Well the 97 Avalon bit the dust at the hands of a Chevy Colorado a few weeks ago. I need an new daily / winter driver so I don't have to drive the M3 through the snow and have it sit outside at the airport all the time.

I would like to stay under the 6k mark, wife has a subaru legacy so I am leaning toward a SUV of some sort to haul junk and the 2 dogs around.

I found a good condition 2001 MDX (173k miles) with all service done including a new tranny 5k miles ago. Its in good condition aside from the acura squeaks and rattles which I would have to hunt down and kill if i bought it. I don't know that much about the MDX's but they seem fairly reliable aside from the Tranny. One note about driving the MDX - The tires were pretty noisy at speed. Is this a normal occurrence with these?

I also drove a 2001 Pathfinder LE but it was at a dealer and they knew nothing MX wise on the car. Seats and exterior were a little beat up but it only had 125k miles. Anyone know anything about reliability on those?

Other cars I'd considered were a 98-01 Wrangler, 4Runner or as neuronbob is looking a Pilot.

Thanks for any insight.

 

You could look at the Ford Expedition ? The Toyota Highlander is another good choice . But the thing is I dont know if you can find a highlander for 6K or less. You could also do a search on Autotrader under the SUV section and see if anything good pops up.

 

4Runner. Or find a Pathfinder with a VQ engine.

 

an older 4runner would be ur best bet imo ... those things are tanks ... the only problem with an older vq is you gotta watch the oil burning issue ... pathfinder would be alright IMO, but would be a risk going that old ... doubt i would want to pick up an mdx with that many miles, although the tranny has been replaced, the other components of the car have a lot of wear on them ...

 

I remember many winters in the Cleveland area. Cold, snow, and you don't see the sun for weeks at a time.

I had a '99 Wrangler and it was a great winter vehicle. Pretty reliable. I had a Subaru Forester before my TSX wagon. It was a good winter vehicle too and a lot better on gas than the Jeep.