[FC]

My wife has been mentioning for a few months now that as much as she likes her car, we should have a second car that is more practical - like a wagon. The LR4 is great, but from there we go down to the MCS and the non-winter 997.

I don't get it, personally. I mean sure, the MCS can carry all four of us, but very snugly. I think she would prefer a car that could carry a fifth person in a pinch or the four of us and some semblance of luggage or leftover room for some shopping. But I feel that that hardly ever arises. She has a car she likes and is super fun to drive. It is also already set with winter tires, nice summer wheels & tires, etc. At the same time, this is a fight I'm not willing to put too much effort into. We'll see how strongly she feels about this.

But hypothetically, what could be a good car to replace it with? I know it screams of "you got rid of the wrong car - you should have kept the E91!" But that car was not the right option for the reasons below.

In the event that she is actually serious about this, here is what the requirements are:

-Inexpensive enough to leave parked at a train station all day and endure minor cosmetic damage without getting depressed about it.
-FWD or AWD so it can be half decent at getting my wife to the train station even during crappy (but not horrendous) winter weather.
-I like the idea of something compact enough to get around in the city with no trouble.
-Good fuel economy
-Ideally manual transmission
-roomy-ish rear seats, preferably 4 doors.
-Adequate trunk/cargo space
-I'd like a car with some personality.
-Car would only see ~5k miles per year
-I'm thinking of keeping it under $15k. I'd like to not have to cough up much more over than we'd get for the MCS (no clue what that would be).

Off the top of my head I'm thinking of a good MT 4-door hatch.

-Golf TDI
-Mazda 3
-Focus

Thoughts?