With a 9 year old Prius and a 16 year old Acura, I’ve started contemplating a new ride. All the cross-overs look the same to me, and I’m not interested in the huge increase in fuel costs associated with a 4- or all-wheel drive vehicle. I only need to drive in significant snow about twice a year, so it’s going to be another car for me. I have no idea what car I would want, but it’s not going to be another Toyota. My Prius is a POS, falling apart at the seems with only 103k on it. I’m considering going back to Honda very seriously. Possibly a Civic SI, or a gently used Acura.
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Highly recommend a Mazda3. Mine has been reliable, great fuel mileage for a non-hybrid, handles well in the snow (caveat: with snow tires), comfortable, very responsive both in terms of acceleration and steering, and lots of storage space (caveat: I have the hatch model).
The downside is that you wouldn’t want to stick anyone over average height in the backseat; there is not a lot of leg room back there. Not an issue for me, as I only rarely have passengers.
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I would’ve bought a Mazda 5 instead of the Prius if the 5 had been available with a hybrid engine. It was built on the 3 chassis, and was pretty agile for a station wagon. Perhaps the 5 will return in a format pleasing to me at the time I’m ready to buy a new car. 
If not, two year old ‘luxury’ cars coming off low-mile lease are often right in my pricing comfort zone. 
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I always like the mazda5.
But it’s crash testing put me off it pretty badly.
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When they first sold it in North America, it didn’t have the safety features that it did in Europe. I even checked at the time whether or not it would be possible to import a European model and was told “no”. But since then, they’ve switched to selling a version with the necessary safety features. Or are you saying they’re STILL not passing the safety tests now?
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The last year it was sold in the US (2015), it got a Poor rating in small overlap front driver side, and Marginal in side impact.
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If, by “in a format pleasing to me,” you mean “in a hybrid,” that’s unlikely any time in the near future: Mazda is putting their research dollars into SkyActive, which basically entails cutting as much weight as possible and making the engine itself more fuel efficient. I’m sure they’re planning to move to EV/hybrid technology eventually, but it doesn’t seem to be on their immediate roadmap.
Still, I get some pretty spectacular mileage out of my 3 despite not having any hybrid technology in it.
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Wow, and that would be WITH the safety features!
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