car recommendations - Subaru Outback

[clavery]

We have a minivan and a jeep wrangler. We need a car with four wheel drive or all wheel drive, as we like to ski and need a car that can handle the snow. The Jeep is just too small for our family of five (although we use the minivan when we have all the kids in the car) and the gas mileage stinks.

We were looking at the 6 cylinder Subaru Outback wagon, which appears to get decent gas mileage, but it requires premium gas. Does anyone have one and what do you think of it?

Any other recommendations? We need 4WD or AWD, would like a wagon-type car for cargo space, want better mileage than we're getting on the Wrangler, and hubby won't buy american (the wrangler was an exception - it was my 40th b'day present to me from me). And we don't want to spend more than $35K.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Cheryl

[dc]

[TC3modena]

station wagons are social suicide.. if you must i'd get like a beamer wagon or audi, go german

[joeychitwood]

I had a 2002 Subaru Outback Legacy Wagon, and my daughter has a 1996 Outback wagon with 140,000 miles on it. They are both nice cars, but I can't say they are much bigger than a Jeep. Ours also burned regular gas, not premium. It handled well in snow and had heated seats, two sunroofs, automatic four-wheel drive depending on wheel slippage, leather interior etc. It is a well-built, durable car which can go 250,000 miles with normal maintenance.

[danferd2002]

If you want good gas milage get a Ford escape hybrid.

[El_Chico]

Originally posted by TC3modena
station wagons are social suicide.. if you must i'd get like a beamer wagon or audi, go german

Since she already owns a minivan, I dont think she is all that concerned with "social suicide"

And if you havent noticed, wagons are "in" now

[joeychitwood]

Originally posted by El_Chico
Since she already owns a minivan, I dont think she is all that concerned with "social suicide" And if you havent noticed, wagons are "in" now

So are ugly, square-cornered SUV's like these, but they still scream "DORK" to me.

[sixpackrt]

[clavery]

Doc, have you ever ridden in a jeep wrangler? They are tons of fun, but it's a really bumpy, truck-like ride and I think the cargo space is like 3 cubic feet!!!!

Unfortunately, with three adult-sized kids and a large dog, we need the minivan. We're probably getting about 20mpg on the highway with it. So I want to dump the jeep and get a car with better mileage and 4wd or AWD that we can stuff ski stuff and the dog into when we go up to our ski place in Mass.

Anyone know about the Volvo V50? It has a five cylinder and gets about 21/30 MPG. Seems to be competing with the Subaru Outback. And Edmunds is rating it higher than the Subaru Outback.

Hey, if it were up to me and we had no kids or dog to accommodate, I'd be driving a beemer, but that ain't in the cards yet. Give me five more years to get the monsters out of the house, and it's all about me!!!

[Minuteman]

You need a:

[bulldog12]

Originally posted by sixpackrt

Can you say hearse??