oooo, don't say that too loud elsewhere or you'll have angry people claiming that the Outback is still a wagon, despite not having been one for over a decade now.

I also had this trouble replacing my third gen Outback. I went with a 2012 Elantra Touring, which has very similar cargo capacity (but lower towing capacity). but it's hard to come by 14 year old cars that aren't rust buckets.

I can still get a newer BMW, Volvo, or VW wagon, but they're outside of my budget and/or offensive/dangerous (distracting tech, LED headlights, etc). because fuck people who just want a Toyota Matrix, I guess. the VWs were probably the closest to my low budget in the used market

Tunnels types love their big black throbbing Suburbans.

Simple enough: Index it by weight.

People buy bigger cars simply for the tax deduction for their business. My wife has no real need to drive a 6,000 gross weight vehicle but the government awards you with accelerated depreciation for only vehicles over that weight