Since I now have to drive 50+ miles to work my husband wanted to buy a new car so I could drive that instead of my Prius when the weather isn't so good. Saturday we bought a Subaru Outback and so far I love it. He's driving the Prius so in the spring we'll switch. He said when we were in Maine about every third car was a Subaru and that spoke to him.

The first car I ever drove was a Subaru. They are known for reliability and the owners develop a sort of cult like devotion to them. They also seem to hold their value pretty well. Congrats on the new ride!

Excellent car - very highly rated by Consumer Reports. Brother lives in Maine, and yes they own one.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests the cars, and the Outback for the past 3 years has received the highest rating, and the "Top Safety Pick To qualify for 2017 TOP SAFETY PICK+, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the five crashworthiness tests, an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention and an acceptable or good headlight rating.

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/subaru/outback-4-door-wagon

Congrats, you have a winner!

I have a 2008 Subaru that I've had for 7 years and I love it. It gets great gas mileage, has AWD, and I put studded snow tires on it in the winter since we live in the mountains. I feel safer in my car than in our truck. It has no problems going anywhere.

My folks just bought a brand new Outback the day after Thanksgiving and so far they really like it. They had to take it over the mountain passes two weekends ago. Dad was a little apprehensive because it was snowing hard and being a new car, he didn't know how it would handle. He said he had no problem and is much more confident in it now and feels like my mom will be safe when she's driving.

When I purchase another vehicle, I will most likely get another Subaru.

I just bought a Subaru legacy. I had always done fine in snow with small front-wheel drive cars, but then my husband bought a Forester and I discovered a whole new level of good handling in bad conditions. And yes, about every third car here is a Subaru!

Bought my daughter her first car, a Subaru Forester last year. Great, great vehicle. It has excellent visibility (she's not a tall person) and gets great gas mileage. The first time it snowed (about 6 inches on an inclined driveway) I went out to shovel off the driveway and her car was sitting there. I thought, "Might as well find out, I'm going to be shoveling anyway and shoveling out a stuck car isn't going to change that much." It went right to the top without a pause, no groaning, no wheel spin, it just puttered away.

You see them in the paper with 200,000 or 300,000 miles in Colorado and people buy them.

Skittles, the ONLY negative thing I've heard were 2 Subaru owners discussing their 10 year old cars. They wanted to get new ones, but could not think of a reason for trading in the ones they had.

I LOVE this car. Obviously prefer the gas mileage of the Prius, but with the 4 cylinder I'm getting pretty good gas mileage.

Ken, I'm certainly not a tall person either and can see very well. Hopefully won't have to drive in 6 inches of snow, but you never know. That's one of the reason we bought the car.

My daughter is driving my old Subaru Outback. It's a 2001 with only about 80,000 miles on it but besides regular wear and tear type of stuff, we haven't had any issues. That thing just plows its way through the snow so I feel very comfortable with my daughter driving it.

Does anyone have experience with Jeeps? I am looking at getting a new SUV, and I like the Jeep Renegade. I've never owned a Jeep, so I don't know if they are any good.

Jeeps are great. I have a Very old, very reliable, very comfortable Grand Cherokee.

I love driving a jeep. Rented one for a while. don't like the gas mileage.

rented a Renegade for a week at a conference once...gas mileage was horrible...ride was horrible...seats were not comfortable, can't imagine taking a cross country trip in it and being able to walk after...

I suggest renting one for a few days and seeing how you like it.

Owned several over the years and have a garage full of Wranglers now. Love 'em.

I recommend doing your homework. I've worked with people that have had nothing but problems with their Jeeps, but not sure of the model.

In terms of reliability, Jeeps are not rated very high by the entities that do that sort of thing (Consumer Reports, JD Power, etc). But the people that own Jeeps seem to love them.

Agree with Justin Case; Over the last few years I've read and heard terrible reviews of Jeep's reliability.
But that said, I'd love to have a Wrangler Unlimited to take the kids to the beach and just have some fun with.
I want one of these custom Wranglers from Starwood Motors :drool:

http://inventory.starwoodmotors.com/web/...s/All_vehicles/

my sister and BIL have 2 Jeeps, and old CJ5 and CJ7, but neither are daily drivers. they are weekend use, one is stripped down and used for desert fun (the live in Arizona), other is for trail driving.

I've had a Wrangler and a Grand Cherokee. The Wrangler I didn't have any issues with. The Grand Cherokee only one minor repair. I enjoyed both of those. I don't have any experience with the Renegade, but the Renegade is based on a Fiat platform if I recall correctly.

It is. I'm looking for a small SUV with good gas mileage. I know jeeps have a reputation of being poor on mpg, but I thought the renegade might be different due its size.

We have a Jeep Patriot. It can be driven in 2 wheel drive or be switched to 4 wheel drive. I get great gas mileage in 2wd and ok in 4 wd. Nice suv for the price. Put snow tires on and goes great in winter. We also had an older jeep grand Cherokee. That would go through any type of snow.

Honda CR-v...mine has 260,000 miles and still going strong, 34 MPG hwy, about 28/29 combined.

My oldest daughter's first car was a Cherokee. It was a tank. That proved to be good because she ran into several things with it.

My best friend, a meticulous shopper, was looking for a small SUV a few years ago and crossed the Compass off her list after consulting Consumer Reports.

I have a 2013 Toyota Highlander and I love it. Small SUV, good gas mileage and I have never had an issue with it - knock on wood. My husband has a 2003 Toyota 4 runner and it is a great vehicle also. Just a little larger than the Highlander.

A friend of mine who works at a Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler/Fiat dealership has a 2014 Compass and it has been pretty reliable so far but it feels very cheap. The interior is pretty cramped, lots of hard square plastic components and the 4-cylinder is gutless.