Interested in perhaps a new Subaru or Forester.
I know nothing about Subaru, accept they have a generally good name, and a "Raider Nation" type following.
@SubieRubyRoo and others, some guidance would be great.
Outback is larger, so a little more cargo space and a slightly higher towing capacity.
It's a bit heavier and I can tell the difference in acceleration between my wife's Outback and my Forester.
The longer length needs a little more room to park. We're only talking a few inches though, not like a foot or more.
The Forester has a taller body with larger windows and it's like being in an air traffic control tower. It's very easy to see out. Even my co-worker who is like 6'7" and 350 decided to go with a Forester (Wilderness... I'm a bit jealous now) instead of the Outback.
If you do any light off roading ("soft roading") the Forester has better aprroach, breakover, and departure angles, though the Wilderness edition is much improved.
Engines and the CVT transaxle are the same.
Both are very, very safe.... I know how thick the rollover bars in a 2015 Forest is after having someone hit us and roll us. The sheet metal and some of the roof rail and even windshield were ground away exposing part of the protective cage.
Both are great in slippery road conditions. Just get better tires than what come stock (unless they've recently changed). The factory tires are usually put on for longevity and to help fuel economy, not for the best traction. In the previous generation the Foresters were doing to poorly in snow people began to question the quality of the car. It was the tires though. Take any car and put junk tires and it will do poorly. A top end Jeep with 150k in mods and crap tires will do worse in the snow than a rusted out Geo/Chevy Metro with good winter tires.
I've driving the hills in Seattle and other areas here in the snow and ice without an issue. But I have good tires. My wife's car has tires that are better in the rain, not as good in the snow, but she only has a couple hills to deal with and still hasn't had any issues.
Basically for normal driving, it comes down to the storage space, and a little bit of visibility.
If you can't tell I really like Subaru. I'm debating right now between a Crosstrek Wilderness (especially if they ever put the front camera on it) because it's smaller so more nimble, lighter, and better fuel economy and a modes like a lift, skid plates, etc, or something like the Toyota Tacoma overland edition (I forget what it's called).