I'm joining this thread a little late, but I just started the search for a new commuter car today as well. I accepted a job at SRS so I'm looking at 36 miles 1 way to work each day. My truck would be fine, but I really just don't want to start racking up miles on it. Along with this, we are planning to sell my wife's Liberty rather than having 4 cars in our driveway. If we were keeping that, I'd be looking for a crap box for a couple grand, but since we are essentially replacing her car I need something nicer.
So far I've checked out a few cars. Front runners are a TDI Sportwagen, and a Subaru Crosstrek. I looked at a couple sedans (Jetta, meh, and Passat, which was really nice), but I want something I can fold the seats down and my dogs can relax in. That pretty much means SUV (which generally don't get the mileage I'd like) or wagon. Heading out to test drive both front runners this morning.