Used subcompact SUVs for sale near Ames, IA

Great people!! I got right in and right out with my oil change and tire rotation. Even got to chat with my favorite salesman, Kurt.

Bought this 2022 Compass Trail Hawk new for my wife. Earlier this year (2025) we landed a sweetheart deal on a new 2024 Wrangler Sport S. Guess who inherited the Compass ? I stepped down from a Grand Cherokee but I have no regrets. It has had a few electrical teething issues but all have been resolved and have not come back. The handling and fuel economy are much better than the Grand Cherokee. There are only 2 downsides..........the size of the gas tank (13.5 gal vs 24.5) and the cargo space behind the 2nd row seats. I have easily adapted to both ! I want to give a shout-out to our local dealership, Tri-City CDJR. Start to finish, an excellent place to purchase and maintain our Jeeps. BRAVO ZULU !

Troy and the others at Willis did a magnificent job! They used many resources to find the car we were looking for. I always had our best interests in mind!!

This vehicle has one drawback that I am aware of. The back up camera is very poor. The images are not crystal clear. It is like looking at a television screen from the 50s. I had a Blazer 2019 and my screen was great. I cannot understand why my 2023 vehicle has a poor screen. I have contacted General Motors and have gotten nowhere with them. I find this poor visual screen to be a safety issue. Had I known the back up camera and screen were so poor, I would’ve never bought the car as much as I like everything else about it. The visual on the screen is even worse at night.

Great experience buying and great service on my Silverado

Drove one in New York, NJ ,PA area for work (rental). Loved the connectivity to Android, very simple, you get what you need. Comfortable, drove about 800 miles and it did very well driving in all sorts of traffic and terrain conditions. Overall very satisfied with the car, would consider buying one if the reliability is good long term.

Originally went to dealer for a quote, but sales rep had exact vehicle I was interested in and was quite agreeable. So I purchased the vehicle. Staff was quite friendly & answered all questions.

Love this dealership, the salesman i had is the best. Hamad deeb was very helpful and got me everything i wanted . This was one of my best Honda experiences . This is my 6th car from this dealership

Armin and the guys went out of their way to help us trade into a gently used Atlas. Thanks again!

Our 2022 Taos is almost 2 years old with about 21K mileage. Very satisfied with our car. For the price point (25K) it provides good handling, a comfortable ride and great interior space for a subcompact SUV. The gas mileage is amazing at over 40 MPG on the highway and about 30 MPG tooling around town. Couldn't be happier!

Elvis and Aleks were great to work with! Scheduled my test drive on the same day and got to bring home my new car! Everyone was friendly and made for a great experience. Thank you!

Very comfortable drive and ride, has all the top shelf features for comfort, technology, safety . Sturdy buttons, interior materials are high class. Can take 89/91 grade gasoline. City drive is 25mpg, highway is upto 32mpg. oil change intervals is 10000mile . Seats in the back recline by adjustment, making it comfortable in long drives. Recently had a 14hour highway drive- was feeling refreshed even at the end of the day. The highway drive at night was not fatiguing to the eyes, likely because the glass quality must be really good compared to other brands. Wish they had a hybrid version to get better mpg or even better, a plug in hybrid version would be welcome for the future. The trunk space is small and can fit only one international size suitcase.

Kerry, our salesman, did a perfect job. He was very helpful in showing us the features of the SUV that we purchased. After the sale, he's been helpful, too. Everyone that we met at the dealership was also very fine. Their prices are also competitive. Thanks, Willis staff...

For the money you can't do much better. Quiet, sleek and has lots of options available. Has plenty of room and storage for this class of car. Love the AWD version as I live in a part of the country that gets a fair amount of snow.

Great salesperson. Kept me up to date on any changes . Couldn't as for a better one.

Certainly enough power and comfort. Very roomy front and comfortable for passengers. The reviews call it sluggish and, it is not that during everyday use. I was shocked how well it drives after reading reviews. I got a great looking white 2024 RS in perfect shape with 9.000 miles on it. Much much better than expected meets ALL of my needs and, expectations.

I want to thank the service department for their help on Saturday 8/11. I was traveling from Ames to Council Bluffs with 2 dogs and started having car problems. The service staff worked me in and were able to get my car back on the road. They didn’t charge me anything for their time and let my dogs stay with me in the waiting area. I’m very grateful for their help.

I leased my 2015 Chevy Trax (basic trim) new on March 2025 as my 21st birthday present to myself. Since it’s my first official first car purchase, I was on top of my maintenance. I’ve already taken it to a lot of road trips and decided to own it October 2018. Took it to more road trips ever since. The issues I had on it has been the AC. I did a whole 100k service on it as well, and have had to replace the spark plugs. Otherwise, the engine is still running great on me and now at 110K+ ! I am looking to replace this car at some point in the near future though since I’m growing out of it already. But I’m super happy with this car (I named my Trax as Trixie) as it has been reliable on me most of the time. It was fun to drive in my 20s and I personally love the handling on it as well. I’m driving my 2015 Trax till it completely dies on me. Would be a nice surprise if it gives me another 50-100K+ miles— we shall see!

