We love the back seat room of the SDL! With the aft facing baby seat we still have a good 6-8 inches additional clearance between the front seats and the front edge of the baby seats. Aft facing baby seats don't fit in a 190D or 3 series BMW without the driver eating the steering wheel and the front passenger in the glove box.
The SDL is within 6 inches as long as our 94 Suburban. But the SDL drives like a mid-size car in the parking lot as compare to the "bus-like" turning radius of the Suburban.
It's as quick as most econ cars up to 25mph. By 35 it pulls away from the econo's. At highway speeds it's great. Not quick, but continues to pull. Pulls past 100mph without a problem at all. I had mine up to 118mph and it would have keeped going. Feels the same at 110mph as it does at 55mph.
Very comfortable x-country car! I drove mine for 18 hours in one day from eastern CO to Portland OR. It nice having 550+ mile range on a tank.

284,000 miles, original head, original trans
no oil consumption between 2500 mile changes.

I'd own an older 5 cylinder too if I had room!

good luck