I am bored and want to go up in comfort and spaciousness

[stealthytolkien]

I know the forum that I am on. And I trust the community to be open minded so I am bringing my question here.

I am a little bored of my 2021 Mach-E GT Performance Edition and need something more in terms of spaciousness, ride height, ground clearance, a couple of more features, and ride comfort. The roof line and overall height of the car is proving to be a bit of a hassle, especially for second row seats / getting the child buckled in without his or my head hitting the roof line! The second row legroom isn’t bad. But it isn’t great for tall people either.

I am very fond of the car but she does sacrifice some driving comfort for being beastly fast and sporty despite having an adaptive suspension. My car is quite young at just 12k miles and looks like it just came out of the showroom. I am very proud of the way I’ve maintained it. However, I am starting my search for the next car. I have a 35k cash offer today so I am just doing my evaluation (keep or sell).

I don’t want anything that’s more than 5.5 seconds for going 0-60 mph (up to a whopping 1.7 seconds slower than GTPE). A 360 camera and front and rear cameras and parking sensors and radar are a must have. I don’t care whether it is an electric car or not.

If you were in my situation, what would you get? I don’t want a Ford F150 Lightening. Tesla X second row was cramped and doesn’t have many basic safety features so they’re probably out, too.

The only vehicles that checked almost all the boxes are EV9 (all boxes except no built in dash), R1S (dealbreaker was cramped second row leg room and absolutely garbage in house speaker systems they fit in now), 2024 Santa Fe (terrible looking backside), 2024 GLE, and 2024 X7, the last two being heavy maintenance German white elephants.

Again remember, we are talking a big and tall family so what you consider normal spacious, I may not.

What would you do/choose?

Please, for the sake of everyone’s sanity and well being, keep your replies respectful and kind. No personal attacks. Disagreements are fine.

EDIT: A good two days worth of discussion. Lots of vehicles suggested. Some gasoline. Some electric, but overall, as everyone knows, there’s no perfect car out there. As we debated which one would be a good fit and why, it’s generated close to 8 pages of content in just two days and yet again shows us how incredible Ford’s Mach-E is. Yes, for very tall families, it may be a bit cramped, but all things considered, in this segment, if you leave Tesla out for a minute, it’s quite the crossover Ford has created isn’t it?

I’ll continue my search but for now, given how rapidly we are witnessing change, I am going to hold off till Q4 2024 and see what 2025 brings and then pull the trigger.

My current option when it comes to price to value in terms of space ride height comfort safety features range etc. is, and I cannot believe I am saying this, a Kia EV9 costing about $72k OTD for their loaded version and about $900 a month for a 3 year lease with $0 down. So about the same as what top Mach E trim (a much smaller 5 seater crossover) cost about 2.5 years ago, showing how fast this is all going. Not a lot of options other than that that I have found truly compelling.

Thanks everyone for participating. Let’s wrap this up.

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[kennethjk]

Have you thought about an IX 50

looks can be polarizing to some

Excellent range, extremely comfortable with air suspension, more room in the rear, not much more overall room in the trunk, no frunk, excellent discounts, extremely low money factor on leases, at least I think they still are

 

[stealthytolkien]

Have you thought about an IX 50

looks can be polarizing to some

Excellent range, extremely comfortable with air suspension, more room in the rear, not much more overall room in the trunk, no frunk, excellent discounts, extremely low money factor on leases, at least I think they still are

I drove the iX and while it was quite serene and spacious, I just couldn’t get myself well positioned in the front seat with my rather long legs and overall bigger stature lol. The second row was roomy and the whole car, while being the ugliest car I have ever seen in my entire life, drove quite well. The infotainment was just a hodgepodge of options but at least the audio sounded great. Range is decent too. Maybe I’ll go test drive it once more. Many low mile used ones out there too which gives me a bit of a pause for concern.

 

[rreddy3]

May not check 0-60 box, but, check out Mazda CX90 3 row and CX70 2 row. Essentially a cx 90 w/ facia lightly restyled and wirhout 3d. Humongous, about 202”
long, wb about 119 I think. Plenty tall. We have a 21 Mazda 3 sedan premium trim normally aspirated w/ AWD. That car is Fun with a capital F. I love the way its ICE 2.5 spins up and gets on the power curve at around 3500 rpm give or take. I like it so much I was waiting for the cx 70 to possibly replace the 20 Acura RDX Advance I had. But, for me the 70 was a let down because I didn’t want anything that large. Mid we had gotten the euro and rest of the world CX 60 that could have been the car for. It’s the 90s 3/4 scale, more or less, little sibling. As much as I’m enjoying the MME, I think Mazda’s are pretty awesome. And the dealer experience, at least at Safford-Brown in Chantilly, VA is super, or has been for us. Way way way better than ford or acura dealer experience. That said, the ford sales guy I had was very good and I’m happy with the deal we cut. Problem w/ ford and Acura is when you do the dance with the finance guy since they’ve become tasked to be profit centers trying to sell a bunch of crap you don’t want or need. After trading the acura I only paid 12,500 more for the mme and since ford was kind enough to be handing out free zero % interest money, I took their money and kept mine parked. Nonetheless you’re stuck with the finance guy dance. What a PITA. You might consider acura mdx. Acuras are good cars. They have all the honda goodness in a fancier dress.
I apologize for typos and any crazy autocorrect spelling but I’m not inclined to proof read this. Do yourself a favor and check out the Mazdas.

