Smallish SUV Shopping

With baby #2 arriving within weeks, we are thinking about shuffling the rides. Wife wants a higher room for ease of baby insertion to the vehicle. We were thinking of just replacing the Legacy (11 yr ownership, almost nothing has broken ever) with a Forester. But here in the SF Bay Area Foresters hold their value so much they become more expensive than 'luxury' SUVs. So maybe we will step to something slightly nicer. Used, under $20K. My considerations: Must be AWD otherwise why even get a SUV?

VW Tauoreg - sorta meh, except for the Type R appearance package. I like that one. Smallish but upside of agility and GTIness. Is the rear seat/door access too small? Is the actual storage behind seats too small?

Q5 - nice ride, might be too wide for our parking spot. Gas mileage is not stellar, around town the 2.0T and V6 appear similar, but I would lean towards 2.0T since it gets decent highway mileage. But if the V6 vs 2.0 is not much different in the real world, the V6s are possible because less expensive.

Mercedes GLK 350 - these are really affordable for a nice ride. Perfect size in my book, but... holy crap the gas mileage sucks. 16mpg city, that means 12 on a bad day. My 71 Monte Carlo got better mileage. In the big picture it is not about the $$ spent as much as I just feel irresponsible driving a car that gets 22mpg highway. The GLK 250 Diesel gets awesome mileage but cost at least 50-70% more. 

BMW X3 - two categories for me - older I6 with crummier mileage but really good price points vs new xdrive28i (4cyl turbo) with more updates and better mileage. I like the X3 looks and size and could be convinced to pick up a 6cyl for the right price.

Mazda CX5. I like these, my wife is indifferent and would just get the Forester. I am not seeing as many of these in my price range yet.

Honda and Toyota are boring bars of soap, not on the list. Nissan Rogue, not digging weak engine with CVT. Infinity, horrible mileage. Acura RDX, maybe but not sure. Lexus RX, don't know enough. 

Any thoughts on these or other (non miata) recommendations? A Forester XT still might be the right fit, but I want to cover the bases (Outback not a match.) At the moment most driving is in city congestion, but it could change to involve a commute in crappy congested highways. There is a lot of German on that list and I have never owned German before.

(on related side self serving note, a relatively low mileage 68K SVT Focus is also going to hit the market in this process. DM me if interested)

Hive comments requested. Thanks.

I am in the same boat right now.  I have the exact same list going, but I have added some Wagons to it.  BMW 5 series, Volvo v60R, and the VW Jetta wagons.  

My wife does not really care what it is, as long as it goes.  I'll be following along as this develops.   

How old is kid #1 or more importantly what are the car seat needs of #1? 

Clearly, kid #2 will be in a rear facing seat.  Right now that means a seat with a handle but the next step will be a rear facing, high back seat. Try to bring a seat like that with you when you test drive. Some of these seats are enormous and could have a bearing on your automotive decision. 

Had a Forester, didn't get a second one as used prices were absurd.

Wound up with a 2008 Jeep Patriot. Yes, really. 2.4 engine is bulletproof and you can get them with a manual trans, which we did. Purchased at 80,000 miles and now has almost 170,000 on it. Issues have been few:

Wheel bearings (hey, just like a Subaru!)

Driver door window switch cluster (available aftermarket)

Sway bar end links (rattled)

OEM radio (quit working)

Just recently it took a crank sensor (started going into limp mode) which was all of $30 and a intake stepper motor thingy ($120). Aside from tires, brakes, battery that has pretty much been it.

Do avoid models with sunroofs as they always leak. Front ball joints are frequent failures but can be replaced with Moog ones with grease fittings; ours came with them and has never needed replacing. Overall I'm surprised how good of a car it has been, very utilitarian and useful, decent power and mileage comparable to the Subaru. Go up a size on tires for better ride and bigger selection. Super cheap on the used market and I'd buy another one (and probably will). Hoping to keep this one to 200k but starting to get rust on the quarters.

One last thing:  I would not spend the extra for a 4x4 next time. I had a few of these in 2wd form as company vehicles and they were excellent in the snow. 

Thanks for ideas, BTW I realized I spazzed on the VW model. I am looking at Tiguans not Toureg. We do want AWD so we can got to the mountains in winter, so the 2wd won't pass the road inspections they do in bad weather. 

