Well, I spoke to my dad today, and he's been looking at a few cars himself. He's looking at the Jeep Grand Cherokee Larado 4x4, the Audi A4 Avant quattro (NEW! but I don't know what engine), and I directed him in the direction of an off-lease C280 4Matic. He also is looking into the Highlander Hybrid, but he doesn't know that the A4 gets better mileage highway, where he does most of his driving. He says the Audi is more expensive, but not by too much, and I told him to look at the extra stuff he gets standard and cost all of that out. I did that tonight, and not only do you get pissloads of safety features standard, as well as a much longer warentee (which I like). He says we have to see if I'll fit in the back seat comfortably (it's an Audi; if I get to drive an Audi around, then I certainly will be "happy" in the back, hehe). In addition, the Audi averaged .5 to 1 star higher per customer rating than the Jeep.

I tried to point him toward a 3er with AWD, but one of his friends said this, "Steer clear of ever getting in a BMW. Because once you're in one, you'll never want to drive anything else again." :-D Sounds good to me!