In anticipation of this issue (car too small) we all went on a few test drives last summer. We drove Dodge, Honda and Toyota offerings almost back to back to back. The dodge drove ok and offered a lot of features for the money. The Honda was expensive but also seemed to drive the best and was remarkably quiet when going down the road. I had high hopes for the Toyota as it offers a lot of nifty options but was disappointing to drive (seemed really big and had wind noise that I did not expect or experience in the others).
I'll try to find a mazda as I do have a soft spot for them having owned an '85 Rx-7.
Thanks for all the input. I don't understand Sid's "#winning" but laughed at the '80's oddysey pic as we had one when I was young until my drunk dad's drunk buddy rolled it in the rain one night--it was gone in a week.
We had the early version:
