I don't kinow where you guys are getting some of this stuff. I beat the crap out of my legacy wagon for 150k miles before trading it in November (it would have kept going for many more years and miles had I wanted to keep it). Yep, fuel economy is a little lower than a FWD sedan. Guess what? AWD adds complexity, weight and uses a bit more fuel. If that capability isn't important to you, look elsewhere. As far as maintenance and reliability, in 150k miles of very hard wear (mostly rush hour commute between central NJ and Greenwich, CT through lovely places like northern NJ and the Bronx) I got left on the side of the road once because I ignored my mechanic's advice to replace my worn tires (trying to eke out a bit more life, foolishly). Other than oil changes, I replaced the brake pads once, the timing chain once, a worn out O2 sensor once, and near the end of teh time I owned the car I replaced an axle because I had failed to nitoce a worn out/split boot. I think the axle is about teh only part of this due to anything other than normal wear stuff you would replace on any car. The car was cheap to run and reliable as I could ask for. When we eventually give up on the minivan, DW will go right back to a Subaru station wagon.