apples-and-bangs

Hey, thank you so much! This is helpful. Definitely don’t care about luxury and am also okay with slow acceleration, my car is also slow that way so am used to it. That’s one of the things I liked about it when test driving, a lot of new cars just feel very different to me than what I’m used to so the learning curve is steep. How used would you recommend buying in terms of mileage and year?

I'm very early in my new car-search, and right now the Transit Connect is looking really good to me. Some context, I'm currently driving my dad's old car, a '94 BMW 325i, and while it's been very good to me, it's on it's last legs with 350k and is also very small for my needs. I'm an artist, and need to be able to transport large paintings as well as the materials to build the panels. Sometimes I need to carry an entire exhibition of paintings at once, or artwork as well as equipment like easels, tables, etc. So I need cargo space but also still want something easy to drive. I mostly work from home and don't commute every day, but still run errands a few times a week, plus a 10-ish mile commute once or twice a week to my part-time work. Art transport frequency varies, but generally a few times a month and anywhere from 10-200 miles. I'm looking at the TC and some compact SUV's, no trucks only because it's better to transport the paintings in a closed cabin to protect them. Today I test drove an HR-V and a Transit Connect, first cars I've ever test driven. Liked the HR-V but it's just a little smaller than ideal. LOVED the TC, I'm really leaning towards it right now. It will carry everything I need, and I feel that it fits the lifestyle I want to have. Having some concerns about the cost of ownership and the general reliability. Is it a realistic option as an every-day car? For owners, is there anything you miss about having a more consumer-type car? For example, have you had a hard time finding places to get it serviced or repaired? Any advice about buying new vs lightly used? Also, I'm feeling torn between the pure utility models and the passenger wagon. Realistically, it's either just me in the car, or me + the husband or another friend. We don't have kids (though I'd like to one day), but I'm trying to decide if I'd miss having the option to tote more passengers? Husband has a camry that can seat 4-5, so I'm thinking that if we really needed to seat people we could just take his car. I feel like the passenger wagon would give me more flexibility in that area but I'd also lose some cargo space, which is the main thing I want anyway. Can anyone speak to any of these issues/questions?