To save time, I'll just point you at the previous post I made about how I look at car shopping. There are spreadsheets of specs, and lots of test drives and reading analysis and reviews. It's a whole big thing, because I'm a huge. nerd, and a huge. car nerd.
Anyway, the goal for my Jeep Grand Cherokee replacement was something that got similar or better fuel economy, had similar interior space, both in terms of passengers and seats-up cargo capacity, still AWD, with adaptive cruise and its safety friends, preferably with a class 2 receiver hitch for my existing bike rack, and not so expensive that even after the trade-in my payments were going to be unpleasant. Diesels were Right Out this time around, which meant that to get the fuel economy I was looking for, I was looking at hybrids, mostly plug-in, as well as all-electrics. Here's the shortlist, along with why they were eliminated. A lot of the eliminations were based on published specs. The paper elimination was more aggressive than I might have been in past years because I definitely went to look at or test drive fewer options than normal due to COVID-19. Basically I only went to the Toyota and Tesla dealers, hence more words about those options.
Plug-in hybrids:
BMW x5 45e (and 40e) - 40e was fairly limited electric-only range, not a lot of them available, would have needed to go CPO. 45e was brand new and 70K.
Volvo XC60 T8 - similarly pricey, limited electric-only range, smaller than the Jeep
Ford Escape Hybrid - newly available, FWD only, probably also too small but I didn't bother checking once I saw it was FWD. I know the Explorer is also available as a hybrid, but the improvement in fuel economy didn't seem that impressive, or it wasn't going to be available, I can't remember which.
Porsche Cayenne hybrid/Audi Q5 hybrid - expensive, smaller than the Jeep, not great electric-only range
Rav4 Prime - I really wanted to like this, because apparently it's pretty quick, basically the closest Toyota gets to "performance" hybrid. The Rav has grown in this most recent generation, but not enough to compete with the Jeep. It feels like a size M, while the Jeep was a size L, and the Highlander felt borderline XL. Also the Rav wasn't actually going to be available in the Plugin Hybrid this year.
Hybrids:
Acura MDX - marginal improvement to fuel economy over non-hybrid, couldn't get the really gorgeous blue color because it was it is only available on the A-Spec, which is a sporty package you can't get with the hybrid drivetrain "because (Acura) reasons". If I'm dropping that kind of coin on a car, I damn well better be able to get the color I want.
Toyota Highlander - all new and significantly better fuel economy for 2020, albeit still not plug-in. Really nice. However, rear seat headroom is not great because of the moonroof and rear AC system impeding. I'm tall, but it's all in my legs, and when I'm sitting in the second row, my head still brushes the headliner, and there's an AC vent about 1.5" away from my forehead. I have a number of friends with a taller torso than me that would have to slouch back there. The panoramic roof helps by eliminating the space they need to put the moonroof when it's open and moving the AC vents, but is only available on the Platinum edition, which is $50K, and that makes it so you can only get it as a 7 passenger (2 captain's chairs in second row). Since the third row isn't really great for adults, I ended up being sorta ambivalent about the car as an option, it seems too large in ways that aren't helpful for my specific use case, and too small in others. I will say that the full-width and high resolution LCD screen hiding in the rearview mirror to replace the regular mirror with a live rear video feed to compensate for the relatively poor rearview is very cool.
Lexus RX450h - less cargo space than the Jeep, so-so fuel economy (the age of the underlying platform is showing, and it's due for the same powertrain refresh they gave the Highlander, or even a one-up to a plug-in version)
Electrics:
Audi E-Tron - smaller than the Jeep, expensive, unimpressive range
Jaguar iPace - see above
Ford Mach-E - smaller than the Jeep, not actually released yet.
Mercedes has delayed both their plugin-hybrid and all-electric midsize SUV until next year sometime, so those were never in the running.
Side note about range: I was aiming for something that had a claimed range that makes it possible to visit a couple of family members in one charge, meaning somewhere around 300 miles. I realize EPA range is not real world range, and that Tesla's had several years to learn both things that actually improve their range, and also how to game the system to make their range look better on paper, while most others are brand new for the year. This means that other automakers range figures are a bit of an unknown. It's entirely possible that their unimpressive range figures are much closer to real-world range rather than EPA theoretical, but it seemed like a bad idea to start with something that had a claimed range lower than my target in case their estimates proved similarly optimistic by comparison.
Pretty rapidly, I got to a point where mostly I was trying to decide whether I had to drop the money on a Tesla Model X, or if the Model Y would be big enough for me, so I went to the Tesla dealer to test drive both back to back, thus I have a slightly more in-depth review, some of which is lifted from FB posts I made about it at the time.
Tesla Model X
The Model X is definitely larger than the Model Y, which translates to a bit of additional width in the cargo area and slightly more front-to-back depth, but it really doesn't feel like a huge difference in terms of seats-up storage compared to the Model Y. It's also noticeably larger than my Jeep.
Likes:
I drove a performance version, and even without Ludicrous mode engaged, the acceleration is literally breathtaking. Sort of like those linear-induction roller coasters, or what I imagine being launched from the catapult of an aircraft carrier is like. Quoth Ned: "this is never gonna get old!" Unlike the Model Y, the turn signal stalk behaves like every other normal car on the planet, and there's a proper instrument panel in front of the driver. It has a normal-ish key fob instead of using bluetooth to your phone, which makes the security weenie in me a little nervous.
Dislikes:
A few things show this as a previous generation design when compared with the Y, like the additional stalks for the steering wheel adjustments and dedicated controls for the mirror adjustments, lack of an induction charging pad for your phone, etc. Tesla doesn't really do model year changes like most automakers, rather preferring to improve things inline as soon as they can, but you get the sense that this platform is due for a more extensive refresh based on what they learned on the Model 3 and Y beyond what they might do as an inline change for new models, such that buying one of these right now is like buying the previous generation iPhone after they announce the brand new sexy, only without the price cut on the old one that inevitably follows. However, despite this being available for enough years that a good number are available used, the combination of a fairly tight used market and the way they are holding their value means you're not getting that much of a discount even used. And further in the cars are now technology vein, you're setting yourself even further back on the curve in terms of available tech vs current state of the art, as well as potential battery aging, and that seems like a bad plan in this price range.
There are a lot of things that feel too cute by half or "your engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should". The doors (all of them) qualify - they're all automatic, including the driver's door opening and closing itself when you walk up to the vehicle with the key, and put your foot on the brake respectively (which admittedly you can disable). Of course I can't discuss the Model X without mentioning those gull-wing doors, which are definitely a cool look, but most of the reviews I've seen say they're pretty impractical when it comes to execution. The doors' "handles" are all buttons, and it's not immediately obvious where you press to get them to open, and even if you disable the automatic stuff, they're still soft-close, and that amount of technology for technology's sake seems prone to failure. The glass layout is different too, in that there is this giant spaceship windshield that goes way up over the heads of the front seat passengers, but as a result it has really useless sun visors, and the back passengers just get little portholes over the doors instead of the uninterrupted view that the Model Y has. The Model X is $20-25K more expensive than the Y, and that nets you more space and about 35 miles of additional range, which makes it a tough sell, especially given the price range that puts it in. I think the only way the X makes sense is if you're actually looking for a 7 passenger electric car.
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