another project car

[00Beast]

If you're looking for a big car that gets great mileage, look into the New (2012) VW Passat TDI. We have almost 12k on ours already (bought first wk of March!), are averaging 40+ MPG, and I fit in the back-seat for short trips, and am 6'6" and 350-ish lbs. Driver's seat is my fav place to be, and it runs and drives great. Not a lick of trouble, and the first 36k of maintenance is on VW. The hardest part about them is finding one on the lots, they're flying like hot-cakes.

It also should accommodate 2 car seats easily in the back, and is 5 star crash-test rated, which is a huge plus. Ours is the SE + Navigation + Sunroof, but you can get a "base" SE with the TDI and manual, otherwise the DSG transmission (auto-shifted) is excellent as well, which is what we have.

The car is also paying for itself in fuel savings over our '11 Suburban, since that's pretty much sat in the garage since we got the Passat.

BTW, the Nissan looks great as well.

[92BonnevilleSE]

Thanks Ed
We're pretty open to anything so we'll add that to our list. I've always like Volkswagen as they are engineered and built great. I want something that looks good, will fit us 4 comfortably and still get up and go when I want it to!

[00Beast]

It isn't your Neon or an SSEi, but there's plenty of torque (140 HP/236 FT/Lbs), and the mileage can't be beat for anything.

4 of us drove from here to Fargo and back (~4 Hours one-way, plus stops), I drove the whole trip, and no one was uncomfortable or cramped, and we got around 42 MPG the whole trip, with it getting better mileage at around 60 MPH on 2-lane roads than at ~75 MPH on the freeway. It's been a great car, and I'd highly recommend it. It was also the 2012 Motor Trend Car of the Year.