Best of luck! Got good mileage out of your car nontheless...!
Re: next vehicle, if you are considering a small SUV - I would consider taking a look @ the Liberty. At first I thought it was kind of a soccer mom SUV, e.g. Saturn Vue, but as it would turn out it has more SUV-esque attributes than unibody car traits. E.g. 8" wheel travel, optional full locking diff OR full time AWD, etc.
You can get a decent Liberty out the door for around 20'ish. If you wanted to go the more car route - the Escape is supposed to be pretty good.
