We’re on our second Honda CR-V after graduating from the minivan years–or perhaps more accurately, transitioning from the minivan years because our last minivan overlapped with our first CR-V for several years. CR-V #1 still runs great; gave it to D1 as a college graduation present and she couldn’t be happier. We’ve loved both of our CR-Vs: excellent cargo space even with rear seats up but especially with rear seats folded flat, comfortable front and back seating with ample head, shoulder & leg room, nice climate control, good gas mileage (not surprising as it’s built on the Honda Civic platform), smooth, quiet, sedan-like ride, surprisingly nimble and fun to drive after a minivan, extremely reliable/low maintenance. and the AWD works great in ice and snow which we get plenty of here in Minnesota. We did careful comparison shopping with competitive “compact SUVs.” Subarus, both Outback and Forester, have always had a stiffer, slightly noisier truck-like ride to me, plus less cargo space and less rear legroom and less comfortable back seats, though in recent model years the Forester has come closer to the CR-V in internal dimensions. RAV-4 and Ford Escape are also close contenders but rear seating and cargo space gave the edge to CR-V both times we were buying. These things can change from one model year to the next, however, so examine the specs carefully and take each for a test drive. There are others in this size class but we pay close attention to customer satisfaction and reliability ratings and price points and for features + value those were the top contenders for us when we were buying (most recently in 2014).