pull the trigger on a 2019 GTI when I found out they're buying back manual GTIs cause of a severe stalling problem.

It's funny that VW keeps having issues with things that other car companies solved 20 years ago. Leaky sunroofs, stalling manuals etc.

I'm glad they're moving Golf production from Mexico back to Germany.
 
If a Toyota is too much maintenance for you, you're in for a whole 'nother world with a VW product.

I love my 10 year old Tacoma, but maintenance of this has been very costly. Everything about it costs about 2X what the same repair would cost on a sedan or small SUV. And, it keeps needing repairs that I just never have needed on other cars. Why am I having so many O2 sensors replaced and why do they cost so much? How many times do I have to have wheel bearings, universals and parts of the steering replaced? Last fall, I had all of the steering replaced.

Oh right, and this week they said the front shocks must be replaced for $1200. Why so much? So, $2400 for all of them?? I said no.
 
I got it 5? Years ago and have done nothing but throw parts at it. Not super impressed with it overall.

Could the previous owner's neglect be the issue? We've had Highlanders and RAV4s since 2002 with only wear and tear replacements. Great vehicles and I would look at another if I decide to get rid of my '09 RAV4 (170k mi).
 
I love my 10 year old Tacoma, but maintenance of this has been very costly. Everything about it costs about 2X what the same repair would cost on a sedan or small SUV. And, it keeps needing repairs that I just never have needed on other cars. Why am I having so many O2 sensors replaced and why do they cost so much? How many times do I have to have wheel bearings, universals and parts of the steering replaced? Last fall, I had all of the steering replaced.

Oh right, and this week they said the front shocks must be replaced for $1200. Why so much? So, $2400 for all of them?? I said no.
Yeah I’ve spent more $$ maintaining my 07 Tacoma than I thought would have to. Last year was the torque converter to the tune of $1,400. All brands will have their problems.
 
Could the previous owner's neglect be the issue? We've had Highlanders and RAV4s since 2002 with only wear and tear replacements. Great vehicles and I would look at another if I decide to get rid of my '09 RAV4 (170k mi).

I used to have a RAV4 and thought it was great. I see little use for a slightly larger but much more expensive SUV. 1 foot longer == double the price, why? I miss it and regret getting rid of it. I only got rid of it because of the divorce and my lawyer told me to buy a new vehicle before he filed the papers.
 
Subaru Ascent. The new CVT's supposedly don't have the same problems as in past years.
I think they say that more older Subarus are still on the road compared to any other cars.

Bummer about the shortened VW warranty for 2020.
The 6 year warranty is still in effect for 2019 models.
 
I love my 10 year old Tacoma, but maintenance of this has been very costly. Everything about it costs about 2X what the same repair would cost on a sedan or small SUV. And, it keeps needing repairs that I just never have needed on other cars. Why am I having so many O2 sensors replaced and why do they cost so much? How many times do I have to have wheel bearings, universals and parts of the steering replaced? Last fall, I had all of the steering replaced.

Oh right, and this week they said the front shocks must be replaced for $1200. Why so much? So, $2400 for all of them?? I said no.

You probably don't need a cheaper truck to fix, your need a better and cheaper mechanic. They are putting the screws to you.
 
I rented a VW Atlas for a week a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it was just "ok". FYI, Toyota has a brand new, totally re-designed Highlander coming in 2020. If I were in the market for a three row SUV, though, I'd probably be seriously looking at the Mazda CX9, which is, in my opinion, quite sharp looking. But since I no longer need a third row, I'm now leaning toward getting a Jaguar F Pace (not that that helps YOU at all).


Frank
That was my Atlas experience as well. It was just OK
 
I love my 10 year old Tacoma, but maintenance of this has been very costly. Everything about it costs about 2X what the same repair would cost on a sedan or small SUV. And, it keeps needing repairs that I just never have needed on other cars. Why am I having so many O2 sensors replaced and why do they cost so much? How many times do I have to have wheel bearings, universals and parts of the steering replaced? Last fall, I had all of the steering replaced.

Oh right, and this week they said the front shocks must be replaced for $1200. Why so much? So, $2400 for all of them?? I said no.
Been wrenching for 30 years on average a 10 yr old toyota will need what you mentioned. A gm or ford your at 2x in ten years if your lucky.
Your price for shocks/struts seems a tad high but honeslty unless one breaks or leaks most people wont replace shocks. So im not sure of the prices on shocks/struts
Toyota went through a bad bearing stage. Especially the rear axle on the trucks.
 
Welp... it looks like my 2005 Highlander needs more parts than it's worth to pass inspection, so the wife and I are looking for a 3 row SUV.

Looking at the VW Atlas, and the wonder twins Palisade/ Telluride.

We have 2 kids(for now) and 2 large dogs so we need the space.

Any feedback or experience with any of the three?
Do you need a SUV?
wife and I have been looking to replace the 2006 odyssey . 3 kids . Everything out there shy of the suburban is lacking any real space. Pop up that 3rd row and forget any storage for gear for trips.
i love the 06 Ody. Wide roomy and enough room to pack up for a trip.
Wife just wants out of the "van"
the telluride looks nice and seems well balanced. Hyunda i/kia has come a long way over the past 10_years. Decent amount of my customer have them.
although I can tell you these owners tend to really stay on top of maintenance and do not beat on their cars.
 
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