I'm considering quitting my job and getting back into the real estate game. My 15 year old dented camping rig is not going to cut it. I'm looking for something reliable and presentable with room for 4 adults that will have some element of "fun" to it. Basically something that isn't balls slow and handles OK will do the trick. Budget is around $12k and what I've been seeing on CL seems to be mostly in the 90k to 130k mile range.
So far I've been looking at:
2005+ Legacy GT. Always liked them and I like the way Subarus ride and handle. I'm pretty familiar with maintenance issues, upgrades, etc.
2004+ TL. Soccer mom, but looks pretty good and I could potentially find a 6-speed. If not, how crappy are the automatics? Any reliability issues I should look out for? Also my wife's TSX has the most god awful turning radius of any car I've ever driven. Are the TL's any better?
CTS? Probably a bad idea.
Mazdaspeed 6 - I'm not too familiar with Mazdas, but seems like a pretty good car. Any reliability issues to look out for? Does Mike still have one of these?
Anything else I should be looking for? I've ruled out Altima and Accord mainly because they're butt ugly in the year range I'm looking for.