While buying used the resale value is consideration from buying end as well. You end up paying higher to buy. The Toyota and Honda are very "desi" safe choice and are great cars but so is Hyundai and a lot of other makes. In fact whatever you choose, as long as you stay away from Jeep Patriot and Compass, you will be fine long term. All SUVs in that class are competitive. Technically, the Santa Fe is a class higher than CRV and RAV4, Hyundai Tucson is in the same class.

Hyundai and Kia have come up a long way in terms of offering capable cars in the NA market. I bought a new Kia Sorento 5 years back as it fulfilled all my requirements and the other competing offerings were either out of my budget or, I felt those were bloated in terms of price. 55,500 miles later, I am a very satisfied customer. I have changed a set of tires close to 50,000 miles and have done nothing other than regular maintenance. I have done several long drives as we like to go for short weekend breaks somewhere in 200 miles radius (one of the benefits of living in CA!).

I have test driven several other Kia and Hyundai cars as rental cars and have no complaint about any of those. My wife's next upgrade (from her Corolla) will most probably be a Cadenza.

Thanks for all the suggestions - after driving used CS-5, RAV 4 and CRV, I took the plunge with a 2015 Santa Fe, 1 owner clean carfax vehicle. End of the day chose a vehicle that I was happy to sit in and drive, rather than thinking only resale - after all that's what we do at team-bhp !!

As mentioned I felt Santa Fe to be more spacious, luxurious and a good place to be in while driving, compared lot of the other cars I drove. The biggest attraction is the 100000 miles mileage warranty they are giving - which should hopefully make life bit less worrisome. Also in typical Hyundai fashion vehicle is fully loaded !!

I intend to keep it for as long as possible - thanks for all the help and will keep everybody updated if something interesting comes up.

I recently relocated to Cleveland, OH and looking to connect with any T-Bhpian in this area. I need some assistance with buying a car.

The way a car purchase works here is very new to me. I need some help.

Feel free to connect with me. You can send me a message and I will share my contact details.

Thanks

Himanshu

Thanks Himanshu,
I know this might sound dumb, but I am not able to figure out how to message you my contact details.

If you are able to see my email address, please drop me an email, I will share my contact details. Thanks

Saw this thread now, sorry for the late response.
I use a Beltronics RX65 (Blue LED Display - Paid a premium for the blue color), and found this to be absolutely useless and not dependable. It gives the alerts at times, but you cannot count on that. On my Boston to Albany trip, I had a very narrow escape from a cop who was using laser gun. He pulled over the car in front of me , both of use were doing 85 MPH.

I had set up a holder below my rear view mirror in my Acura MDX and used mirror tap to power it so that no other wired connections are required - please see pic attached. Spent additional $$$ on all these, but RX65 was a useless investment. Please don't by this product.

After months of search, I finally got a Honda Accord Sport with Honda Sensing for an incredible deal of $21,500 plus ~$900 for accessories. Got the auto loan approved for 0.9% for 5 years from Honda Finance.

Yeah, as far as the research I did on radar detectors go, what they say is "either get the best or don't get anything". Escort's Passport series and the Valentine One are considered the best 2 options out there. I would highly recommend them both.

I really like the setup for mounting the detector on your car. Clean and stealthy.

Awesome deal. Is that the 6 speed manual?

No, got a CVT. Would have got the manual but got the long drives here, CVT although manual would've been more fun. This has the paddle shifters though.

I shared my contact details in the message. You should have received a message. Please do let me know in case you still did not get it.

regards

Himanshu

hey Guys, Need to buy something for my Kid here in Calgary. STI is on his shopping list but I have no experience with these cars, prices of these are around same as for some other cars that I checked like TLX- Tech ( 4 cylinder) or Sante Fe and we can budget little higher to include 428 / X3 as well.
What will be your advice.

Definitely STI! 428 is a powerless decent-handling car with a BMW badge, it's usually bought for BMW comforts (iDrive etc) and looks by people who don't care much about the driving experience. 435 is a different story though. (I should know, I own a 328 myself . I didn't buy it for those reasons but I'm not the average buyer).

STI is the best value for an enthusiast in my opinion. It's only manual transmission. If you are ok with driving manual transmission, it's the best driving car you can get that's not a Corvette-level sports car. Just my opinion.

Consider the regular WRX too. It's pretty good. Subarus should be more reliable than German brands.

Also since you mentioned 428 I'm assuming you're ok with a coupe, so definitely test drive a Mustang GT. The new ones handle great.

Another fun car to consider is Golf R. I'll probably buy one next year.

Leftover new 2015 Evos'. The last of the legend.


http://jalopnik.com/the-mitsubishi-l...bye-1785349421

Can find new 2015 base models for 30k.