I've been going around and around on our vehicle situation- every time I do, I come up with a different solution for one reason or another.
We have a leased Mazda CX-9 w/ ~10 months left on the lease that needs to be replaced. From what I can tell, we are about +$2k (payoff quote is ~ $2k < KBB trade value). My problem is deciding what to replace it with- here are the considerations:
1. Haul family of 4 around town. MPG++
2. Haul family of 4 + dog to in-laws 1+ times per month. Need fair amount of cargo space for this. Also, the drive is 90mi each way.
3. Camping/biking/fishing trips. We currently camp only once/yr, but this will hopefully increase. Biking/fishing trips don't exist yet as the kids are small, but plan to start this in 1-2yrs. Would like/need ability to bring 4 bikes and/or two large canoe type boats (either roof racks or trailer).
4. Wife will most likely start doing some work travel (3-5 times/yr??) that will involve significant mileage. While she wouldn't really need much space for these trips, she would have to get the kids, dog, + luggage to her parents' at the beginning/end of each trip.
5. Wife needs significant cargo space, or rented trailer, or both, 2-5 times/yr for her business.
6. We're spoiled by the CX-9. It's a Grand Touring model, basically decked-out. I think I can talk the wife down from having leather on the new vehicle, but in all honesty, I'd like to have it to for ease of cleaning up after the kids. I don't think I can talk her out of having a back-up camera. She also loves her sun roof, audio system, automatic climate control, etc. So, while I can talk her out of one or two luxuries, there's no way we could trade down to something really basic- she'd just hate me.
With that said, I THINK we need something in the range of a smallish SUV with excellent gas mileage (I'm estimating we will put about 15k mi/yr on it). Smaller than that and trips to the in-laws get extremely difficult (we do it in my Rabbit on occasion, but it's cramped and we can't take much). If we tried to drop from an SUV to a wagon or something, I think we'd lose towing ability, plus we hate vans and large wagons. So, I think the new Mazda CX-5 would be perfect- except that it's a brand new model, so we'd be paying much more. An older Toyota Highlander or Rav4 would be an option, but the gas mileage would be worse and we'd be starting with 70-100k miles on it, which makes me worry about driving it for 10yrs.
I'm sure there are more details that would be useful, but I'll stop here for now. I'd like to see what others' opinions are or if anyone has any creative solutions. While it would be great financially, I'm not looking to go get a beater for $2,000. Realistically, it will have to be something pretty nice, and I'm just looking to minimize the cost, and figure out what type of vehicle we NEED. Thanks!