Shootist, we looked into the Subaru Forester last winter when we replaced our Caravan. I also looked at the Honda CR/V and Element. My wife, whose car this was to be, discarded the Hondas as being too much like the bigger SUVs but she loved the Forester except for the gas mileage. This is a fairly heavy car for its size and it is a full-time all wheel drive, so you do pay certain prices. One is that it has to be flogged to a certain degree to keepup with traffic in many situations. It could certainly use a CVT. Secondly, the space is a bit on the limited side, especially back seat legroom and, to a degree, shoulder room front and back. I likewd the more deluxe interior packages as they made the car ever so much more liveable.
In the DC area, however, Subarus are extremely popular cars with the Yuppies that abound around here and so the dealers simply will not deal on them, ever. At least they aren't like the damned Toyota sealers who won't even let you look at a Prius unless you pay them the $5,000 or more "Additional Dealer Value" up front, just to get on a waiting line of 6 months or more to get one. So, we went up to Winchester, VA, to look at them and the dealer also sold Mazdas.
They had a 2005 Mazda6 Sportwagon for about $19K, $5K off of the list and less than the Mazda3 subcompact as well as $2k-$3K less than they were getting for their Foresters, depending upon equipment. We took a 2006 Mazda6 Sportwagon out for a try and it was love at first sight for my wife. She absolutely adores that car and I must say that it is a super nics machine that I look forward to driving over distances. It is a real tourer, very comfortable and VERY fast, with 4 wheel disc brakes, a 220 hp V-6, a 6-speed auto transmission with sport shift, and real handling such as she had never before experienced. it also has front and side curtain airbags which I don't like but she does. At least they have gotten away from the full-powered bags of the 1990s. The interesting thing about the Mazda6 is that it gets better gas mileage than my 2002 Ford Focus with its 5-speed automatic (4-speed + overdrive) and 150 hp I-4. The difference is that the Mazda has better ratios in the transmission and a better power-to-weight ratio, meaning that you don't have to flog it nearly as hard for the same performance level. It gets low to mid 20s around town and over 30 mpg on the open road, even at Interstate seeds. You might want to take a look at the Mazda6 if your requirements do not specify an AWD vehicle. If they do, the Forestoer would be damned hard to beat.
