I had a similar dilemma awhile back because I had a Passat and a Tundra - 2 payments, 2 fill ups. It got ridiculous. So I sold both and bought a Touareg - MISTAKE. After VW bought it back I ended up in a pre-owned X5 and I love the car; it tows and is a great around town SAV. So for $300 bucks less in payments and at least $100 in gas per month I made the best choice.

But the X5 fill ups kill me and luckily I drive 12 miles round trip to work.

You may take it in the shorts on selling it (but sell it privately-don't trade). Therefore you can look at the costs to run the X5 for let's say 3 or 5 more years plus any sales loss versus what you will be spending for an econo car for the same period (payments, ins, gas).

At some point with an econo car you'll make a difference with lower expenses. But you need to look at that from a 3 or 5 year perspective to see what your potential savings are.

If I didn't choose to tow a ski-boat I wouldn't be driving the X5 and have kept the Passat.

One thing about VW's is that it takes them at least 2 years to get a model right (in the Touareg's case it still is crap). I know that the new Rabbit is an evolution of the Golf and some basis on the new Jetta so it may not be that bad.

Good luck!