Inevitable

Kinda like death and taxes, at some point a car will just give up and die, or cost such a crazy amount to fix that you would rather let it go. We are at that crossroads today. Lease, buy, can we afford either, and if so, WHICH vehicle? There certainly is no shortage of choice. I'm really drawn to an SUV, does that make me a wanna-be 'soccer mom' or a bad person environmentally? I like driving up higher than a car and I like being able to tote things around - I do so often for my work. I don't really like the look of a van (maybe this is vain) and those sliding doors really annoy me (think i got my fingers jammed in one once). Trucks are great, and useful, but bloody expensive. A smallish vehicle is better on gas and great on parking. We thought about test driving tonight but it is mostly a blizzard out there. Guess it would be a good test but do we really want to be tramping around a car lot?