Dylan's crew always does a great job and I get a spotlessly clean car back.

I picked the Jeep Renegade in the Trailhawk model because it is the only car in the compact category that also has excellent off roading capabilities. It completely beats out the other "off road" vehicles in its class like the Crosstrek or trailblazer. It also works excellent as a daily driver and great on long highway drives, having way better gas mileage than a pickup or wrangler. No road noise like you get in a wrangler or a truck with big off road tires. I've had this car for a little over a year at this point, with about 7000 miles, and the only thing I can say was any kind of issue was I got warning lights on my dash for the lane sensors, but they were just dirty and a quick wash fixed that problem. I can't say much for reliability just because the car is still so new. I have the leather trim upgrade that you can get with the trailhawk, but even with that the quality of the interior is lacking compared to other vehicle brands at the same price range and category, like the Crosstrek, but looking at Jeep's other vehicles like the Gladiator or Wrangler, it fits right in. Everything does feel high quality. I'm very picky about road noises and rattling panels or vibrations while driving, and I haven't had anything at all yet with this vehicle even when driving on rough roads or hitting bumps. The only reason why I gave this car a lower interior rating is just because of the excessive use of plastic. The exterior is very unique. At first I absolutely hated the blocky look of the renegade, but with all the iconic Jeep stying mixed in and the upgraded look of the trailhawk front bumper, I have grown to really love the way this little SUV looks. The blocky shape gives it extremely good headroom and gives it extra cargo space in the rear. The trailhawk model has armor on the underside to prevent damage by anything you're climbing over when going off road. There are some gaps in the armor that you can fill with available aftermarket parts. I will say that I think the cardboard box aerodynamics are the main reason why the gas mileage is so poor even with such a small engine. With about 55/45 split between in-town and highway driving respectively, on roads with large elevation changes, I do still get 24 mpg combined which is decent. The road handling is also great, the Renegade is a very light car, and even with being a little top heavy it zooms around corners almost like a small sports car. The 1.3l engine is surprisingly torque-y, it took me a little while to get used to being gentle on the throttle, the first few gears are very deep and the tiny turboed engine makes 210 foot pounds of torque so it will launch very quickly until it gets to 3rd/4th gear. The absolute worst and best thing about this car is it's transmission and the way it's programmed. In regular driving, it seems like the transmission has to stop and think about what gear to go to, so swapping gears is a little slow and not as smooth as other cars. At the same time, the transmission is the main reason why this car does extremely, unexpectedly well off road and in poor driving conditions. It will always keep power to wheels that have traction, and so gives impressive control. I have driven this up a mountain trail in the middle of a Montana winter and it felt like a leisurely drive, even purposely drove into tall snow drifts to give myself a challenge and plowed over them without any issue. When I got to the peak in my stock renegade trailhawk the only other vehicle on the peak was a modified, lifted Tacoma with large off road tires that had chains wrapped around them. I'm extremely impressed with how well this compact SUV really does off road. Overall I'm extremely happy with my renegade, and hope to have it for the next decade as a light trail/off road adventure car and daily driver.

oe couldn't have been better. Bought a Tahoe from him two years ago and came back to him because he never tried to oversell us. You'll find this hard to believe but we came back today and traded four cars for four cars with him today. We traded the Tahoe for a Traverse and I finally got into a Trail Boss. We also traded the teenage boys vehicles and we did it all without getting divorced! Joe Koebke did it all while getting up and done a hundred times after having his hip replaced a couple weeks ago. Buying cars can be a lot of things, easy usually isn't one of them but Joe and the team made it easy today. Joe has earned our business by not being pushy and being persistent. Thanks Joe!

I have a 2022 latitude 1.3 turbo. Bought it with 6 miles July 2022, now has 8k miles March 2023, and not one issue. I have had it in twice for oil change and tire rotation. Fun to drive, 28 mpg, cheap to fill up. Never once had any of the issues others have. I would have liked an additional 12v outlet, and lumbar seat.

I always enjoy getting my oil changed here. The people are so friendly and they do a wonderful job!

Bought this from chevrolet Lindsey in Woodbridge. DO NOT LET THE PUT ON YOUR TEMP TAGS! They used the wrong screws for mine and it stripped the screw wholes.

