New DD for the old lady and babies- $15k, she has 4 top runners.

[asshanson]

Two notes from my experience:
The CVT (at least on Nissans) really sucks in the snow. I don't know about other brands though.
I saw you mentioned the CX-7. Ours gets 20mpg max highway, and recommends premium as it's a 2.3 turbo. I really like ours, but would definitely buy a different car if I knew this ahead of time.

CRV seems like the safe choice, but they're stupid expensive for used unless you get crazy high miles. That's the way it goes with reliable cars with good gas mileage.