|
The FWD 4-cyl Ford Escape comes very close (22/28/24 MPG combined) and would doubtless be cheaper. As you pointed out, the Escape Hybrid easily exceeds your threshold. (Don't forget that the Mercury Mariner is also a re-badged Escape, so you might have another option there.)
Not a big fan of Jeeps, but per fueleconomy.gov, both the (non-4wd, manual) 4-cyl Jeep Compass and Patriot meet your 25 MPG combined criteria.
|