What is the Best 7 Seat Crossover? Again

I wrote a blog post about 7 seat crossover SUVs in July, 2008 and now I'm writing one again. In the last 11 months a whole new crop of crossovers have appeared, but are any of them better than the Mazda CX-9, the vehicle I chose as the best last time?

First of all I'd like to point out the worst of these crossovers. It's the Mercedes-Benz R-Class, a car that is completely pointless and if it weren't for the BlueTEC diesel version it would have no right to exist. The R-Class has a useless third row seat, not much cargo space, but there are some large parts of it, the length and price are two examples. The next worst of these is the Subaru Tribeca, a car I really wanted to like because I like Subaru's, but it just isn't good. What Subaru did to create this car is take the Outback give it a taller, more curvaceous body, a third row seat, a fancy looking interior, and a few other finishing touches. The problem is that in the process a grille with a giant hole through the middle of it and a rear end that looked like it had already been crashed into made their way onto the car, so Subaru gave the car some plastic surgery and a larger engine to fix these problems, but now it just looks boring and still isn't a match for even that last generation Honda Pilot.

Now that we're done with the truly awful cars we can get onto the good cars. The Volvo XC90 is a good crossover and the first one that was well designed, but after nearly 7 years and the only changes being new engines and a host of new safety features it needs a redesign. Another crossover that's aging now, but is still very good is the Cadillac SRX. The SRX is good to drive, luxurious, fast with the V8, and comfortable, but short on space and about to be replaced by a Saturn Vue based 5 seat crossover. Then there's the BMW X5, which is a very good vehicle that's now available with the best diesel engine sold in North America, but it needs more space to work well as a family vehicle. The Audi Q7 is another good SUV that now has a very good diesel, but the Q7 has less power and more weight which is okay, because diesels have so much torque and there's plenty of power anyway. The Q7 is a very good vehicle, but I'm afraid it's too expensive.

Now for the opposite end of the price scale we have the Suzuki XL-7, a mediocre vehicle, but at a very reasonable price, $25,000 for a base model and just over $30,000 fully loaded. The XL-7 isn't good enough to be the best value of these, but the Hyundai Veracruz isn't much more expensive and gives you a lot more features, quality, safety, performance, and luxury. The Veracruz is a good family vehicle, but not much of a driver's car.

The Ford Flex is one of the new crossovers, but it's essentially a more attractive version of the outgoing Taurus X. The Flex is a very roomy, safe, and comfortable family vehicle that comes loaded with cool technology sure to entertain children for years. Unfortunately there's almost nothing to entertain the driver, because it's too heavy, slow, and reacts too slowly to driver input for it to be fun. The upcoming Lincoln MKT hopes to improve on the Flex's problems. The MKT hopefully will have a slightly firmer suspension, better steering, and less weight, so that it will make the most of the 355hp EcoBoost 3.5L V6.

I still maintain that the Buick Enclave/Chevy Traverse/GMC Acadia/Saturn Outlook are the roomiest and most practical, but I think the Enclave looks too feminine. These crossovers aren't great to drive, but they're more involving than the Ford Flex and have good engines as well as a pretty good suspension setup.

The Honda Pilot, Mazda CX-9, and Toyota Highlander are all great vehicles and the closest competitors of all the vehicles listed so far. Each one has it's own strengths, but the Highlander seems to have the least of these three. The Highlander is everything it should be, but to beat the CX-9 and Pilot it needs to be better to drive and more modern. The Mazda has lots of space and is good to drive, but I no longer think it's the best crossover. I was very wrong about the new Pilot in the July 08' post, because while I still think Honda should have gone for a lower, more car-like look rather than the boxy truck-like style it has, it's actually a very good vehicle. The Pilot is comfortable, safe, well built, good to drive, and has all the technology you will want. That means that the Honda Pilot is the best mainstream 7 seat crossover.

That still leaves the space of best 7 seat crossover still empty and the guiding question unanswered. The best 7 seat crossover is the Acura MDX. The MDX is the first SUV that drives like it's a sport sedan and without a back snapping suspension like the BMW X3 which doesn't even handle that well. The MDX instead achieves this with a all wheel drive system that distributes power, torque, and braking to each wheel independently and active dampers. The MDX therefore will make everybody in the family happy, the driver will enjoy driving it, the passenger will be comfortable and has lots of toys, and the kids have DVD, radio, and more to play with. The MDX has tons of luxury, safety, performance, and plenty of space. In fact the MDX could be the first car I can't find something on to criticize. Well done Honda!

The Government is Destroying the American Auto Industry

With GM and Chrysler both bankrupt and Ford headed for bankruptcy it looks like we could end up with a nationalized auto industry. Chrysler is being bought out by Fiat and the government will relinquish its control over Chrysler, but GM seems to be completely controlled by the government. History has shown that nationalized car companies don't work. British Leyland is known for being a failure and making horrible cars, but when they were founded in 1968 they made some very good cars. The problems began in 1975 when BL was nationalized. Some very good cars like the Jaguar XJ6 and Range Rover were ruined by the cost cutting that destroyed the car. Other cars that could have been good like the Rover SD1, Jaguar XJ-S, and 1980's versions of the Jaguar XJ were ruined because nationalization made the cars horribly built and unreliable.

With GM quality and reliability are already concerns, but governments always want to cut costs and they will with GM. GM will have much less money for engineering, design, parts, and other things important to making cars. The government doesn't know what people want and what they'll buy. I think that leaving much of our auto industry in the hands of the government is a recipe for disaster.

The government is going to horribly damage the auto industry in the U.S. for all companies by introducing the 39 mpg average across fleets by 2016. The idea behind this is to use less oil and pollute less, but that won't be the result of these rules, because our oil consumption is a result of how much we use cars and other machines. The effects of this fuel economy rule will be, much more expensive cars, smaller cars , less safe cars, no more supercars, very slow cars, worse quality, less comfort, and much less space. I think this is the stupidest thing our government has done in decades. Another effect of this will be higher fatality rates, because cars will have lighter weaker structures, less airbags, and less crash avoidance systems. Another problem is that these gas mileage standards will be measured using EPA ratings, which is a system that doesn't work. The EPA ratings give gas mileage rating for the stupid hybrids that are much higher than the cars can actually get and they give diesels the much lower rating than the cars actually get. The EPA ratings for a Volkswagen Jetta TDI are 30mpg city and 41 mpg highway, but the Jetta TDI easily gets 35-38mpg city and 47-50mpg highway. There are lots of people who have families or live and work in places where they need trucks and SUVs, but unless they get 30mpg they won't be allowed. You can't put 3 kids in the back seat of a Honda Insight with luggage for a 600 mile trip and you can't tow a 10,000 pound trailer with an economy car. Governments should quit trying to tell us what to drive, because people will drive what they want and live how they want.