In your opinion, maybe using personal experiences - what is the best economy or middle range car? I need to add I live in a climate with some brutal winters…
In your humble opinion please…?
My wife and I are both very happy with our Suzuki Aerios.
They are also available in four-wheel drive, although the additional weight (and mandatory automatic transmission) hurts the performance a little.
Since you live in a cold climate, you might want to look into a Subaru Impreza. I had the Sport Wagon version for 12 years, and it ran great - the only reason I ended up trading it in was because it started to need some repairs and since the blue book value and the repair costs were about the same, I just decided to buy something new instead. I had a little tear in my eye the day we said goodbye …
I love these types of threads, because the OP never indicates what is important to them in a car.
Are your ONLY requirements that it be OK in the snow and be cheap/mid-priced? If so, you should be able to throw a dart at a list of cars, and you’d probably be OK. What else do you care about? What cost range (mid-priced for me may not be the same as it is for you)? How good in the snow do you need it to be (there’s a big difference between a Honda Civic and a Jeep Wrangler, though both will get you around in the snow). More info, please!
We’ve always been pleased with our Saturns, having owned both 1993 and 1997 SL1s, but the later models have dropped right off of the J.D. Powers quality listings. I’m not convinced that Saturns are as good as they once were. I would be delighted to hear otherwise. Anyone?
I love my Honda Civic, and it does just fine in Colorado winters.
Okay - I’ll add -
[ul]
[li]Prefer four door for ease of getting Darbs into the car[/li][li]like good gas mileage - right now I fill up every two weeks[/li][li]do not like a HUGE honking boat of a car[/li][/ul]
Other than that I like the car to have a nice look, but it doesn’t have to be the most amazing looking vehicle ever.
Cheap mid-priced for me would be the “starter” models of a car to the next step up or two, I thought most car manufacturers offer “economy” model cars and then some with a little more so I sort of figured everyone would know what I meant?
Where I live snow and ice is an issue - we just got 15 cms of the white stuff two days ago. Safety, handling as I am driving with my daughter - I don’t want a curling rock.
Temperature is an issue too, we regularly get -30 with windchill and my driveway backs into an open backlane (beside a field), so drifts can be an issue.
I have always had a soft spot for Jeep (Wrangler) and Volkswagen (Jettas and Beetles), but imagine that the Jeep is not great on gas and KNOW that VWs are expensive to fix.
I think that is everything.
You can buy an engine block warmer and a battery warmer for $30 each with the Subarus. 
I drive a 93 SL2 with over 250k on it and it’s still going great. My mother actually just bought a 2007 Ion, and so far, she’s very happy with it. I’ve driven it once or twice, and while I still like my old car more, I definitely enjoyed driving the new Saturn more than most of the cars I’ve driven. So I like the newest Saturn at first glance, but the important thing IMO is that it has the same long life and reliability that have characterized the earlier versions. Also, it obviously hasn’t been through a winter yet, and while New England isn’t quite as bad as Canada, we still get a little snow
Have you thought about the Subaru Forester? Good gas mileage, safest car on the road, all wheel drive, not huge but good space inside. I have a 2001 and love it beyond all reason.
Come back in the spring and tell us how the new Ion fared!
I drove a Saturn SW2 for six years all over northern New England. It was a fine car, but not the greatest in snow. If you expect to be driving that in snow a lot, get snow tires for it.
But any fwd car will do pretty well with snow tires. What’s your definition of mid-sized and mid-priced? Can you point to any sample cars you think would be a good starting point?
Ok, so that’s more like it!
I’ll modify Twiddle’s recommendation a bit then, because Foresters don’t handle all that well, have a bunch of cargo area you may not need, and aren’t all that cheap. Plus, their extra weight tends to decrease gas mileage.
My recommendation? A Subaru Impreza 2.5i sedan.
http://www.subaru.com/shop/overview.jsp?model=IMPREZA&trim=25I_SEDAN&command=overview
Good gas mileage, reasonably inexpensive, reliable, nimble reflexes, safe, four-door and awesome in the snow.
I’ll add another vote for a Subaru Impreza, either sedan or wagon. Great cars. Their drivetrains are damned near bulletproof, they have one of the best all-wheel-drive systems, and you can get them with awesome cold weather equipment like heated seats and heated windshields.
I love my Ford Escape as well. I’ve had it for 3.5 years, and it’s been mechanically perfect. It still doesn’t even have a squeak or rattle. It’s all wheel drive, gets decent gas mileage, handles well, and it’s super easy to manoever because it’s actually shorter than many mid-size sedans and has great visibility all around. It’s got great ground clearance and knobby tires for chugging through deep snow, and it can carry a huge amount of cargo with the rear seats folded. It’s even fairly sporty to drive. Almost the perfect vehicle for me.
My Civic does fine in New England winters (with snow tires) but I would have gotten a Subaru with four-wheel/all-wheel drive if I had been spending a little more. The Outback, Legacy and Forester are all quite popular around here.
I have an '05 Subaru Impreza Sedan, 2.5RS, manual transmission.
I really like that car. The stereo sucks, but I mostly listen to talk radio, so I don’t really care.
It’s all wheel drive, and I get around 26 mpg with a mix of city and highway driving. Subaru’s are great in the snow. If I did it over, I’d probably get the hatchback version.