Best Family Car (Wagon/Hatchback)?

My husband and I are looking to buy a new car, but are having a hard time trying to decide what will be big enough for us. We want a wagon with the largest amount of cargo room/options as possible - but still something that is compact and fuel efficient.
We do not want a minivan (TOO big!) or and SUV (too much for gas, insurance and air care) and we have a pretty tight budget. And, we want a well-rated vehicle (for safety and value for money).
So....having said all that, we`ve narrowed our search to these cars:
PT Cruiser Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix (is there even a difference?) Subaru Legacy/Outback
We want to put a medium/large dog in the back (hence the need for a hatchback/wagon) and two kids in the back seat. The only concern we have about these compact-sized wagons is weight/payload. We camp several times per year and would have the car loaded right up (roof rack, bikes on the back, dog in the back, kids in the back seats, etc), and we`re not sure how these cars would handle it. We`re not too worried about the motors (we`d get a manual transmission). The rest of the year, the car would be a `grocery getter` and something to haul the kids around in (and the dog the odd time when enjoying a day out), so we don`t need a huge car for the remainder of our driving.
Does anyone have these cars (or rented these cars) and can comment on their performance when loaded to the max?
Any other suggestions for a roomy, affordable, compact family wagon that would suit our needs?

If you can wait, you may want to consider the 2004 Toyota Prius, which becomes a mid-size hatchback with better claimed fuel economy than the current Prius. The Mazda 6 and Chevrolet Malibu will supposedly come in wagons or hatchbacks in the near future.
You probably want to bring the whole family, the dog, and some sample luggage to the test drives.

with the V6 is has decent power. One of the few foreign cars I wouldn`t mind having as a daily driver and actually be comfortable in. Nice practical car. Downsides are that it`s foreign and front wheel drive.
You say you want a new car though. Personally I see no reason to go out and waste all your money on a new car when you can get a used car for much less. Just shop around till you find what you want. Who cares if you end up paying for some parts or labor or spending a couple hours working on the car at first to get everything up to tip-top shape? It`s a hell of a lot cheaper than car payments for years to come. Even if you budget wasn`t tight, wouldn`t you rather spend the money on something else than your daily driver? Anyway, just a suggestion, as you may want to consider used cars.

Unless you`re seriously in the money, then basically, for any good new car that one can afford, there`s a better used one equally or more affordable. something.

oftener than is desireable with such high costs.
Volvos, especially the RWD models, are durable, safe cars -- especially the 200 and 700 series models. However, they are *not* cheap to own, and the quality of service available is highly variable by region.
I would not own a current or recent Volvo; they break too many ways and too often.

up (and I mean all the way, it took me a few hours to get all the tables, chairs and stuff in, and she had stuff tied on top as well). She drove it from Dallas to Anchorage.
I like Subarus. I bought a WRX.

trunk space there is. There`s no way you`d fit a *small* dog back there if you haven`t folded down the rear seats.
We just picked up a `93 Passat VR6 wagon, and everyone who sees it is really impressed by how much room there is inside it, and it`s got plenty of passing power to boot.

warranty from a reputable dealer is essentially the same, convenience-wise, as buying a new car, and a great deal less expensive. Not as inexpensive as buying a somewhat older car, true. But it`s like buying from an upscale consignment store, rather than Goodwill.

myself. But there *really* isn`t all that much room back there and it`s FWD. (as well as proof that GM designers are *still* doing drugs). Unfortunately, probably shares GM`s `stellar` reliability and dealer service network. I wouldn`t touch one unless I needed a really *ugly* car to make me look good standing beside it. reliability record. You have to commit some serious abuse to break one much under 200K miles. It`s about the same size as the others. Probably has better power delivery. The trump card is, it`s AWD. If you`ve never driven an AWD *car* (not a Jeep or 4WD truck), it`s simply a revelation in comfort and confidence in extreme conditions. Your address is Canada, so I presume you`d appreciate a great `snow` car, and this one *is*. Oh; and I`d probably skip the Outback version, too, unless you`re looking for the high output engine. Not that it wouldn`t be worth a look ... at least as good as the others. You can safely ignore Cory`s suggestion that you seek a used car. The kid drives a `67 Ford, after all. Since he seems to think the Subaru might be foreign, I`ll suggest he visit the factory any time he`s in the middle of Illinois ... or is it Indiana?

They get decent gas mileage and have plenty of room to haul people and cargo.

