The Front Row

I just bought a 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe. It has tons of space, for a crossover and I have been very happy with mine so far. It also comes in AWD and gets pretty good gas mileage.

We have a 2010 Outback & also live in NE Ohio. We regularly travel I90 between our home and the Buffalo area. It's great in the snow & gets very good mileage. My only complaint would be that it is a little limited on interior room. Absolutely zero maintenance issues so far. Good luck with your decision.

I totally agree with you on the FWD gobucks72, I grew up on Oldsmobiles and Buicks that had it, but the only problem is our house sits up on a hill, and even with AWD the incline presents a problem at times.

I am a Consumer Reports subscriber and research geek.

I'm in the same market and need to replace my Honda Accord. I'm pretty set on the Outback. I looked at the Venza and it's cool and I don't think you can go wrong with it. I need a pickup truck and a stylish sedan in one vehicle. It also needs to be dog approved. LOL

The top of the line Outback is what I'm currently planning to buy.

EDIT: The Subaru is made in America (Indiana).

Get a used Lexus RX 350, a 2011 or 2012 model. IT's the number one crossover SUV in the market and is rated #1 for resale, reliability, cost of ownership. IF you can afford a new one I highly reccomend the 2013 Lexus RX 350 F sport, they drive amazingly well and get 28 mpg in sport mode when you put the transmission in 8th gear. Yes I said 8th gear. That car has the same transmission as the 95,000 dollar Lexus LS F sport and the IS-F 5.0 litre V8 with 416 hp. Lexus has a partnership with Yamaha's formula one racing division and that car has a formula one tranny in it hence the 8 speeds. There isn't a finer vehicle on the road for the price!

My wife and I bought a 2013 Honda CRV about mid Janurary and love it. We do not have any kids but are planning to in the near future. We also wanted to have something AWD and large enough when we start having kids. We researched CRV's Rav4's, Escape's, and Subaru's for close to a year before we purchased the CRV. The test drive, quality, features, gas mileage, and how each vehicle/brand held their value were just some of the things that sold us on the CRV. We also liked the Escapes but the CRV gets better gas mileage and we have both had good luck with Hondas ( I drive a civic with 290,000 miles on it and have not had any troubles with it other than standard upkeep. The CRV was purchased for her. ) We were able to automatically eliminate a couple of vehicles just due to the test drive.

Can't go wrong with a Lexus, beautiful car and will run forever. I have a GS350 and unless I can afford a Ferrari someday will only buy Lexus from here on out.

My wife and I just bought a 2013 Outback this past weekend. So far so good on our San Francisco city streets! Handles the hills. Should be great in snow and decent on gas mileage. Plus it has a really great safety rating and we have a little one on the way.

So, just one man's opinion after a few months of research and test driving crossover/SUV/wagons.

Oh, bought mine in silver/gray for obvious reasons.

Best of luck.

ps - they are assembled in Indiana, USA by union workers. If that is important to you - it was for us.

Did you consider both the 6 and 4 cylinder models? I have not directly compared the two yet other than reading HP and torque numbers, etc. I'm leaning towards the 6 even though I'm sacrificing mileage. I just want to make sure I always have enough engine and be able to accelerate out of a dangerous situation driving 70mph.

If not for the Outback, what would you have bought? My wife nixed the Honda Ridgeline. She pretty much nixed any pickup.