My opinion now with my two girls being 3 and 7 once you go to two kids you really need to be thinking minivan. Sliding doors is a huge difference for lugging kids in and out of the car. We were test driving Honda Pilots etc and then happened to just go look at an Odyssey on the same lot and could not go back to the SUV.

And now with 4 years of van ownership its the one vehicle we absolutely will not exchange for something else for the foreseeable future. It's not sporty but the 3.5l v6 actually has some pickup when you are not super loaded down and it rides and drives quite nice for long trips I don't mind driving it at all.

Also for reference my friend with a 4yr old just traded in their nissan rogue for an odyssey the rogue was really too small even with 1 kid for family duty vs occasional kid hauling DD.

And as another data point our other car is a "full size" sedan because I needed room for 2 car seats one rear facing in my daily. I shopped accord/avalon/es300 etc and ended up with a used diesel e350 mercedes. MPG wise its been great as I average 30mpg but it has had a couple expensive repairs. But space wise this is larger in backseat than I think all of the models you listed above and its really a tough choice on longer trips between the van and the merc. Merc is more fun for me and better mpg but that extra space between the two kids in the van helps them not piss eachother off.

If you kept your current legacy for 11years you are the type that wants to think long term. I think a small SUV you will outgrow quickly unless you are really ok with the shortcomings. Also if AWD is important to you the Toyota Sienna is available with it if I recall correctly

Make sure you bring car seat or car seats with you when looking at cars. Especially the baby carrier and put them in the back with where you want to have your seat for comfort. Also in many cars putting the baby carrier in the middle means issues with fitting the other car seat and also lifting the infant carrier into the middle from the door can be a burden

Also power sliding doors are a godsend once your kids are 2-3+ because you just hit the button and they go climb into their carseats on their own without worrying about them slamming your car doors into the car next to you in a parking lot

In reply to GTwannaB :

With 2 kids, there's way to much German on that list.  You should be saving for college not paying for the German car version of "maintenance" aka low mean time between failure of stupid things...  I got tired of paying labor rates of $160/hr at the independent shops when I owned my Mini.  I'm in SF Bay as well.  I especially love how auto transmissions don't require any maintenance and have "lifetime" fluids (lifetime = length of warranty)

I like the Mazda.  It's one of the few nice driving utes, gets good gas mileage and is reliable.  Nice looking too IMO.

I like the Infiniti but the MPG is mediocre as you mentioned.  

Have you thought about Ford or GM?  I've driven my neighbors Ford Escape and it's pretty cool and is available with the ecoboost engine.  I've always thought the Flex would make a cool family car as well.  I've also driven the Chevy Equinox as a rental and was surprised that I actually enjoyed it.

We have a Forester, 69000 miles so far, no trouble but I do think the rear wheel bearings are starting to whine slightly.  The stock brakes are feeble; I put on a set of Hawk HPS's and that really improved initial bite.

Of your list, the only car we cross-shopped was the Mazda.  We didn't like it because of poor visibility from the drivers' seat.  

In reply to Jaynen :

So the 'small's aspect is a logistical necessity. Has to fit through garage door and not big parking spot plus parking blows in SF. 

Our odyssey fits in the garage, and the backup camera and short van nose actually makes it pretty easy to parallel park.

You could try a Mazda5, just once you see how crappy most SUVs make use of space vs a van as a parent its hard to give it up.

Our biggest issue when shopping SUVs was the lack of space behind the rear seats.

I currently have a buick encore rental. Has enough room for 4 full size adults, but 2 kids would be pushing it for the available space. My wife's mazda5 is much better at that. The buick is much better at ride, nvh, options, etc.

what about the swedes? The XC70 and 90 are not bad

What about a Mazda5? More utility than all the SUVs that you mention, yet significantly more compact than other minivans.

I have a CX5 - I like it a lot more than I thought I would, but it is sorta gutless and with the AWD the fuel economy isn't as good as I expected. But very well sprung and damped. For example, on a cloverleaf onramp you feel limited by tire grip, not by the fact that you feel like you're going to roll over or that it's wallowing like a Town Car.

Peppier and better feeling though than my mom's 2.4 Tigershark Cherokee though.

I have an '04 Forester XT for sale, so I'll just leave this here.

Located south of you in the LA area.

Tuscon/Sportage.  Both available with the 2.0T engine.