"Fx199" wrote in message
...

How many people "need" a subaru with AWD? These cars gat as crappy mileage
as a
small SUV, in the low 20's.

I'm one of those Subaru drivers. In fact, there was a recent reference in
the paper to "liberal Seattle women with hairy armpits driving Subaru wagons
" and I decided I'd better shave :-)

I don't think I need an AWD vehicle. I do want a manual transmission,
though. I had a minivan before and was deeply unhappy with it. If you're
looking for a vehicle with some cargo capacity and a manual transmission,
the Subaru Legacy wagon I believe is a decent choice. You're right about how
it uses gas: 23 mpg in the city, 30 mpg on the highway (with no bikes on the
top -- that really drags down the mileage).

Like most 'mericans, we have two cars. One's a little hatchback, and the
other is the station wagon. With those two choices, you can choose the car
that fits your needs. When I drove to the megamart last week with just one
kid, the hatchback was fine -- even with a week's worth of groceries and 12
cubic yards of beauty bark. The week before, when we were on a family trip
to Vancouver Island, we used the passenger and cargo capacity of the wagon.

For getting to work in the morning, though, we've not been like most
'mericans -- the cars usually sit in the driveway or the garage. When I'm
not hauling 12 cubic yards of beauty bark on a shopping trip, I'll often
take the bike. It's fine for a trip to the drugstore, bank, library...but
I'm preaching to the choir on this one.

If everyone who owned a car -- a Subaru wagon, a Honda hatchback, or a
Cadillac Escalade -- also used a bike, it would matter less what the gas
mileage was of any of the vehicles -- don't you think?


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
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