Vehicle for hauling up to four bikes?

[Crankin]

Yes, we can't park DH's SUV at the garage at the Prudential center, which is where we park when we drive to theatre; always take my car if it's our turn to drive. We just call ahead, if we're not sure of a garage's height, but it is an issue.
Irulan, I got an Audi A4 wagon. I wanted an A3, which is smaller, in fact just about the smallest wagon made, but when I drove the 2, I really didn't like the way it drove, compared to the A4. I did like the way it looked, though. They are re-doing both of these models for 2013 and we got a huge price reduction, as well as a discount because my DH's company does business with them. I also got a very good trade in for my 9 year old BMW.
She Fly, I didn't mean to stereotype you! Another part of not wanting a mini van is that I don't want something bigger. In fact, the A4 is longer than I wanted. I have a very difficult time parallel parking and I do occasionally have to do this when visiting clients. I pray every time before I go to certain places that I won't have to. This is the price I pay for learning to drive and living in the sunbelt where you never have to do this. I did have a Mazda mini van (the worst car I've ever had) and a 4-Runner for quite a few years before the BMW, and I am done with cars of that size. My kids learned to drive on the 4-Runner, which was good, and it took DS to races with all of his gear, but it got terrible gas mileage.

[Norse]

+1 on the RAV4. One of the reasons we bought it was because of the fold-flat seats coupled with it having the largest cubic feet of capacity for carrying your gear/bikes (in the smaller SUV crossover world). On the test drive, we brought it home and stuffed a couple of bikes in there to make sure it would work. We have easily fit 3 in and I imagine 1 more would fit fine.

[Irulan]

The new 4 runners are HUGE. We have one for DH's work and you can get 5 adults comfortably in it. The amount of leg room is unreal. Mileage is OK for a bigger rig, and we love it for trips, but small it aint.

[emily_in_nc]

I don't have a problem with a mini-van from a "how it looks to others" perspective. I don't care if folks think I'm uncool, though I am far from a soccer mom; don't even have kids! BUT, the starting price on a good one (Honda or Toyota) is higher than any car we've ever owned, so we'd definitely have to find a used one as we just don't like spending a ton of money on cars. Would much rather save our pennies for bikes and bike gear! We've never bought anything but new cars in the past, but less expensive models like Honda CRX and Honda Element, and the 2-door Rav4.

And DH *might* have a problem driving a mini-van around, since we'd be sharing the vehicle. Not sure. If he doesn't care, a used one could work. They definitely have the cargo space and the comfort factor boxes ticked.

Will definitely look at Rav4s since it's been many, many years since we owned one, and they've changed a lot. 4Runners are definitely too rich for us and gas mileage too low.