[john hall]

By now you should know the answer is "Whatever makes Mama happy". Go ahead , say it out loud---"If Mama ain't happy, then nobody ain't happy".

Seriously, I'm not so certain there is such a huge difference in vehicle quality anymore. First thing I look at is what are the needs to be met, then a style, then safety--but it all must fit within a price range I am comfortable with.

Just to toss this out, never assume the HUGE dealerships are offering better deals than the tiny ones. I won't go into details but I was involved in buying 3 new full sized Chevy trucks last year. The first we hunted around looking for a deal and got one on a truck that GM had decided hadn't sold fast enough (big rebates on that vehicle), It came from a big dealership. Soon after we needed another. Began hunting for another deal went to a dealership with 85 full sized trucks on the yard, spent 2 hours there and they couldn't come up with anything to show us, much less come close to the last deal. Went to a dealer ship with only 7 or 8 trucks and he found another promotional vehicle (the original dealership couldn't come up with anything we liked). When the need arose for the third truck, the first dealership, with about 40 trucks and the little guy, with 7 or 8, were neck and neck in offering yet another great deal. Moral of the story, any size dealership can play ball if they want to.

By the way, I'm not a car guy but for a mommy-mobile I vote for a Ford Edge, nice looking car and I've known a couple folks to have good luck with them. Also I have a lot of family driving Kia's. So far so good with all of them, but none have enough miles to speak of longevity.