I think we need another car...

[Nick M3]

So, no one is willing to give up any of their current cars in our household, but it's clear that we need either a wagon or an SUV. One dog was *almost* OK, but two dogs push us firmly into "not OK" territory with baby.

In the "nice, cheap beater that can be left outside," there really isn't much to choose from.

One option is a 6MT X5. This has some real maintenance advantages as I can steal all the FCPEuro warranty covered parts off of the in-law's X5 (that they will never drive again), and it's big enough and cheap. The in-law's X5 is not in good enough condition to consider taking, and it's not clear that it'll escape the Medicaid asset sweep anyway.

E91 LCI wagons are pretty expensive. (And car seats really don't fit well.)

E60 wagons are not something I'm willing to consider.

The out of left-field option is an early 2010s E350 wagon. They're pretty cheap these days, and they were built after MB got their shit together reliability wise. The downside, though, is that I'm not really equipped to service one. And it's automatic.

I'm kind of struggling to come up with any other ideas.