Cars..

Sara and I have been semi-seriously pondering the idea of trading in her current vehicle (an 1989 Mercedes Station wagon, 17 MPG) for something slightly more fuel efficient.

(Just as a side note, doing so would also make theoretical road trips more feasible.)

Personally, I've been looking at VW Cabrios....yes, a convertible, but one that gets pretty good gas mileage,(30 mpg) actually. My thinking on this is as follows:

We do not have kids, therefore, we only really need one car with four doors.
On the whole, they're not really any more expensive than a hardtop car with roughly the same miles.
Convertibles are fun. And Sara won't settle for anything less than a sunroof after driving the Mercedes, so I'm thinking, hey, let's go whole hog.
And depending on the model, some Cabrio's have an overhead roll bar. Which would make my mother happy. Her cousin was killed when his convertible rolled.

The downside is I'm not sure how well they heat in the winter. And I don't really know anything about VWs (are they expensive to maintain, etc.)

So, I'm tossing this out to all y'all.

1. Anybody ever owned a VW? How are they to maintain?
2. Anybody ever owned a convertible? How are they in wintertime?

Discuss.