Comparison Tests
From the June 2013 Issue of Car and DriverTESTED
Forgive this observation, but most modern compact SUVs have all the personality of an escalator. And they’re all pretty much the same escalator, as the genre has recently coalesced around a single approach. After years of experimentation that brought us everything from the Suzuki X-90 to the Isuzu Amigo, items such as transfer cases, V-6 engines, softtops, and three-door models are all as out as, well, Suzuki and Isuzu. Gone, also, is any semblance of truckishness. Even with their optional all-wheel-drive systems, these jacked-up unibody wagons now make no pretense of any real off-road ability.
But for all the conformity, the car industry is clearly giving buyers what they want. Small crossovers are now one of the market’s fastest-growing segments. Only Mazda seems intent on subverting the compact-crossover template by building one that’s actually fun to drive. We singled out the then-new CX-5 in a six-model comparison test last year [“The Minors,” September 2012], proclaiming it enthusiast-primed despite a 155-hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder that left it last in acceleration tests. Our esteem for the 2013 CX-5 came from its handling, but for the 2014 model year a new 2.5-liter four-cylinder making 184 horsepower comes standard in all but the base trim.
If an extra 29 ponies for the favorite were not reason enough to stage a new comparo, Toyota’s long-awaited revision of the RAV4 would have been. The old model dated to 2005 and reflected an era in which it was permissible to mount a spare tire on the side-hinged rear door of your compact utility. Actually, it wasn’t, but Toyota did it anyway, part of its throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks strategy. The 2013 RAV4, however, is a thoroughly modern adherent to the paradigm, with only its 2.5-liter, 176-hp four carried over from before. Gone is the useless third row, but also the much-loved 269-hp V-6. At least the old four- and five-speed automatics have been sacrificed in the name of continuous improvement; the new RAV4 features a six-speed.
If only the other fresh entry, the 2014 Subaru Forester, were so lucky. Saddled with a continuously variable transmission as its only automatic, the slightly larger and more refined Forester can also be had with a six-speed manual in lesser trim levels, but only with the 170-hp 2.5-liter four. (An optional, turbocharged 2.0-liter offers an 80-hp upgrade.) While we might have preferred to forgo the leather upholstery and other amenities to get the stick in our test vehicle, that would have dropped the sticker well below the others, as well as our $30,000 target.
Instead, our Forester 2.5i Touring tester overshot at an all-grown-up-now $33,220, outpricing the others thanks to a $2400 package that includes remote start, adaptive cruise control, and collision-braking and lane-departure-warning systems. The CX-5 Grand Touring AWD was next at $31,890, bringing a $1625 Technology package with keyless entry, navigation, and adaptive HID headlights. The bargain of the group was the RAV4 XLE AWD. With the $1030 Display Audio with Navigation and Entune package, it stickered at just $27,565 but lacked features such as seat heaters, power adjustment, and leather.
We chose the snaking roads around northern Michigan’s Au Sable River for our driving. The state’s longest river runs for 138 miles through the Huron National Forest, an area that was once the province of lumberjacks, river rats, and other he-men of the 19th century. Like our test subjects, the Au Sable’s sandy banks have become more civilized, now home to pastimes such as canoeing and kayaking and, for those whose sense of adventure extends about as far as getting out of bed in the morning, tubing. Even in winter, when it’s crisscrossed with ski trails, it’s an environment that echoes the outdoorsy “active-lifestyle” marketing for these little two-box trucklets, whether those who buy them partake or not.
