I bought my mother-in-laws old awd CRV to use as my outdoorsman beater. It's been awesome. I seem to drive it more than my challenger. Perfect setup for camping, snowboarding, fishing, kayaking, etc... Like you are look are looking for. And as I mentioned, it's a beater (1999), so I don't care if I scratch the crap out of it. But it's been an extremely solid car for all my needs. It's not flashy, and the wife hates driving around in it with me... But I've grown attached to it.
Maybe look into a penta star v6 grand cherokee? I think that gets 25mpg highway, and you can probably find a new one in your price range. I'm digging the ecodiesel v6 that they put in the grand cherokee limited. Good gas mileage (30 highway) and rated for 7400lb towing I believe (someday I'd like to get a boat). Unfortunately they only put the ecodiesel in the limited version and higher end models which bumps it up to 40k or more. I'm still debating on getting rid of the beater and the challenger and picking one up.
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