Reliability: 2008 Saturn VUE vs 2008 Ford Escape?

As the title suggests, I'm asking people around about the reliability of these 2 SUVs. I'm looking for my first vehicle ever. I'm a college student and I LOVE the road vision in a SUV. Not to mention I go into the mountains sometimes. I've looked around and have seen a lot of vehicles. Having test drove these 2, I know that the VUE drives like a car, the Escape drives like a "truck". So… I'd like to know about the reliability of these 2 vehicles.

Judging from what I looked up online, I've seen that 2008 VUE doesn't have too many problems (maybe they have a lower selling volume?) and the 2008 Ford Escape has a ton of transmission problems. I need people who are more experienced to advice me on this. The VUE has 117k miles on it and the Escape has 96k miles on it. Both are priced at $9000. Please advice me, thanks in advance!

Not sure where you got your data, but my information (Consumer Reports) says the 2008 VUE has worse than average reliability and the 2008 Escape has better than average reliability.

Anyway, you shouldn't make a buying decision based on some average reliability statistics about a used car. Every used car is different and even a car of a very reliable brand can be junk when it gets to be 7 years old. So, pick the one you THINK is the best and have it inspected by a professional mechanic BEFORE you buy it.

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