We have three kids and a summer cottage, and for years we had a Taurus station wagon. Very handy car, you can put a lot of stuff in the back (ours also had fold down jump seats in the back so you could seat two more kids back there when you had to). It also had roof racks, and we attached one of those big plastic clam carriers up there for the junk overflow when we were lugging stuff to the cottage (amazing how much "stuff" three kids need).
We finally outgrew it when the kids started getting bigger (three of them on a single bench seat is now a squeeze) and we got an extended length Montana van (regular length van wouldn`t cut it in terms of cargo space).
The Taurus wagon wasn`t sexy, but EXTREMELY practical and quite reasonably priced compared to some of the zootier looking vehicles.

miraculous luck, you may well be able to find a well cared for high mileage car that`s almost as good as new. I know I did, although I grant you I *was* just more than a little bit lucky. The Mazda with 276k on the clock is in better shape than the Pontiac with only 106k - go figure.

auto issue) of Consumer Reports for information and references on cars tested and reliability ratings. You can also <email> . CR has tested small wagons in the past year or two.
Of the cars you mention, the only one I`ve tried is the PT Cruiser (had as a rental for a week or so). I was very impressed by the practicality and flexibility of the interior layout, but if you need a separate rear space behind the back seat for a dog, the PT Cruiser`s rear space may be too narrow. It`s claimed that by folding the seats the right way, the PT Cruiser can hold a 7` surfboard inside, and I believe it. Under the retro styling, there`s an impressive amount of interior space.
Another car that manages to put a lot of space into a small shape is the new Honda wagon (Element?) that`s based on the Civic. I would expect the Honda to be of better quality and more durable than the Chrysler. BTW, the PT Cruiser`s reliability has improved, according to Consumer Reports. space looks small to me. But any Toyota is probably going to be a trustworthy choice.
I`d probably go with the Toyota brand name myself. the PT Cruiser`s rear seat. The other choices you mention might work better. your needs most of the time, then rent something bigger/roomier for the camping trips.

I recommend the Matrix above all over options listed. I would also like to say that it and the Vibe`s eng/trans are *all* Toyota (it uses Corolla engines for base and XR, and a Celica GTS engine in the XRS). The Matrix is like a Corolla station wagon , and it`s relationship to the Vibe is like that of the older Corolla/Geo-Chevy Prizm. And like that relationship, the Toyota version will have much higher resale value.

"compact-sized". I might call our current Subaru Impreza wagon "compact", but it is smaller than the Legacy by a substantial amount. substantially larger than the Legacy/Outback. For a larger vehicle, you have a get a tall wagon like an Expedition, or a Tahoe. The A6 and Passat wagons are a bit larger, and the BMW 5 series is about the same. wife, my parents, and two 100lb dogs in the way-back. That`s in the neighborhood of 800 pounds, and while the car was definitely slower, I`d have had no reservations about driving virtually any distance with that much load. the top of my head, but all that comes to me is the 2,000 pound towing rating. 4555, although they`ve got the wrong units ( kgs, instead of lbs ) so who knows how reliable that is. They probably got the number directly from SOA, though, and just screwed up the listing. able to load roughly 1100 pounds of people and cargo into your Legacy.

Several makes have had poor auto trans reputations ( ~ 60,000 / per trans rebuild). The price to rebuild a modern auto trans with electronic controls and many gears and lock-up converter is $2000 or so. Ford

Very practical and economical to drive. Get`s 50 miles per gallon on diesel.

Closer to 40K for the Taurus. At least in my experience with the `96 model. My `96 with 91K on the odometer has been rebuilt twice, once at Appx 40 K (failed clutch piston, $1100.00) and again at appx 78K (second gear burned out, $1600.00) and in my driving of late, it feels like the tranny is starting to die again.... Other than the tranny, the car has been pretty good in the staying out of the shop area compared with some other cars I`ve owned.

and am having troubles with this one, but since I`ve got over 105,000 miles on it, I`m not enthusiastic about spending the $$ on it. The first transmission had problems starting around 50K. In less than 1000 miles, that one was dead and I had a new one put in (they didn`t charge me, thank goodness). And as Paul said, other than the transmission, the car has been pretty good.

Tauri, but reviewing the CR reports, it would seem that any Taurus wagon the original poster might actually buy (i.e., `00 or newer) aren`t plagued with these transmission issues.
Really, the biggest problem with buying a Taurus (I should know, I own a `97 GL) other than its dullsville performance, would be resale value. I suppose that`s due in part to Ford cranking out so many for its rental fleet all these years, in an effort to stay in the running with Camry and Accord for "most popular American car," and in part to lingering reliability issues. But crummy resale value is a net positive if you`re buying used, and plan to hang onto the vehicle for a significant amount of time.