everybody ready to be pissed off by this suggestion?
If you are touring the country, Id say nix the small honda, find yourself a good used minivan.
My reasoning-
1. There are millions of the things everywhere, many of which are excellent build vehicles, but they do not hold value at all. Under a grand would get you a perfectly useful minivan. NO ONE buys a minivan because they want to, most people I know buy one because they need a big family car, and just as soon as they don't, they move on to a sexier ride, making a pretty decent pool of available vehicles.
2. Tons of room, you can sleep in the car, you can take other band members, and with the rear seat gone, can carry a ton of stuff.
3. You can find plenty of examples that would get the same fuel economy as the benz.
4. Historically, I have found minivan seats to be very comfortable.
5. Handling is very good on most, obviously not a sports car, but certainly better or as good as an old mercedes, and way better than a full size van.
6. parking is like a car, our caravan has only a slightly bigger foot print than my 123 diesel, and is just as easy to parallel park, yet seats 7 or a ton of stuff. very useful for city venues
Personally, we have a 96 dodge caravan that is up to 250,000 miles and just keeps on going. I keep looking for excuses to sell it, but its just so darn useful, that I don't. Plus, its only worth like 600 bucks.