 

[kennethjk]

I drove the iX and while it was quite serene and spacious, I just couldn’t get myself well positioned in the front seat with my rather long legs and overall bigger stature lol. The second row was roomy and the whole car, while being the ugliest car I have ever seen in my entire life, drove quite well. The infotainment was just a hodgepodge of options but at least the audio sounded great. Range is decent too. Maybe I’ll go test drive it once more. Many low mile used ones out there too which gives me a bit of a pause for concern.

Having 1 I don’t think it’s the ugliest but it’s def not a beauty

I drove it to NY from Fl. 2 weeks ago and can tell you driving it is a dream, having the professional driving package the Blue cruise equivalent is much better than BC

you get used to all the non buttons pretty quickly but I get it’s not for everyone

charging is quicker than the Mach E, range is great around 350 with right conditions

leasing was pretty good (interest rate under 1%) and BMW outside of NY has a program where you can put down a refundable deposit up to 5 or 6 payments and it reduces you monthly payments considerably. I put down a $6k refundable deposit and saved $60 a month for the term of the lease.

also they were giving 9900 off and another 10-11 % off on the car

 

[phil]

Genesis GV70. Electric or not.

 

[generaltso]

EV9 GT-Line. There’s currently $7500 cash on the hood, and a lot of dealers are pitching in another $5000+. I‘m strongly considering one myself.

 

[smhenn]

Based on your list I would drive the EV9 or the R1S. I think both of these cars looks amazing, though I'd opt for a high end Kia vs a low end R1S. I think Kia really hit the mark on the EV9. Can't wait to see the GT Line in person. I thought the new Santa Fe exterior would be nice until I saw it in person.

 

[hybrid2bev]

We love our Explorer ST as a second car. Twin turbo V-6 is good for 400 horsepower. It’s just as fast as my MME 4X at about 5 seconds 0-60. Goes 500+ miles per tank so that makes for easy road trips. Smooth and comfortable ride. It has adaptive cruise and lane centering so it’s almost like hands on BlueCruise. Three rows of seating, lots of cargo room.

 

[smhenn]

We love our Explorer ST as a second car. Twin turbo V-6 is good for 400 horsepower. It’s just as fast as my MME 4X at about 5 seconds 0-60. Goes 500+ miles per tank so that makes for easy road trips. Smooth and comfortable ride. It has adaptive cruise and lane centering so it’s almost like hands on BlueCruise. Three rows of seating, lots of cargo room.

Ugh, a Ford. Lol.

 

[ArthurDOB]

Please, for the sake of everyone’s sanity and well being, keep your replies respectful and kind. No personal attacks. Disagreements are fine.

This should be everyone's default. Unfortunately, it's not.

 

[ARK]

That's a very wide net you've thrown between the Hyundai Santa Fe and the BMW X7. If you're focus is on spaciousness and a comfortable ride, and your budget is going $80K+, I think you should add the Lincoln Navigator and Cadillac Escalade to your consideration, or a well-optioned Ford Expedition, GMC Yukon, or Chevy Tahoe.

 

[4sallypat]

Volvo EX30 or Cadillac Lyriq for comfort EVs.

 

[dbsb3233]

I am a little bored of my 2021 Mach-E GT Performance Edition and need something more in terms of spaciousness, ride height, ground clearance, a couple of more features, and ride comfort. The roof line and overall height of the car is proving to be a bit of a hassle, especially for second row seats / getting the child buckled in without his or my head hitting the roof line! The second row legroom isn’t bad. But it isn’t great for tall people either.

I have similar tastes. The Mach-E has been great, but ideally I prefer a taller vehicle. And a truer SUV shape that sits higher and has more storage, and is easier to get in/out of the back seat. At the time, the Mach-E was the closest thing available in an EV, but made up for it with cool style. But the ride is the one significant disappointment. It's fine on smooth roads (highways), but can be stiff and jarring on imperfect city streets.

64" height (MME) is about my bare minimum. 70" would be perfect for my tastes. That's what our Bronco Sport is. It's also got a better ride. I would have loved an EV version of the Bronco Sport, or even a PHEV, but alas, none yet.

If I were starting from scratch, the EV9 would be my first test drive today. In 2 years, the Rivian R2 would be. $80k is too much, but EV9 and R2 could be in range.

 

[Mach1E]

We love our Explorer ST as a second car. Twin turbo V-6 is good for 400 horsepower. It’s just as fast as my MME 4X at about 5 seconds 0-60. Goes 500+ miles per tank so that makes for easy road trips. Smooth and comfortable ride. It has adaptive cruise and lane centering so it’s almost like hands on BlueCruise. Three rows of seating, lots of cargo room.

Same for our Lincoln Aviator. Same vehicle basically as the Explorer ST but slightly larger and more comfortable (but less sporty).

If going EV again, R1S seems to check all the boxes.

My wife’s Aviator does 0-60 in 5.3 and is definitely way more comfortable than my GTPE…….. but in terms of “fun to drive,” it’s not even remotely close.

I prefer driving my car for everything but long road trips.

I honestly don’t think I could go back to a gas car. Every time the transmission shifts I feel like a bobblehead.

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