cars cars cars (and wagons)

I think I'm getting old. I'm actually looking at wagons as a possibility for our next car. Sure, they aren't your granny's wagon with the paneling on the side, and they are compact (some are considered 5 door cars (like my old white sentra with the hatchback). But still, they are a wagon. Weird.

Of course, being the crazy organizer that I am, I have created an excel spreadsheet with 3 pieces of vital information for different makes and models. Price, city mpg, and highway mpg are the 3 main things I'm looking for right now. Given, we are looking for a used car, but I figured that by looking at the prices of new cars, it would give me sense of the cost. Doing so allowed me to rule out many of the options. Here are the cheapest ones... but still not in the KIA category. NOTE: I've included american made cars as well...I'm trying not to be a car snob.

Make/Model city mpg hwy mpg price (starting msrp)
Chevy Aveo Wagon 27 35 9455
Toyota Echo 33 39 10455
Saturn Ion 26 35 11430
Nissan Sentra 28 34 12900
Toyota Corolla 30 38 13780
Ford Focus 26 35 13860
Toyota Matrix 28 33 14860

Since we'll be doing mostly city driving, the top 5 for city mpg are (in order):
toyota echo, toyota corolla, pontiac vibe, toyota matrix, nissan sentra.

We will of course want to do more research, and David is a picky one about cars.. If he doesn't like their design then he excludes them from consideration. But, I figure we need to keep the cost around this amount since you can easily add another 5K on in taxes etc. We'll keep looking. I'm liking the echo right now (good price, great mileage)...it will feel like we are driving back in italy in a tiny compact car. I'll make sure I check out consumer reports before we make any decisions.

Well, gotta go catch my bus home. My boss told me to go home early. YEA!!