Unfortunately everthing has a context and the CRV and Rav4 are 20-year old co-ed cars (at least that's my context for them, I'm a 24 year old former college student and new a lot of sorority girls with those cars). There's just something about them that make them hard to take seriously, even though my ex had one (CRV) and she got some amazing use and utility out of it. My mother has a '05 Outback, and those things really stick to the road. On the downside, the transmissions are POS and shift funny, and they really don't get great mileage because of the AWD system.

When I was a kid my dad had a 4-cyl, 2wd pickup like the one posed above. It was a tank and got mileage like a small car as long as you kept the cap on the back.... he's a sculptor so he needs to drive something like that and really beat the heck out of it.

I'm currently a big fan of crossovers. Have you checked out the new version of the Taurus that is SUV-like? Its not anyone's first thought but they're supposed to be great. I also drove a minivan in high school and college. I know they're boring, but we took so many camping/skiing/kayaking/biking trips in that Quest that it was everyone's favorite car, and it had a TV!

If I owned a car right now it'd be an A3. But I live somewhere that makes car ownership a PITA so I'm bike-only until my next city. I love bike commuting, but I love cars too. Good Luck!