I am a huge Honda fan. I had a Civic for nearly 10 years, and now I drive an Accord.

You might want to consider a 2008 or 2009 Saturn Vue. It's a crossover, so it has the space of an SUV but the drive of a car. I love, love, love mine. The Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix is a nice blend too. I call it both because they are pretty much identical. They have a lot of cargo space if that is the reason for wanting an SUV.

Loving my A8, it's pimpin.

I have a Subaru Outback - it's the 13th Subaru my family has owned, as we all have them. They all had well over 100,000 miles on them before we traded them in. The only other car I can truly recommend is the Volvo SUV I was given as a rental when my current Subaru had to have some body work (darn Chicago drivers!). It was such a dream, but the mileage was awful!

I've been driving the same Element since the first model year. '02? Great little car. Over 100K miles and I've only had to replace the alternator and brakes.

I'm a bit tired of it now, but it was extremely practical. I've transported everything a king sized bed, stacks of pre-hung doors, a full pallet of flooring for my house, a full-sized marimba [my wife is a band director] and when it comes to moving, that thing has ridiculous cubic footage.

You mention the Fit, my wife drives a Fit. Loves it. We drove it up to Montana a few years back and got great gas mileage, although I will say 20+ hours in that thing and you'll have a severe crick in your back.

Does anyone have an opinion on the Chevy equinox?

I will second the hatchback suggestion. We just upgraded to an SUV (baby on the way & it was time anyway) but had our hatchback for 7 years. It's small enough to be easy to park & get good gas mileage, but wow can you pack those things! Boxes & boxes of Ikea furniture, bags of dirt & bark, even a small loveseat once. We got it as our second car to a 2-door sport-style car... it felt HUGE in comparison.

As a Sedan option, I also really love my 2007 Sentra. We've had no maintenance issues with it and my favorite features are:
- intellikey: as long as the key is in your purse, you can lock/unlock & start the car
- hide-a-trunk: a removable panel that goes in the middle of the trunk. It makes your trunk smaller for normal use, like helping ensure groceries aren't sliding around too much (and you can reach everything in that part of the trunk easily). You can store miscellaneous things behind the panel like a car emergency kit, towels, reusable shopping bags, or whatever and still have your main trunk nice and usable. If you remove the panel (or just fold it down- it's a hard panel), you have a ridiculously deep trunk. It's not as tall as a hatchback obviously, but for quantity of storage it's great.

However, I still vote hatchback based on what you described! My friend loved her Nissan Versa (same intellikey feature). She actually bought it because she liked our Sentra so much but wanted a hatchback. I think hers was 2008.

Note- a lot of new cars have the intellikey type feature now, but they are harder to find on used cars if you're going back more than 2-3 years. In 2007, as far as I know the only non-luxury cars that had them were Nissan and the Toyota Prius.

I like the Equinox. It is very similar to the Saturn Vue also. I'm a GM fan though...

I think the other comparables listed are better options in terms of price, looks, specs, and features. Unless you're intent on specifically buying Chevrolet, I don't consider the Equinox to really have anything over it's competitors.

Everyone seems to be throwing out widely different ideas, so it will definitely help you to narrow it down into a model year range, size, price range, and certain features you consider important (leather seats, navigation, sunroof, only base model, etc.). It seems like you've been most interested in the small SUVs/Crossovers so far.

Hondas are super-reliable. I really like the Ford Escape and the Jeep Liberty. A Honda CR-V is the same size and very similar.

Why do you want something bigger? Is it because you need to fit more things, have more people, or just this personal preference that's been bugging you?

I recommend a hatchback: you can fit almost as many things as a SUV, and it'll handle most the use cases of SUVs while saving gas. Just don't go off-road or attempt to tow anything.

As far as a nice sedan: I have some friends that decided to go with well-maintained 15-20yo BMWs. They're probably in the price range you're looking for and age surprisingly well.

Be careful looking for a used car right now. They are charging beaucoup bucks right now because people can't get financing for new cars and the market is so strong for used. My husband bought a new, loaded Toyota FJ Cruiser a year ago and paid LESS than they were asking for a basic 2010 used FJ. seriously. Used! We were shocked, and had to really push to find out that there was a new one available on the lot. Woohoo...we'll take the new one please. BTW, they weren't negotiating on price either, bc we moved on to the new car after haggling for a while. Be ready to shop around and look for differences in prices between new in used. You may be really surprised.

Since you're buying used, I recommend either Hyundai or Honda products. I'm leaning more towards Hyundai, because of the their reliability and warranty, provided that you buy used from the dealer. You could buy one with about 50,000 miles on it, and you'll still have 50,000 miles left before the original warranty expires (conditions might apply). Honda also makes nice products -very reliable. I have an 05' S2000 that I bought new. I still have it, and I haven't had any problems with it.

ETA: It's up to you, but since you're buying used, I would stay away from American (GM and Chrysler products especially).

Hey now!

I have a 2011 Dodge Avenger and I LOVE IT! It's got great gas mileage (24 in town, 30 on the highway), great space especially in the backseat and trunk, and a killer sound system. I have no complaints with it and I love it.