Honda Fit vs Honda CR-V vs Subaru Forester

mysteriousmonk

Hello, I am currently looking to buy a new car. I am trying to decide between a Honda Fit LX (no sensing), Honda CR-V (2 wheel drive) LX, and a Subaru Forester 2.5i AWD (all 2018, CVT). I am starting my first job in a month or so, and need a car to commute. I will also need to move my stuff when I change apartments every so often. My parents are going to pay for most of the car for me, so there's no complications with leasing (if I get the CR-V or Forester I'll owe them some money, but I should be able to pay it back within about 6 months). I mainly care about reliability, gas mileage, storage space (with the back seats down), and visibility.

I've done some research, and this is what I've gathered thus far:
Honda Fit: ~17k, 53 sq feet storage, 42 mpg (highway), consumer reports "reliability" score: 3/5
Honda CR-V: ~24k, 76 sq ft, 36 mpg, 5/5 reliability
Subaru Forester: ~22.6k, 72 sq ft, 35 mpg, 5/5 reliability

I have also test driven them. The Forester has the best visibility, then the Fit, but not by much. The Forester handles the best, but this doesn't matter that much to me. I'm unclear as to whether the safety differs significantly (obviously the fit is smaller, but they all have very similar crash ratings on CR).I also talked to the insurance, and the CR-V would be ~120$/year less than the other two, which have nearly identical premiums. So this isn't a big differentiating factor either.
I'll have to commute 28 miles to work 4.5 times per week, which is about 6000 miles/year, so I'll drive maybe 10,000 miles/year (mostly highway). So I estimate gas will be about $150/year less for the fit. Again, not a huge difference.
Mainly what I'm stumped on estimating is maintenance. If I somehow knew that the maintenance/lifetime of each of these cars would be the same on average, I would choose the Fit, because it's not worth ~7000$ more to me for ~1.5x storage space. However, I sincerely doubt that they will be the same in this respect. So I'm trying to get a ballpark estimate (something beyond the 3 vs 5 reliability ratings in CR) of what I might expect in relative maintenance costs/car lifetime.

If anyone has estimates and/or general advice, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

kyfdx

I don't know why the Fit would be any different in reliability from a CR-V.

I agree.. for your needs, I wouldn't pay $7000 extra for a little extra room. Go with the cheapest option.
Though, you might find some of the options useful in the higher trim lines..

texases

While I love the Fit's combination of big room for a small size, I have read complaints about highway noise (on a prior year), to the point that some buyers with long commutes regretted their purchase. So you'll want to take each one out for a good long drive, see if any are uncomfortable or too noise/rough riding.