Good to know Jen!  The Escape is high on my list :)

Kat- I'm getting like 22 or so miles highway and 15 or 16 city.  Gas has pretty consistently been 3.70 in my area and it ususally is $60 or a little over to fill (I usually get gas when I'm down to like 60 or so miles worth of gas).  I drive 27 miles each way to work and it is mostly highway, but I sit in stand still traffic for about 15 miles of my commute in the morning (and maybe sit for like 5 miles going home).  I've found that I can make it to and from work 5 days on one tank.

Another one to look at is the Ford Flex (I totally wish we would have looked at them).  I think they get better gas milage than some of the small SUVs b/c they are classified as a crossover and might be built on a car chasis vs a truck one. 

Jen- yes, the new explorers are super nice.  We're thinking that might be an option when DH's lease is up in two years.  We'll see- he's claiming that he wants something cheap b/c his registration was super expensive this year.  We'll see what he acutally does when the time comes!

I forgot about the Flex - love that one too!  I am icthing for a new car!!!  We traded my truck in and bought my MIL a car, so it will be a while till we get a new one :(

Registration is ridic!  We just had a pretty big increase here - went from around $40 - $45 a year to $80 :(

Heidi- I have a Rogue too! We're actually getting rid of it becuase it's hard to fit all of L's stuff and ours in it when we travel. We want a Highlander, Sequioa, Pilot, or Pathfinder.

Jen- I'd kill for ours to be like $80/year.   We paid over $500 for one car.  And like $275 for the other.   It hurt bad bc we also pay a crazy amount of state and federal income tax (our combined rate is about 30%).  Then the woman at the DMV told me she had someone the week before whose reg was over 1k and I didn't feel as bad.

Our Jetta sportswagon TDI gets 35-40 mpg with diesel.  It seriously rocks.. highly recommend you check one out. :)

Our next vehicle will be a Sequoia.. once DH finds a stable job, we'll trade in our 1 ton Chevy Silverado for the more family friendly vehicle. :)

@MsMac - EWWWWW!!!  Ok I won't complain about the $80 bucks!  Thankfully we don't have state tax either (I'm in FL)

Yeah- you are lucky.  Very lucky!  We totally bought and house and had a kid for the tax breaks b/c we need them badly.  Not that the kid's tax break will really matter b/c he's going to cost us more than the tax part.  I was not happy when MN shut down for a month b/c I was like what "tax" (they like to call them fees) will they add this time!  We know for sure that our property taxes are going to go up- we think 3%, but we aren't sure.  And I'm sure they added some other "fees" that we'll pay at some point and just don't realize that they added.  The "taxes" didn't go up, but it was like just raise them b/c we're going to pay anyway for whatever it is!

Juniper- I know several people who have diesel VWs.  I think yours probably is too new for repairs- but i've heard that they are expensive to fix.  Thoughts?

I had the Edge when we had DD and loved it! Then traded it out for a Tahoe and I still loved it but recently it made sense to trade that out for another Edge! I am SO glad that we did because I LOVE it! I did however have to switch DD to forward facing so that I could see her better :) She is 16 months :)

@MsMac, yes I believe repairs will probably be more expensive than a Japanese car..  but the longevity of the car (and we love the low maintenance aspect of diesels - have had several diesel trucks) will make it worth it :)