Wife is selling her 2003 Nissan Murano on Tuesday (09/08/15) to a friend. We've been working with a Mazda dealer for the past couple of weeks on a GT in Ceramic Silver so hoping to have a new CX3 in the garage within a week.
Have spent the last few weeks testing our several cars. Since our kids and grown and have their own cars, she doesn't need a big vehicle any longer. I have a 2014 VW Passat so if we need to lug some passengers around, we can go in my car.
These are the vehicles we either looked at and/or test drove. Surprising how some of the "small" suvs have grown in size over the past few years.
Mazda CX5 - went to Mazda to see this but she fell in love with the CX3 that was in the showroom. The CX5 wasn't that much smaller than our Murano.
Subaru Crosstrek - peppy little car but she didn't enjoy the cheap interior and the whine of the cvt on agressive driving. This was the car should would have gotten if we didnt test drive the cx3.
Honda HRV - OMG, boring, boring, boring and no "get up and go" and I test drove the manual transmission as well.
Hyundai Tucson - grew in size and pretty much close to our Murano but very, very nice looking inside and out.
Nissan Rogue - we parked our Murano side by side with the Rogue and it was higher and longer....wtf....and the drive was sluggish and boat feeling.
She didn't like the Rav 4 or the Ford Escape so we didn't even bother.
The CX3 was fun to drive, the interior was extremely nice for a car in this class. The rear passenger space was a little snug but thats ok because we relly wont be hauling people around.
In this segment, IMO, nothing looks hotter than a GT CX3 and drives as good.