I vote Mini Cooper.

Of course, half the family will have to walk, or take another car, but if *he* gets one, then I can justify it to my wife

("well, HE has a family of five and HE got one!")

Help a brother out, m'kay?

Oh... Cars...

I'm out!

Sorry....

We have a Honda CRV and it's the best vehicle we've EVER EVER EVER had.

I was attracted by the pretty color and the fantastic six-disc cd player and Tim was attracted by the mileage and some engine stuff.

Ours is not "fully loaded" but I understand the loaded ones are cool beyond words.

Plenty of room for five people, and tons of storage, including a built-in ice bucket and picnic table!

Ours is five years old now and it has never given us a single bit of trouble of any kind.

I love my Ford Freestyle (they renamed it to Taurus X). What's great is that when I'm doing major shopping (i.e birthday, holidays) I'm able to have a ton of room with that third row folded down. The Hubs likes it because when we're traveling and he needs to pass, the car does have a quick get-up-and-go response. And the kids love the DVD player...so we all win.

my personal preference is the subaru outback. my husband's '96 outback has 130k+ miles and runs smoother than my '00 jeep. he also prefers to use it to haul various home improvement project stuff in, it holds more than the jeep. subaru's don't quit - a friend of mine has had a brat (old version of a pickup) that he used to go traipsing through the woods in in search of snakes (don't ask). he's taken down small trees with that thing and it still runs like a champ.

I'd say the Saturn Vue. My mom almost bought one and occasionally regrets that she didn't buy it.

My husband's Nissan Altima just died after reaching 300,000 miles. So we replaced it with a the same car, just new (to us). Aside from the fact that it never had trouble it got awesome gas mileage and Rob has a killer commute.

In the end it was the small things that made us get rid of it. His driver side door wouldn't open from the outside. So you had to climb in from the passengers side.

Other than that, I know virtually nothing about cars :-)

My hunny tried to talk me into getting a min-van several cars ago...meanwhile he was driving the "Beast" - White, 1998 Dodge 1500, 4x4, with a lift kit (The bed was as high as I am tall - in heels), extended cab, tunneau cover...etc, etc *insert Tim Allen grunts here*
I told him if he wanted a min-van, then HE should drive it, and proceeded to buy a Monte Carlo *grin* I'm not a mini-van kinda girl. Lots of my friends are, but I just cannot see me, with my two-tone hair and 40+ tattoos driving a minivan... SUV, we can talk :)
Anyways, enjoy the new vehicle - the GMC Envoys are nice, and the new Impalas get great gas mileage.
BB
dawtch

I just happened upon your blog. We're in the market for a new car. Our situation is similar to yours, the old car. Luckily, we haven't had to climb in and out the window yet but I think we're close. Another car you may want to consider is the Dodge Journey. It starts at $19K so it's in your price range and I've heard good things about it. We're going to go this coming weekend for a test drive.

This isn't so much a get as a do not get.

Do NOT get a Mazda. I have two of them. I wish I had at least one less. My 2004 Mazda 6 has worked fine - it's almost 4 yrs old and we're just now having our first problem with it (check engine light on and rough idle - less than 6 months after warranty ended - grrr). My husband's 2006 Mazda 6 is a piece of junk (that I'm currently driving). We started having problems with it within 6 months of getting it and all Mazda will say is that there aren't any problems...Then explain why you've had to replace the break pads, turn the roters and replace them within 2 yrs? Uh? WHY?!?! sorry about that...but yeah...just say NO to Mazda.

And because it is more fun to leave multiple comments...before my Mazdas, I had a Pontiac. I LOVED my Pontiac. I should've gotten another Pontiac instead of my first Mazda because then we wouldn't have gotten the second Mazda. Anyways, I really like the Pontiac Vibe. I don't know jack-crap about cars really, but I like it muchly. And it can fit all of you plus some more stuff.

And, I'm now going to be saying jack-crap for the rest of the week.

We bought a Suzuki XL7 this past August and we LOVE IT. It gets decent mileage. The kids all fit - the oldest has extra room in the back for his long almost man legs. The middle sit is big enough to accomodate the 5 and 9 year olds. It has an iPid jack. And it is stylish.

We looked at the Nissan Murano and the Huyndai Santa fe. The Murano we liked more than the Suzuki but not $7000 more.

I'd say a Toyota Matrix, not that I own one. I do, however, drive a 2003 Saturn Vue. And I do not like it. They might be different now, but something I didn't notice when test driving my car is the HUGE bit of molded plastic at the corner of the driver and passenger windows. In the olden days cars had little triangle windows there. Anyway. In a wide enough intersection I can lose entire cars behind that bit of molded plastic. And the gas mileage? Eh. I get about 21, my commute is fairly split city/hwy.

The Mini Cooper comes in an extended version now - maybe all 3 kids would fit?

Ooh, ooh, I'll delurk about cars. I hear the new Pontiac G8 is super nice and I want one really badly. I don't know what you mean by good gas mileage (I drive a 2000 Durango that gets 12 mpg, the new Hummer gets better gas mileage), but I think it meets most of both of your standards.

I'm not much of a car buff, but I'm a Toyota fan and I highly recommend them. They run like a champ for years, are good in all weather conditions, are fantastic on gas mileage (I don't know the MPG, but even with current gas prices, it only costs about $32 to fill my 2006 Corolla tank). And they are also super cute and stylish and spacious without being mammoth. They fit your price range and even the slightly used ones (say, a 2006 or 2007) are just as good as a brand new car but a little cheaper. Good luck!

I second the commenter with the Mazda 6 - I am very unhappy with mine and can't wait for the day when I can replace it. My advice, don't rush and make sure your husband is 100% happy with the car. Driving a car you don't like every day is big drag.

This is probably hugely late and you've already bought something, but in case you haven't, I want to second the Subaru Outback. My husband has one and we love it. His is a stickshift and, well, I fight him sometimes to let me drive "the zippy car" when I don't have to take all 4 kids with me someplace. It's fun, it's a little sporty, it'll take any hill around thanks to the all-wheel drive, and they're cute. We've had no issues at all with ours and it has almost 100K miles on it of heavy DC commuting, and we bought it in the summer of 03. The mileage isn't spectacular but it's not too bad and certainly light years better than the minivan.

The Mini-Cooper is great fun to drive, especially the turbocharged one, but one of your kids would have to walk. Or ride strapped to the roof. :-)