$15K is a nice budget.

My brother in law just totalled a Camry in a single car snow accident last week. He is looking at Rav4/CRV/Impreza. His budget is about 12-14K.

He got $7100 for the Camry.

I recommended he get AWD+Snow tires for his next car.

 

Subaru Forester XT w/ 6MT

 

CX-7 is way more than she needs as is the Pilot suggested above. I have not seen much in the way of CX-5s or CX-7s for sale locally -

 

Just to close this out, I bought an 07 Royal Blue Pearl CR-V on Thursday. Its an EX-L model with 75K on the odometer. I bought it at a dealer about 60 miles away and it was originally purchased and maintained there. It's in great shape inside and out and the salesman said previous owner was meticulous with it. Previous owner has every receipt for it and is willing to give them to me - just need to work out the details. Carfax is clean and shows a lot of the maintenance/service on it.
Over the past several weeks, I went and looked at about six others at both dealers and private party sales, but I was appalled at how people treat and care for their cars. There were others I didn't look at because they weren't the color or model my daughter wanted. Some of those could have been better deals -
I will pick it up one day this week or perhaps next weekend. In the end she will be happy, but she doesn't get to see it in person until May when I go and pick her up from school.

Thanks for your comments and opinions -

 

^^^Congrats! The CR-V is the solid choice in the class.

 

My mom has an 07, and they've just issued the recall (finally) for the door acuators (sp)..... So if the acuators go bad just now that they have been recalled.

 

Flipster -

What is the issue with the door lock actuators?

 

They just fail. IIRC, at 20mph they're supposed to lock and stay locked. My mom's would lock at 20 mph but then unlock again. My dad had to jerry rig some wood to make sure it stayed locked when she went to work.

Honda Agrees to Settle CR-V Door Lock Actuator Lawsuit | CarComplaints.com

 

Thanks for this. When I pick it up and get all the associated paperwork, I will look to see if this has been addressed or even come up on this one.

 

My co worker has a 08... you would only have about 2 secs to open the door before all the doors lock themselves again and sometimes while you are driving it would just make some crazy noise and scare the shit out of you.

All 4 doors were fixed under recall.

 

Yea, my mom's made crazy noises. The first time I rode in her car my dad never told me about the issue. I thought there was something in the car about to attack me.

 

Congrats on the car!

 

Thanks, my daughter is thrilled.