First-Car Fiesta
How do you do, fellow kids? Yes, we know, it’s really hard to adult these days. Jobs are scarce, and America is hemorrhaging employment every month. Meanwhile, there are mountains of student debt to pay off. Things seem pretty grim; making a monthly new car payment must seem like a fantasy.
However, for those in the work-at-home-office brigade doing well enough to entertain the possibility of dismissing the used car blues and getting something sparkly and new, we present three cheap, sporty-looking, kinda-sorta SUVs that deliver good looks, capability to haul a couple (quarantined or vaccinated) friends, and your stuff while making a decent value play.
These aren’t really SUVs in the purest, or purist’s, sense. Sure, they offer all-wheel drive and slightly better ground clearance than a sedan. But you aren’t going to conquer Moab in any of these. You can call them SUVs because they’re shaped like one, but best treat them all more like a lifted hatchback with decent traction control. They should schuss you to the ski lodge without too much problem, but that’s about it.
The three latest entries in the subcompact crossover field are the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Kia Seltos, and Mazda CX-30. This is the most crowded, competitive segment in the auto industry, and when you are dealing with a package this tidy and price-sensitive, there is a temptation to dismiss them as all of a piece. However, to bastardize George Orwell, some subcompact crossovers are more equal than others. So which is the best small SUV?
THE ENTRANTS
The Chevy Trailblazer comes with rugged good looks and a choice small SUVs. More on that in a bit.
