I think you can get better deals on sedans.
Sigh. Something didn’t occur to me until tonight because I haven’t needed it in a while. I need a car that can accommodate my wheelchair. It’s foldable and fits just fine in my kia trunk and it also fit in the prius. There are some cars though that it hasn’t fit in.
Just another thing to think about.
Son is very happy with Honda Fit. Lots of room for his musical instruments, stands, amps etc. Friends use theirs to carry their 2 bicycles. Good mileage.
Good luck
We had been considering a small SUV until the SUV we rented got broken into by having the hatchback window smashed. We switched to thinking about a sedan instead with roomy trunk.
No to the Volvo. Pick a Toyota, or a Honda.
I just sold my 22 year old Honda Accord, which is still running great and got a Honda Fit. I have a huge amount of faith in Hondas after having this Accord and I’m seconding what a bunch of people said about parts/repairs/maintenance being cheap. Given the snow concerns and size you’re looking for, I think an Impreza would be a good car to look at as well.
My D has a Honda HRV. It is smaller than the CRV and she really likes it. It is much roomier than it looks. Three adults were very comfortable in it on a 400-mile road trip.
My car is nearly 15 years old and just turned over 99,000 miles (I don’t go much). It is in good shape, but, like the OP, I know it’s not going to last forever and I want to have a plan in place when it croaks so I don’t have to rush out and buy something without having time to research it. The Honda CRV, Nissan Rogue, and Ford Escape are on my short list.
For a wheelchair, the Honda Fit has back seats that fold up as well as lay flat. Folded up, my friends manual wheelchair was easy to put in and remove. I love my car for the hauling capacity in an otherwise small package. Perhaps the HRV has a similar back seat feature.
I look at the size of some of the vehicles, and honestly, I would be with some greater size. However it may be difficult for you to get in and out of a vehicle like a Highlander (we have two). I know they are a bit higher than you stated you wanted to budget, but we got our 2nd used. Both our Highlanders are 2009, and both slightly over 100,000 miles on them. Very reliable. A gal at work just bought a used Highlander that she is happy with. Our 3rd vehicle is a 2001 Buick Park Ave Ultra with 182,000 miles on it (and has had a lot of repairs) - but it gets me to and from work. If DD decides to buy our 2nd Highlander (which she is using at school now), we will get another Highlander when the Buick dies…
Vehicles have become more reliable. Toyotas are known for this…BIL had a Corolla with over 350,000 miles on it when a tree fell on it and finished it off. Also know families very loyal to Honda.
I love our Prius for the mileage, but it is not great in snow. I got stuck trying to leave a friend’s house where the street had not been plowed yet after 4-5 inches of snow, would have been fine in our other car. I would look at a different Toyota or a Subaru.
Do you have winter tires on it for the snow season?
I love my RAV4 hybrid. It will probably be difficult to find in your price range though. They just came out in '16. They’re all AWD. They’re very easy to get in and out of, with enough space for a wheelchair. Mileage is in the mid-30 mpg, but really depends on the speed and length of commute.
If you need space for a wheelchair and baby stuff (e.g., stroller) then a sedan may not work for you. DH really likes his Subaru Outback. He preferred AWD after spending New England winters driving a Honda Accord (altho without snow tires).
Be careful with used Subaru’s. There is a known fault that affected 2011 and newer models - some of them burn significant amounts of oil. Subaru will replace the short block(?) if you can prove the problem but it took 4 years for them to agree to fix mine and I reported the problem shortly after I bought the Forester new in 2011 ( it used a great deal of oil - cant remember if it was a pint or a quart every 1000 miles - Subaru’s solution was for me to check the oil every time I got gas). I liked a lots of things about it but never trusted it and was unimpressed by the paternalistic atttitude encountered at their various service depts. and the length of time it took to get the problem sorted out. I know the problem persisited and effected several other Subaru models for a few years so do some research before getting a used Subaru. I’m a fan of Honda’s though. Our 2004 Odyssey had over 300,000 miles on it and was running well until replaced with a Honda Fit. Our 2 CRV’s have been relentlessly reliable.
I love my Volvos and have driven 3 of them to 300,000 miles but they are expensive to keep up and you need a garage that works on lots of Volvos. We rented a sante fe sport AWD in the mountains awhile ago and were very happy but I have no knowledge how they hold up over time.
My son bought a used Prius last year and is very happy with it. That said, it doesn’t have a lot of trunk space, though I think it would be fine for a car seat.
I love the look of the Impreza but it is low to the ground - if being up a bit is one of the things you are looking for in a smaller SUV, the Impreza may not fit the bill. Move up to the Outback or Forster (or Crosstrek - but they are harder to find used).
We have a Toyota Highlander, a Honda CRV and a Nissan Rogue. We just bought the Rogue. Some things to consider:
1 - There are two different-sized Rogues. The “regular” Rogue is noticeably larger than the Rogue Sport. Do not ask me why this is. You can get a new base regular Rogue S for about $17K here because they over-produced them for the new Star Wars tie-in (or so the dealer told us), which isn’t much more than a good used one. We haven’t driven it in the snow yet, so I can’t comment on that.
2 - Out of all of the above, the Toyotas tend to be the most expensive. They’re great cars, but something to consider if you’re on a budget (and why we won’t be getting another one). You will most likely pay the MSRP. My Highlander has a “snow” gear and drives well on the snow. I’m not sure if the RAV4 has a similar gear.
3 - I’ve bought three Hondas since graduating college (a Prelude, an Accord and a CRV as my family needs changed). They don’t discount new cars much and they keep their resale value. Honestly, if buying a CRV, I would go ahead and buy a new one as the price differential might be closer when you consider that new cars tend to have lower interest rates and more safety features that get insurance discounts. After replacing the cheap factory tires with good all-season tires, it has done great on snow and ice, but I still try to avoid those situations.
4 - I’ve never owned a Honda Fit, but I know several people who have them and love them. One friend lives up north where it snows a lot. One does have to cart a wheelchair, so I know it fits in the Fit (sorry, couldn’t resist 
)
5 - My insurance company highly recommended we buy the new teen driver a used Subaru. Unfortunately for us, we could never find any that were decent cost with decent miles, but maybe you will have better luck. Most of the ones we saw were well over 100K miles, which tells me that they last. But, we wanted a car to last 7 years so we wanted (much) fewer miles as we aren’t sure where the kid will end up in college and beyond.
We have not had a great experience with our Subaru Outback. Some leaks multiple mechanics couldn’t fix, including the dealership. It did get to about 175,000 miles but cost much more money in repairs to get there then our Honda.
But the Outback is much better in snow than the Honda Odyssey in our experience. The storage is very nice, too.
Note that there is a larger version of the Prius called the Prius V.