Can you help give me ideas for potential cars to buy? Details below.
My wife and I are carless urbanites, and generally happy as such. If we buy a car, it will be for two uses:
* Transporting a (hypothetical) child or children.
* Taking trips out of the city, usually camping.
It would not likely be used for commuting.
When I think about what I want in a car, I think
* Good gas mileage/electric
* Flexible storage (hatchback?)
* Can handle occasional rough dirt roads and winter conditions
* Not a truck/SUV
* Straightforward to maintain
Do you have any suggestions for what to look at? I don't really have a price range yet. Cheaper is obviously better but we're hoping this will be the only car we have to buy for 10+ years so we're willing to pay more for quality (but not for luxury). I'm interested in electric but I worry about the range on the Nissans for longer trips out of the city. Plug in hybrid maybe?
I'm interested in model recommendations and also which cars would be good value to buy used vs new. Thanks!