Mike, have you seen the interior of the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus? It positively oozes upscale.

 

Isn't the Macan a sister to the Q5? At least in base format they both use the 2.0 EA888 and 7 speed DCT, so I'm surprised there is a reliability issue. The 2.0T/DSG is pretty solid.

 

John, she wants zero to do with anything domestic. Given her family's history of having domestic cars darn near kill them when they fail (rollovers, fires, had a wheel fall off an otherwise well-maintained saturn) I get it.

Lego, they do share the underpinnings with the Q5 which I thought was interesting, but looking deeper into the MLB platform it's basically the firewall and engine mount locations that are the same. I was kinda excited at first that I could maybe swap on Porsche parts when she wasn't looking, but no...

 

Hyundai santa Cruz? to me looks closer to an el camino than a regular pickup truck. If you didn't rule out domestics i was gonna suggest the blazer. Hated it when it first came out but its grown on me. Can't compare it to the k5 blazers but compared to the bubble body they had in the early 2000s it looks pretty good

 

A friend has a Santa Fe and we've driven it. Did not like. Value for money I suppose. Santa Cruz looks a LOT like the Maverick, and she's not interested in anything open-bed. What we usually transport is kid gear (riding stuff/saddle etc) or luggage that can't be exposed to the elements.

We've gone back and forth over this and she's adamant the only thing that makes sense is a crossover, and I agree. There's a reason that market segment is popular. Otherwise... I'd be urging her to get another Mini Cooper since she loved hers so much, especially now that they have a Cooper in a 4-door (as opposed to the Clubman or Countryman).

 

I don't know if you'd be interested in something older but what about the fx50 or qx70 with the 5.0. Gas mileage isn't the greatest but I've heard the 5.0 is pretty solid and one of the few good looking crossovers I've seen. Always been a fan of the wagon body style but no brand uses that term anymore.

 

I like the FX body style a lot, but the point is replacing a 2015 vehicle with 140k with something new or at most 1 year old, since we're probably not buying her another car for 10+ years.

 

Yeah. You could probably find one with really low mileage but its gonna cost and is it worth it when you could get something newer for the same price? Probably not unless you were really set on that particular car

 

Tech is soooooooooo dated.

I think about this ultra low mileage X many year old car idea all the time. Come back to them just being so dated. While I'm not ready for a self driving EV, I'd want carplay, adaptive cruise, BSM, etc without having to hack up the head unit or some crazy retrofit. If you don't care about that kinda stuff, an FX50 would be sweet AF.

 

I can't recall - are the FX models FWD/transverse engine or RWD?

If RWD - finding a wrecked FX50 for the engine, harness, and ECU might be an interesting G37 swap.

 

The fx50s I've seen are awd. Probably rear bias like the g37 though.

 

Wonder how well the engine mounts line up with the VQ...

NOPE. Note to self: I don't have time to drive the thing much less a deep mod like this.

 

Some of the fx series had vq37. Also vq35 and vk45. Transmission is a stronger version of the 7 speed, also used in the m56 i think. Wiring I'm not sure. If my engine blew I'd be tempted to try it.

 

Picking this up this week. 2021 CX-5 GT. A bit over 9 years with my G, but it's definitely showing its age now. It definitely treated me well over the last 9 years, it just worked. Good at everything but not really great at much.

 

Very pretty color. Excellent pics. Congrats!