I live in the Chicago suburbs, and I chose *which* suburb based on the fact that I could take the train to work (I don't work downtown, so had to be on the 'right' line). This means I only drive a few miles a day, and my car is 93 camry with 150000+ miles on it. Unfortunately, my husband's new job is *not* on our train line, which means he is back to a long commute; we did buy a Scion, which gets really good mileage, for him though.
My parents, who are environmentally concious, still ended up with an Pilot SUV and a minivan. The SUV was because they have a home in the mountains, and their cars weren't handling the drive; the minivan was because they have 4 grandkids who are all still in child seats, whom they often end up schlepping around. The requirements for childseats make it next to impossible to have standard cars with young children really -- when the entire family is together you're looking at 8 adults and 4 kids -- a minimum of 3 cars to go anywhere.
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My parents, who are environmentally concious, still ended up with an Pilot SUV and a minivan. The SUV was because they have a home in the mountains, and their cars weren't handling the drive; the minivan was because they have 4 grandkids who are all still in child seats, whom they often end up schlepping around. The requirements for childseats make it next to impossible to have standard cars with young children really -- when the entire family is together you're looking at 8 adults and 4 kids -- a minimum of 3 cars to go anywhere.