Help me find an SUV that has great head room

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by Soccernerd

Kia Telluride.

A wee bit over the 15 grand limit.

Originally Posted by craigiri

The new Kia Soul has great headroom - great back seat room - AND, great trunk space. I would say it's a station wagon or "SUV" in every sense except......well, except maybe branding.

I use "hatchback" myself to describe vehicles (many which might be called CUV) where the back seat head rests are just about right against the rear window!

I would have probably bought the Soul if I didn't go for the Sportwagen. The only little complaint I had with it was the same with Honda and many other cars - the passenger seats have no height adjustment.

This is an amazing oversight when you think about it....anyone with short spouses pretty much ends up with an unhappy mate....looking at the dashboard or through the warped part of the bottom of the windshield.

It would probably cost them less than $10 to have a manual seat height adjustment..and maybe $20 for a power. It shows you the truth of how the bean-counters in these companies think....even $1 for them to take out important features.

Second the Soul. Try one out, you can find a new one or a leftover '19 for not a lot more than your 15 grand limit.

Originally Posted by easy62

Get a Chevy suburban, plenty of headroom and legroom.

Probably a bit over the 15 grand limit.

[craigiri]

Originally Posted by rstevens62

The salesperson and manager made me a little upset though, so Im not sure I want to buy the XB from them, they gave me a hard time when I told them I have my own financing squared away, they said, well, if you have a pre approval, you will need a purchase order to be created, and the car could sell in the time it takes to do that!! LOL Seriously? I couldnt believe they told me that!!

We just had an amazing hard time buying a car with cash at the asking price listed by the dealer (the asking price was a good price according to KBB and Edmunds).....

Being a business guy i did understand the situation....my wife got angry, but I was patient. The truth of the matter is this - dealers cannot make money any longer on many (maybe most?) new cars. Profit margins on big ticket items are usually from 10% to 30% PLUS. We actually averaged higher when we sold fairly higher end big ticket stuff.

And so, the only money to be made is in all these various things
Financing
Little fees (doc, etc.)
Optional Accessories if the consumer doesn't make the dealer throw them in free.
Extended warranties of all sort (this is a BIG profit center).
Service after you buy.
Used cars they come by from trade and elsewhere

So a new car dealership is really just a license to get traffic.....many of who will end up creating profit through these and similar methods.

I feel for these dealers.....in a sense, because the whole game is all screwed up. Perhaps in the future things will change. I had hoped that Saturn was the harbinger of the new system (no haggle, etc.)....

[normstad]

Originally Posted by craigiri

We just had an amazing hard time buying a car with cash at the asking price listed by the dealer (the asking price was a good price according to KBB and Edmunds).....

Being a business guy i did understand the situation....my wife got angry, but I was patient. The truth of the matter is this - dealers cannot make money any longer on many (maybe most?) new cars. Profit margins on big ticket items are usually from 10% to 30% PLUS. We actually averaged higher when we sold fairly higher end big ticket stuff.

And so, the only money to be made is in all these various things
Financing
Little fees (doc, etc.)
Optional Accessories if the consumer doesn't make the dealer throw them in free.
Extended warranties of all sort (this is a BIG profit center).
Service after you buy.
Used cars they come by from trade and elsewhere

So a new car dealership is really just a license to get traffic.....many of who will end up creating profit through these and similar methods.

I feel for these dealers.....in a sense, because the whole game is all screwed up. Perhaps in the future things will change. I had hoped that Saturn was the harbinger of the new system (no haggle, etc.)....

I was a general manager at a Toyota dealership. We often sold a new car for little more than $100 over cost, however, by the time we done in the finance office, our average gross profit per unit sold was a lot closer to $2000. If we had a tight deal, but the customer used us for financing and we got a trade-in we could make money on, we would let the car go for that minimal profit.

Secondly, we were anal about getting people back to the service department for maintenance. First of all, it was one of the things the manufacturer audited us on, secondly, it made for satisfied customers, and thirdly, that is where the real profit is made in a dealership. "The fronts for show, the backs for go" is a common meme.

The most important thing was of course to make money, but also to have satisfied customers. We always were in the top ranked dealers in our area in that regard.