A 5-7 years Forester will worth a few thousands more than Santa Fe. During any time length one will have much more equity in a Subaru.
It really depends on the discount you get upfront. Foresters donât get discounted all that much yet. You can easily get $5k-$7k off on a Santa Fe. You also get more content with the Santa Fe for whatever thatâs worth.
This applies for the Mazda, too. The Signature trim looks like a great value based on MSRP vs. the MB GLC and BMW 3-series. Potential large discounts for the German makes + inflated RV changes the story for leasing, though.
Given that the OP might purchase, though, that, of course, changes the math (although OP also said that he didnât like the seats, soâŚ).
To the OP, since the Lincoln MKC will soon be replaced w/ the Corsair (I think), I do wonder if you could get a good deal on oneâŚ
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Honda Pilot
When lease deals are good, and you donât drive a bunch of miles, why would you want to buy any of these? And worse, lease it then buy it? Oh and I donât care if itâs a cpo etc, just do the math. As long as you get a good lease(usually under 1%, some hate it, I like it) youâll come out ahead leasing.
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Agreed, a good sub 1% lease hacker deal is almost always better that buying, whether new or CPO. The only time this doesnât work is when you drive way too much, past the point of a good lease deals (like 18k, sometimes even 15k drops off the value curve).
I test drove an CX-5 recently, trying to break myself of my BMW love affair. I drove a mazda2 (!!!) for 8 years so certainly no bias here against them.
I was really let down by the tech. Interior felt cheap. Infotainment sucked-you couldnât even scroll through satellite radio stations, safety features on anything but the highest trim were lacking imo. The gridlines on the camera donât even move when you turn the wheel, no parking sensors etc. Iâm shocked this is the car that everyone raves about as a suitable luxury replacement. And the lease price was awful.
I was back at BMW the next day.
My coworkerâs Honda is way more impressive to me. Those cars are NICE inside. I peeked inside a Nissan rogue today in a parking lot and thought the interior looked good on those too and they have a good safety suite.
Old gen Santa Fe, yes but the new gen Santa Fe will hold its value a LOT better.
Still, probably not better than Forester?
MF and residuals are very good for Subaru, you canât go wrong.
I donât disagree with your assessments but I would say that if you wanted to spec an X3 out to have the same features as a top trim CX5, you would be looking at many thousands of dollars difference. At least in terms of MSRP alone.
However, this isnât anything new. Weâve discussed it many times here before - how the lines are becoming more blurred. Jalopnik was asking about this recently too. A top spec Mazda 6 vs a base model Mercedes A class for example.
I also test drove a CX-5 (GT and Signature) and was pretty disappointed with the seats. The leather does not feel like BMW, Audi, etc. This was in terms of comfort, feel, and look. The signature trim was a pretty good comp but then you are close to $40K MSRP.
signature also ONLY comes with dark brown leather seats, which is an odd choice imo
(iâm picky about color)
Brown has been a high-end interior color for a few yrs now, coordinates decently w/ all exterior colors, presumably way lower maintenance than a parchment-colored interior.
yeah but black or gray exists
all black errrrything for me!
Nah, too dour and BMW-like. 
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The closest CX-5 comparable at BMW really is X1, not X3. However X1 is still stop-sale.
Not unloading your current two cars and paying tag/title/tax/doc fees on two cars? Keep the RDX and drive it into ground. Close friend has an early production 2006 RDX from when it first launched, it has 225,000 miles on it and wonât die. That would help the economics.
Go lease your fun: 7500/mi/yr convertible or whatever your summer toy is.
The RDX is a FWD with no safety tech which has become crucial for me after driving the ES on highways.
Agree totally. A 40K X1 (i had one) is way better than a 40K CX-5 (I tried one) imo. And they lease better. No question between the two in my experience.
Only diff of course is incremental costs of having BMW are higher and then everyone thinks youâre rich because you drive a BMW even though they pay more for their car then you doâŚ
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