After some shopping narrowed down to Jeep Compass, Toyota Rav 4, VW Taos. Have had good luck with Mazda but CX 30 and CX 5 felt too small on the inside. Any experience with those? Also older kid has Nissan Rogue which has been excellent but kid #2 doesn't want same car as kid#1.

Toyota Rav 4 is the clear winner there in terms of reliability and longevity

I enjoyed my 30 year old S10 in college, would recommend that route to any college student

Rav4

Corolla Cross if you are buying new. It is very similar in size to the RAV-4 but cheaper.

Eliminate the Compass, they're not reliable or built to last.

Based on that list you should consider the Honda CRV as well.

If she plans to be in a sorority, get her a Jeep. Not a Compass. A real Jeep.

She will get an auto-bid to every sorority she visits. That's what a lot of them drive now.

Compass is terrible.

VW makes a decent car, but service is sketchy and usually expensive.

Toyota is the answer.

I have purchased a 20 year old 4runner for my daughters. It seems to be working great so far. I may keep it when they go to college.

In my experience, VWs are great, until you need to work on them...

My kid has an 03 4Runner. It runs like a champ.

My experience too.

Of the three you shortlisted, RAV4 is the clear winner for your kid's car and it's not close. I'd add Mazda CX-5 and Subaru Forester to the list. I have 2 kids driving CX-5s, and one driving a Forester.

Does it have to be an SUV? We got our daughter a CPO Hyundai Elantra and it's been great for her. She just graduated and if she wants to she'll get 3-5 more years out of it before she "needs" to replace it. For us we wanted our kids to graduate with no debt and a car that's paid off with a few years to go and this Elantra accomplishes that.

I have one in a CX-5 now and it has been bullet proof. I like the newest generation of CX's a lot but it seems like a nice $40K+ car for a college kid might be overkill given how kids parking lots @ TAMU are…well a disaster in slow or not so slow motion.

LOYAL AG said:

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Does it have to be an SUV? We got our daughter a CPO Hyundai Elantra and it's been great for her. She just graduated and if she wants to she'll get 3-5 more years out of it before she "needs" to replace it. For us we wanted our kids to graduate with no debt and a car that's paid off with a few years to go and this Elantra accomplishes that.

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Never owned a Hyundai, but folks that I know that have all had good experiences with them.

this is the mindset we used as well. Kid paid half. Keep through college and grad school. Solid car. No debt. Start off miles ahead simply by NOT starting off miles behind.