When I needed a "baby car", I figured Mazda5 would do it. Good price, pretty cool, and figured would be better on gas. This was in '06 and I passed on it in part since I was surprised it's posted L/100 km wasn't too far off bigger mini-vans...
In the end I got a short Montana SV6, since they were also dirt cheap, had a v6 with more power and similar mileage to the Mazda's 4 cyl, plus it could maybe tow some shite if needed. The SV6 had way more useable room, and more ground clearance.. when I tested the Mazda5 in April, it's plastic "ground effects" scraped on some crusty parking lot snow..
I was disappointed since I figured the 5 would be a no-brainer, but in the end, it didn't work for me.
The SV6 has served me well so far. 7 seats at that price point is pretty good. I kind of wonder why someone would buy a cute-FWD-soft-roader 'SUV' that really is just a mini-van, without the convenient sliding door and maybe $5K more.
It's funny that an SV6 and a Torrent looks pretty similar, but why can't the Torrent have a sliding door, or the SV6 have the sheet metal of a Torrent?