With a looming new addition to our Stark County family, my wife and I thought it would be a good time to keep an eye out for a possible replacement for my suddenly small Mazda 3 hatchback. I've always liked my car's combination of light weight, fuel economy and hatchback spaciousness. The problem with finding a replacement lies in the fact that car makers have been dropping manual transmissions and wagons from their lineups.

It appears that what I'm looking for at this point is a normal mid-sized sedan. They have made improvements recently in fuel economy, power and features in the mid-sized segment. I'm excited to try some of the new models that have been recently introduced.

The new class of car that would seem to make the most sense for me would be some type of crossover. I often use my car to haul catering and camera equipment around. Now, in addition, the back seat of the car will be property of car seats and diaper bags. A crossover is a sedan-based car that looks like an SUV but sits somewhere in between as far as height, weight and fuel economy are concerned. They distinctly lack manual transmissions, though, and don't appear to handle as well as what I'm used to.

The Cleveland New Car Show recently came to town at the IX Center, so we took the opportunity to see a variety of cars in person. I found it was valuable to go directly from one car to another to compare the comfort of the seats. Check out the gallery for the cars I've found interesting or as possible replacements.