Sam,

I've owned and/or driven vehicles in a few places, but my favourite car by far is the VW Passat Variant. I bought the 4-motion version for my New Zealand car in 2000 and so far I've resisted every attempt to get me to trade. I think I've spent less than $1000 on servicing since 2000 because nothing ever goes wrong. It is a 4WD road car, sticks like glue which is a fabulous safety feature with kids. It's a "station wagon" ;-) with a fairly big tall trunk. I think you'd be surprised at the price of a 2003 model, just prior to the model update. There's a V8 version as well that isn't recommended in 2006 - the V6 is plenty powerful enough for a family road car. There is also a smaller turbocharged version that is extremely economical (and an even more economical diesel version that probably wasn't released in the US) but they don't have the 4WD. Worth a look.