I love your blog and recently added to my RSS instead of getting hits from digg and such.

2 points I would suggest (with admittedly not reading all of the other ones…sorry).

I drive a subaru. . .and it is the first car I love, Reviews are high. They are the orig AWD and all of their cars come with it. They ARE NOT THE CHEAPEST. . .but I believe that a car, being a long term investment, should not be the cheapest always. Reviews are steller and after seeing mine and my love for it I have had 3 friends all buy subaru’s and love them. I drive an Impreza WRX wagon, have no kids but 120 lbs dog.

When buying the car I saw the guy use this awesome device that measures the thickness of paint on a vehicle I just looked into what these are called and found they are pretty pricy. The following has some accounts of good use and accuracy compared to more expensive devices. This could be something that saves you with every used car you buy. Here are the ones I saw (at 225 USD): http://www.highlinemeter.com/

close to the same results on all metal implies that the car has never been repainted. . .and therefore never in an accident.

I started looking around early last year as the sedan I was driving was about to give up the ghost (bought it used, it had been a rental early in its life, and was starting to lose oil pressure at idle – not good). The plan was to keep our paid-for 2000 Mazda MPV minivan for me and look for another used vehicle for my wife to drive. We actually didn’t want another minivan this time. We have 3 kids, currently 10, 7, and 4 years old, so we needed 3 rows. I’m on a buy-American kick these days, as I feel the current generation of domestics are now equal in quality to forgien makes. Top on my list was the GMC Acadia/Saturn Outlook and the Ford Freestyle.

The Acadia/Outlook was too new at the time, so there were no good deals on the used market. Best I could find was an Outlook for $30K, way out of my price range. Freestyle was looking better, as they had already renamed it the Taurus X at that point, and there were good values on the market. I wound up buying a 2006 Freestyle Limited, with a year of factory warranty left, 20,000 miles, for $19K from a CarMax. An excellent deal IMO, and it has been an excellent vehicle. I have a friend that is a tech at a Ford dealer, and he says the Freestyles and Fusions have been excellent, rarely in the shop for anything but oil changes.

On 2WD vs. AWD – I was specifically looking for a 2WD model, which I purchased. We live in WI so we see nasty weather here too, it has snowed quite a bit the last 2 winters. The reason I wanted 2WD was mainly for fuel mileage. Because of the lower weight of the 2WD model, plus the reduction in drivetrain losses, I figure I pick up 2-4 MPG depending on usage. I would rather pick up a set of good winter tires and change them as part of regular maintenance (easy for me, as I do my own oil changes), instead of hauling around 300 lbs of AWD hardware around all the time. By the way, we get 18-21 MPG in my wife’s mixed driving during the week and have seen 26 MPG on longer highway trips. If I watch the tach I can get 22 around town without any problem. You may want to reconsider the winter tires, as I find I get excellent traction with them. It would open up more potential possibilites on your search. Good luck.

Also – one more point – Freestyle has 5-star safety ratings all around with side curtain airbags. Side curtain airbags were standard on Limiteds, I belive they were optional on SE and SEL.

Unless you specifically need a truck, you should look at a Subaru. They are very well made, extremely reliable, run problem free for years, handle great in snow/icy conditions and also hold their resale value. I drove my Subaru for years without a single problem and only reluctantly sold it when I moved to a city where a car was no longer needed.

So the effect is like this: you’re driving along, foot off the gas to slow slightly, then press on the gas to get back up to speed, wait 1 – 2, car suddently lurches forward. For me, when I first noticed the car not responding, I think I might have thought that I wasn’t pressing the gas hard enough at first, so I pressed a bit harder, then suddenly the engine would engage and the car would jerk forward. But even after studying it for a while, it still happens no matter how gently I press the gas. And I’ve noticed it happens when my husband drives too, and he is the most cautious driver, compared to my lead foot.

I talked to the dealer service guy about it and he says that the Sienna’s computer was programmed like that and there was nothing they could do to fix it unless Toyota was to reprogram it.

YMMV, but I always mention this when people ask me about my Sienna. Other than that, I love it.

I say it’s worth waiting a month or two to see how this bill works out. As far as recommendations – look into the Honda Pilot. It is an excellent vehicle, and as a used car, it doesn’t hold it’s value as well as most Hondas. Down side is that real world fuel economy is around 16 mpg.

See if your local conditions are driveable with snow tires (preferably studded) on a FWD minivan – ask your friends & neighbors what they use in snow.

That’s just cheap, not frugal, cheap.

I really wanted a minivan, but in our area, they hold their value unbelieveably, especially Toyota and Honda. We could not find one for what we thought was a reasonable price.

We also needed a 4WD about 6 weeks out of the year and for visiting the in-laws. By the time we found a barebones, used AWD minivan, the price was comparable to a comfortably equipped, large SUV.

So, for the price of a well-used minivan, we bought a brand-new Honda Pilot, which seats 8 comfortably.

We routinely put all five members of our family in it, and haul the grandparents as well. Because it’s my primary car, and I work from home/mind my toddler, we don’t drive it much and thus the gas mileage isn’t an issue.

We considered a CR-V, but it didn’t hold five comfortably. We also reviewed Subaru’s offerings, as we like Subaru, but again, the space was an issue.

One final thing – we routinely review Consumer Reports & Edmonds.com before car purchases. We’ve never had a “problem” car, and we don’t intend to start now!

I also had a 1991 Chev Lumina which had 316k on it at death and again, less than $100 repairs & maint. per month. It also got 28-30 mpg in summer and 25-28 in winter.

Basically the high mileage was added quickly as, on the Buick I was averaging over 40k miles a yr. In fact, the warranty on the engine ($1400 cost & labor) was for 24 mos. or 24k miles & cost me $50. That warranty ran out in 9 months & 1 week.

My current car is a 2000 Taurus SE wagon and has 167k miles on it. I don’t drive as much now, so it may not last as long. We have had it for 4 years and the gas mileage isn’t as good sometimes (23-26 mpg). However, last year I took a longer trip and tried some of the gas saving tips I read of on MSN. The first 2 fill ups I made 33.2 mpg.
Wow!! I averaged about 29-30 mpg on the whole trip. The last half was through mountainous country (for the midwest) and lowered my mileage some.

But, I must admit, my husband had a Toyota pickup and it lasted and lasted and lasted. Got good mileage at first, but gradually dropped. I don’t know if it is still running or not. I should check. I gave it to a friend’s grandson to work on when my husband died.