Thinking of getting a small SUV- any recommendations?

My wife really would like to have her Mazda Tribute back that was destroyed by an idiot driving through a red light.  Prefers that over her Jeep that she has now.  More headroom for me in the Mazda also and I am 6'3"

The Toyota Prius V fits all of your criteria.  We like ours (I'm 6'2, we have two kids in car seats, and a 70 lb dog).

My Thule bike rack fits just fine on the roof.

I love my RAV4, bought a 2007, the first year after the body-style change, and have put almost 100K miles on it, no problems, only oil changes and new tires. Great triathlon car, bike fits in the back without dis-assembly and only 40% of the back seat down. Get about 25MPG in heavy-footed mixed driving. If I had to buy again today the RAV4 would be my first choice.

Been a while since I shopped but at a glance the MSRP on the RAV4 is only a few hundred more than the Rogue, conceivably you could walk out with either cheaper than the other, depending on the dealer. Why would one be "best value" and the other "too expensive for an average vehicle"?

Here is a small SUV that is very economical.

I love my CX-7 but am admittedly not a "car person."

I really like the way it looks and performs (have the Turbo option). Easy to fit 2 bikes in the back with the seats down, or 4 adults + Ironman gear with 3 bikes on a hitch rack on the back. No complaints in the 2 years I've driven it.

Wifes drives an 07 Escape (Tribute was same car), it is great. No problems, 25+ MPG, plenty of room, not to big or small....

I echo a previous comment though the 2013 had a platform change, dont know if it is still the same all around great SUV.

Thanks!  Some great ideas.

I'm going to have to check out the CRV and the new escape /edge.

I looked at the Prius Wagon one- but I need a little more ground clearance.  I sometimes am curb challenged and drive a lot of dirt roads. 

I tried an X3 too which was pretty nice and despite my not being a high end car person fit my goals pretty well.  I was surprised how the bottom end package included a lot of the markups on Toyota and the price delta for a similar car wasn't really that big (esp with 4 years of maintenance included with a loaner car.)

just bought a Honda CR-V   love it. Lots of room. Fun to drive. Will have no problem putting the back seat down and fitting a bike in the back. You can even have a roof rack put on it as an add on ( If I remember right ). 

Great car and Honda are very easy to maintain.  It is wonderful in the snow to. Got to try that out first had last weekend with 30+ inches of snow.

Think I could even put two bikes in side without a problem. But my tri-bike has 650 wheeles and I could put it in the trunk of my Honda Accord without taking off the wheel ( With the back seat down )