For a regular, everyday driver I love my base model Honda Fit.
It is what the VW Rabbit/Golf used to be:  economical to buy and maintain, 32-40 gas mpg, hatchback with lots of hauling space, very reliable with excellent air.  A simple, modern, utilitarian car.
I think overall, Honda is now what VW was years ago.
Anthony

      From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
 To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
 Sent: Friday, August 28, 2015 8:57 AM
 Subject: Friday: What's the perfect second car for Vanagon owners?
   
By now, many or most of us on this list have spent some serious time and
money making our Vanagons back into the capable, fun vehicles they were
when they first rolled off the dealer's lot.

They are well designed and well manufactured with good materials. They
serve the needs of their owners so well that many would agree that there
has been no replacement for them made earlier or later, and most of us
would agree that is the reason they get the attention lavished on them that
they do.

So, given that some cars have "that certain something" and they warrant
being kept and restored, what would be your second choice to give the same
money and attention toward (as if that were possible for most people)?

I am not looking for dream cars or exotics, but ordinary production cars
that were well made and a joy to drive that should be resurrected from the
scrapyards of history.

I started thinking about this the other day when I was driving behind a
1983 Honda Accord hatchback, another car that probably has never quite been
equalled in its utility and fun-to-drive-ness.

If you could keep and drive a car as a compliment to your Vanagon, what
would it be?

Jim