My visit to the Honda/Nissan dealership was quite pleasant. I contacted Luke Wandling over email, asking a few questions about a car I was interested in taking a look at. When I entered the dealership, he was right there to greet me. He was very friendly, kind, and helpful. Throughout the process, he made it easy and pleasant. In the end, I didn’t end up buying that car as it had more things to fix than I could afford. But Luke handled this news very well, and said we’d be in touch in the future if need be.

I got mine new in 2021. I've had a few small thing that had to be repaired but nothing major. My Seltos runs well and get good mileage

Logan was excellent as always. Scheduling was quick and service same day I called in .

Love the car....I have 2 concerns. First, the driver's seat is not comfortable (this is my wife's car) ....the other seats are fine. This is weird. We have the all wheeled drive version. It loves gasoline !!! My Toyota Corolla gets 38-40 mpg with a smaller but peppier engine. This HR-V Gets between 25-28.....not sure why. HOWEVER. This car drives like a dream... VERY SMOOTH. Love the car !!!

Bought 2 vehicles in the last week , Joe are salesman’s was very professional and very helpful staying on task and going out of his way to make sure we got what we wanted . The dealership is full of helpful people and everyone friendly . The building itself is amazing , spotless, everything looks brand new , well kept . We bought there for years and will keep doing so.

I have had my 22 High Altitude for about 4 months now and the only issue(s) I find are the following: MPG is not as advertised, it's not that great. It's around 24 average, I am about 50/50 city/highway driving - It's fine. It DOES ride like a Jeep - so it's not as "luxurious" as your higher end cars, but YOU BOUGHT A JEEP - The last snow storm we had in Cleveland was about 10" in 2 hours - No problem, even with 235/45/19 tires - Would be way better with not so wide tires. It's slow. Who cares? Are you driving in the F1? Nah - It's plenty. Interior is baller. Infotainment is great, comfortable. Heated steering wheel is a plus. IDK - I read these reviews and everyone is so picky - It's a nice ride. If you find you like it, give it a shot.

I was in town only to drop off my daughter at ISU when the check engine light came on. It was late, but they worked me in and addressed the problem. This was amazing and appreciated service, as I had a multiple hour drive back home. Thank you!

I had decided on the Hyundai Venue before visiting the dealership. What I needed was the individual packages. I have had the car for a short time. But I am very pleased with the ride and the performance.

I had an excellent experience with Des Moines Audi from start to finish! I was 1,500 miles away, trying to find the perfect car for my daughter at ISU. Using Autotempest, I searched sites like cars.com and discovered a fantastic low-mileage car listed at their dealership. I reached out, and Elvis from Des Moines Audi responded promptly. He was incredibly helpful throughout the entire process, guiding me every step of the way and even following up after the sale to ensure everything was perfect. My daughter is absolutely thrilled with her new car, and I couldn’t be happier with the service we received. Highly recommend!

My only complaint are the front seats do not have enough cushion and the seatbelt latch pushes into your hip on the drivers side. and standard lumbar support on all models added

I have had my 2022 Jeep Compass for 8 months now and no complaints. I can accelerate onto the fwy with no problems. I get the mileage they say. I do wish the storage was a tad bit larger and maybe more leg room in the back, but honestly I only travel with two dogs and rear air is good for them. Love the larger display screen and never a glare so I can’t see it as in some other cars I tried. My backup camera works fine at night. I have the 4X4, so I need to get more info on that. I know the 2023 has a turbo, but I don’t care about that.

Armin helped us to find what we wanted within our budget. He was friendly and patient with all of our questions. Very pleased with our purchase.

I love my CX30. Only a few very minor complaints. The back seat is small. I would only recommend it for small children. Since i'm the only user, it doesn't really apply to me. The car overall is small, which makes it easier to maneuver and more fun to drive than larger CX models. I'm 6'3 tall and have no problem fitting in the driver's seat - plenty of head and leg room. The other complaint is the small gas tank (under 13 gallons). Even though, I don't regret buying my CX30. It's a lot of fun! I would definitely recommend not looking at any trim level lower than premium due to all the options the premium includes. I opted for the non-turbo. It's fast enough without it, and was 3K less.

Great experience from start to finish. Scott Davis and his team are as professional and customer focused as you can find. Service far beyond neighboring and competitive auto dealers.

I LOVE my 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a car more. It’s the perfect size for me. It has great visibility and I love the amenities like having parking sensors and navigation. It has mood lighting inside, auto brights which my previous car did not have. There are so many little things I love about this car. Also, Toyota came out with many “Easter eggs” with the Corolla Cross logo, which are always fun to find! The ride is comfortable. I’ve done a 14 hour drive to Colorado within the first year of owning the vehicle and it handled perfectly. It also snowed while we were there and we had no challenges navigating the mountains while in my FWD Corolla Cross. This was my first new car and I’m so impressed! Toyota has great reliability and I’m glad I chose the Corolla Cross as my first new car!