That's a very interesting thing to notice. You'd have to look a lot closer at the car then I do when I look in my rearview. Generally I'm seeing where the car is, not what it's grill looks like. I agree it looks very similar to a Kia, probably not a coincidence.
I might get one for my wife when they come out. AWD + Manual transmission + decent off-road capability. We had a Wrangler in the past - and my wife is not willing to go for another one of these again, she wants more comfort. We had 4 Subarus, the first 3 were great, the last one (2008) was not - broke the clutch, head gaskets, blown engine - so we are not going back to a Subaru. If we do not like it when we drive it (should be available in a month or so at the dealership) we will probably go for a Mazda of some sort - maybe a CX-5 or wait for a CX-3. I still own my old Miata (almost 20 years now) - and like it. About the Lexus - I do own an old IS300 and I love it, but Lexus no longer make cars with manual transmissions...
That sucks. I know subarus are notorious for leaky gaskets. How has your wrangler held up? I always hear horror stories about jeeps, but my dad had a 92 jeep Cherokee he bought brand new and it's still alive and kicking well. Although these renegades are made in Italy and I've heard bad things about fiats. Overall I think American cars are undervalued and underappreciated in today's markets though
Our Wrangler was not so good, but it was a long time ago - and the issues it had were small, nothing major. It was the first year of the TJ model (1997) - so I would not tell anything about the quality of the Renegade based on it. From what I know about the modern Fiats, the 500 and Abarth are OK with small things, the 500L had lots of problems initially. The Renegade is on a new platform (same as the 500X) so - no real idea how they will be. I suspect however that it will be less reliable than average, but my gut feeling is that it will mostly be small things, since the drivetrain is pretty well known by now and seems to be robust.
I am a big time believer that Jeep is the best "off-road" vehicle. I own a Jeep Rubicon and absolutely love it! Here is my ride!
Am I a shallow American that I love my "luxury" vehicle. And I love that it has a V8. I hear people talking about wanting to get a fuel efficient car and that is something that NEVER enters my mind at all! After HS for 10 years I drove a straight piece of shit and swore that if I have anything to do with it, that would never happen again. Love that my car has a heated steering wheel and a premium sound system. #sorry
I do not need a V8, but there is nothing bad with having one. My main thing in cars is usually more handling and lightness over power, and I must have a manual transmission - but for a daily driver, I have no problem with smoothness and a bit of comfort. I like the inline-6 in my Lexus - as it has harmonic primary and secondary smoothness - so no need for balancers as other big engine types need. As for fuel economy - nothing bad with this, but it is not the primary thing I care about. Coming back to the Renegade, if we get one - this will be my wife's new car - and her goals are comfort, big enough to carry all 4 in the family + dog but not so big that it is hard to get around - and she does like efficient vehicles. I think I persuaded her to wait at least one more generation before committing to an electric vehicle - and I personally would like something that adds something to our fleet that we do not have. I had 3 real Jeeps in the past, a CJ3, a CJ6 and an early TJ. I like them a lot - but for the amount of serious off-roading I do, I do not need to own one. I can just rent one for around $120/day - which I do maybe once a year for a couple of days. I just want something that will have enough ground-clearance and AWD to get through the sand and somewhat rougher roads to the trail-heads in the desert. A Wrangler is an overkill for this - and at the end of the day, you need to live with a Wrangler - which my wife really does not want to do.
Yep. Totally looks like a Kia. But I love the rat commercials, so that's a positive. It's so unexpected - "well, what if we had rats driving the car? That would make people buy them, right?" On the other hand, I rented a Kia once, many years ago, and it was a major piece of shit. Maybe they've improved the quality? barfo
Saw this at the Portland auto show today. Looks awesome and is pretty nice on the inside (wife actually got inside even though they had it off limits). I think we are going with a new impreza instead though
