Car buying advice (plus rant), if you don't mind.

[Kal]

I've got a Citroen Xsara 1.4 atm which is pretty reliable (barring the exhaust dropping off this summer but that's the first problem in five years and only cost £100 to fix).
Mainly I'd recommend checking this site http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/ for some basic info about whatever car you're looking at. I've used it myself as it's got handy info about the good and bad points of most cars.

[wolfie]

I specifically cautioned against a Jetta for longer trips for anyone of above average stature.

Now, it's entirely possible that the current crop of Jettas is better, but I would very strongly suggest that if any car is even remotely less that completely comfortable during a test drive, you absolutely don't want to be strapped into the driver's seat for hours at a time.

When I was shopping for my first car, I cut short the test drive of a Subaru Justy. Hadn't even made it a full block when I told the salesman I needed to turn back - seating was cramped for a person of my height (5' 11"), and if I was uncomfortable after that short distance, I couldn't imagine driving the car on a regular basis.

[AccountingDrone]

We have a trip in late July that we are going to have to drive eight hours for, and there's no way the car will survive it.

We're gonna have to buy a car within the next month, now, so if anyone has any advice...please, we'd love it. We need a nice, roomy car for a family of four, so if you even have some recommendations, that would be awesome. We'll be abusing a connection my father in law has with a car dealership, so hit us up.

Look online for your local equivalent of Interstate Auto Auctions. That is where we just bought my new used momvan. The cars involved will generally be the ones turned in as trade ins that are not pretty enough or new enough to go onto the dealer's lot [typically they will only lot the trade ins that are fresh off lease that have well under the typical mileage.] We paid half Kelly Blue Book for ours, as frequently this type of auto auction place is where the corner cheapo car lots get their cars at. They will typically be on the high end of mileage, have wear and tear, and you do need to have someone with you that knows the tricks of looking for older cars and you pretty much have to have the cash in hand, but you can get pretty good deals. You might prefer shopping differently, but this type of buy is fast and less expensive than going to a car dealer and you get a lot more choice than shopping from private sellers.