A Little Daydream...

I still have a love for a certain old car my parents had when I was a child. You'd make fun of me if I just straight-up told you what it was, so why don't you hear me out first.


I got to thinking about this last weekend after I took my wife and son out on some class IV roads with my wife's 2005 Bonneville. Being a long, low-slung, 2WD car, it's not exactly made for this type of duty, though it was the middle of summer and dry, so we made out okay. Wouldn't it be nice if, in a few years, I wanted to go trail-riding with my family and some of my kids' friends, I had a vehicle suited to the purpose? Say, a vehicle that got a fair margin over 20 MPG highway, so it could be driven on a daily basis without single-handedly keeping Mobil in business? Obviously, I'd want 4WD or AWD for those muddy spots, and I'm not made of money, so how about a vehicle that cost a fair margin under $25 large new? Of course, 7 or 8 seat capacity for lots of little ones and their stuff. Now, I like to be in full control of my vehicle, so it's gotta have a manual transmission, too. We live in a very advanced age, and automobiles have been around for over a century, so surely, we've got something here in 2012 that can fit the bill, right? ....Right?

I headed over to the Cars.com vehicle recommender to find out:

Don't really care if it's a hatch, wagon, SUV, Minivan, Van, whatever. 7-8 passengers, check. 21 MPGs or better, check. Don't care what brand. Certainly less than $30,000. Manual, or heck, even an auto-clutch manual, as long as I can control the gears.

Oh yeah, gotta have 4 wheel drive:

Oh.

Now, what if I told you that this seemingly mythical vehicle could be bought 20 years ago? You could get a 7 seat wagon complete with 4 wheel drive and manual transmission with an economical 4 cylinder engine that returned 23 MPG highway out the door for less than $13,500 in 1991. In 2012 dollars, that's around $23,000. That car?

Today, the best I can do is settle for a Toyota Rav4 with the optional 3rd row bench, which, while getting slightly better milage (27 highway), will set you back an extra $3 grand up front. And ain't-no-way-no-how are you getting a manual transmission. Or, I could get a Mazda 5, which would cost less and gain me the manual transmission, but I'd have to give up the 7th seat and 4WD.

Sigh. Sometimes the future is in the past.