We've had the Passat since 1995, and it's been an OK car. It is great to drive - good power and it handles beautifully. On the downside it hasn't really been reliable.

According to http://www.kbb.com/, it's worth about $4000 for a tradein (in "fair" condition) so it's probably not worth spending $900 on it at this point (much less $3000).

Here's the plan: I don't want to deal with the hassle of selling it, so I think that I'll donate it to charity and take the tax writeoff, then buy a new (probably used) station wagon. I don't dig SUV's, and I don't think that we need a minivan. The good news is that there appear to be many station wagons on the market, where 5 years ago there were very few.

Requirements for the new car:

• mid-sized (i.e. no less room than the current wagon, but not a Buick Roadmaster)
• V6 (want 150+ HP, don't want a turbo 4, V8 is overkill)
• Auto (stop giggling)
• Budget: $25000, but the closer to $20000 the better.

Not a very long list.

Possible replacements:

• Saturn LW300 around $23k http://www.saturnbp.com/lw300/ looks interesting
• Taurus/Sable SE wagon around $22k http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/taurus/sewagon/ my mother-in-laws drives like a boat but the new ones look like they're tighter
• VW Passat GLS V6 around $25k considering the problems we've had with the current one, I doubt it.
• Audi A6 Avant around $38k A lot out of our price range
• Volvo V70 http://new.volvocars.com/models/v70/ around $30k A little out of our price range
• Subaru L.L.Bean wagon around $29k $29k for a subaru? You've got to be kidding.

From this it looks as if the lead dogs are the Saturn and the Taurus, or perhaps a used Volvo.