Well me and my fience (for her) are looking to upgrade her civic to a SUV. We are kinda stuck on the Mitsubishi endeavor or outlander. This is mostly because of there styling, features and size. we must be able to fit a dog cage in it for our boxer. We are looking for a used one because of the price. We have test drove about 4 of them and love the handling, power and comfort. Does any one have any first hand experience with these cars? How is the fuel economy (rated at 17/22). also, i have read that it is recommended to use premium fuel is that true? If anyone one has any good first hand experiences with other suv's feel free to let me know.

thanks

 

We have a Saturn Vue for the wife's car. It has decent room in the back, and even more when the rear seats are folded. Hers has the 4 cyl with a stick, and gets 24 to 25 MPG every tank.

 

My wife has an 06 X. city mileage is about 14, highway is 24.

4.0L V-6 at 281ft-lbs of torque and 261 HP.
VDC can be a handy feature when the weather gets bad.

 

Not the two you mentioned but I figured I would throw this out anyway. My girlfriend has had an '05 Trailblazer and now an '08 Trailblazer. She only scoots around town with it, but fills up once every week and a half or so and gets around 300 miles out of a tank. Its comfortable for 5 people and can tow a pretty decent amount. She leased this one for around $325 a month with $0 down.

 

My wife's got a 2002 Toyota Highlander with the V6. Mileage averages around 22 for city and highway. We've got over 100,000 miles on it with no major issues. Just the usual maintenance. I would recommend it to anyone.

 

We have an 06 Toyota Rav4 (the new body style). And it is nice. We just did an 850 mile round drip and averaged about 28mpg (we have the 4cylinder front wheel drive). We had our dog cage in the back. You can get 4wd and a very strong v6. We opted for what we had for the additional mpg. I would suggest checking them out. Our stickered for just over $21k, and they go up to about 29k with all the options and v6 and 4wd.

 

My boss has the V6 and it also get good mileage(26-28) Really nice rigs.

 

I will throw another suggestion in the mix. My wife is sporting an 2005 GMC Envoy, that is loaded to the gills and has the V6 motor. She runs a morgage department and travels to closings and seminars with her employees and they always take her ride. We used to use it traveling with friends on road trips and vacations, until we got the rolling travel lodge. (see sig) We have not had a single issue with it at all. She has put about 75,000 miles on it and gets typically around 19-21 miles per gallon with mixed highway and city driving. She absolutley loves it, she'd probably buy another one if we decide against a GMC Acadia that local dealer has. I don't think you can go wrong with an Envoy though. Wife's coworker has a black newer Pilot and she loves it. Good luck with the purchase on whatever you decide to buy.

 

My wife gets this with her full size Tahoe and the insurance is cheaper than the smaller rigs too.

 

The Endeaver is premium fuel. Consumer reports say the mpg is 17 overall. The V6 Toyota Rav 4 scorred the highest rating and the best overall mpg 22. The price is about 2000 $ cheaper also.