I had a Subaru Forester for several years. Bought it brand new. I LOVED that car. The gas mileage wasn't great.. just so-so.. around 24/mpg, but it was a snappy little car. Plenty of room in the back for whatever I needed to do, fantastic turning radius-- I could put that car ANYwhere I wanted, turned it around on the side of mountain on a rutted dirt road once, lol. Sadly, our family of 4 just grew up too much to fit comfortably in it any longer. The kids were growing and we just wanted more "space" between "us" and "them", lol. I can't say enough about the quality of the vehicle, however. It was about as steady and stable as they come. I always felt safe driving it, even in terrible thunderstorms... AWD is nice. :)
And it was a lot of fun to drive, too.
When I finally agreed to hand over the keys to my Forester, at about 165,000 miles, I gave it to the Nissan dealer towards my new Xterra. I love this car/SUV as well. It sits a little higher (so is slightly less stable, but it doesn't feel unstable at all), so visibility is good. I am picky about my visibility, too... and refused to even test drive a lot of vehicles that I didn't feel comfortable with the lack of visibility out the back/side windows. If I sat in it, and couldn't see all around me, to where I would feel comfy changing lanes in traffic often... I just stepped back out. Interview over. The mileage is not great. Not really even good, but not bad for an SUV (I averaged 22mpg the first couple years, no I get around 20, but I speed. A Lot. And that runs the fuel less efficiently). There is plenty of room in the X-terra also. We have a German Shepherd and she rides in the back area often. The kids take karate and I keep karate gear/gym bags back there, etc. I really like the height of the cargo area. It is great for loading groceries or whatever. I even loaded a bunch of sod for the yard in it. I can really cram a lot of stuff in the cargo area, without it going above the seat-back height (no worries about gear flying forward in a sudden stop, and no blocking the visibility).
It has 193,000 miles on it. Just spent $2,000 replacing both catalytic converters. We debated on getting something else, rather than "invest" in this 5 yr old one.... but I really couldn't think of anything else I wanted right now... at least nothing that costs less than $30,000, and I wasn't ready to spend that. I actually told my husband, that if I were to HAVE to buy something to replace it, I'd probably be back at the Nissan lot looking at the newer models of the same thing. So we just repaired mine. My mechanic says that I probably have another 100k miles left in it.
(I drive about 700 miles a week, almost all interstate commuting with minimal traffic).
My hubby has a Mazda 6 sport. It is fun. I will admit that. It really goes zoom zoom. But, I HATE when I have to take his car for some reason. I really prefer my Xterra.
By the way... all our vehicles are/have been manual transmissions. I just love them. My Xterra is a 6 spd~ FUN. :) I get bored when I drive an automatic.