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I need to buy a family station wagon in the next few months and would like some advice on what's best. I've got a max. Budget of $10,000 and want something that's going to last as long as possible with as few issues as possible. It also can't have sports type seats as the babies car seat needs a more or less flat surface to sit on and I'd like it to have enough power to tow a trailer and comfortably handle trips back and forward over the remutakas. Thanks.

This budget should buy you a good Caldina or Corolla wagon. These are both fairly low risk (apart from Caldina with the D4 engine). Reliable and fuel efficiency should be reasonably good - with the Caldina being slightly bigger than the Corolla.
Nissan Primera or Avenir would be OK as long as they don't have the CVT transmission. This will mean trying to find a NZ New example, as Jap imports had the CVT, which was problematic and expensive to repair.
Mazda 6 or Atenza wagons are good too, but you might be struggling to find a good example in this price range.

Thanks heaps for the advice.

I'm in a similar situation as the original poster, but possibly have a slightly higher budget (probably $15k-ish). I've seen a reasonable number of Toyota Avensis wagons around this price (give or take). any warnings about this model?