Extra vehicle for winter driving

The Toyota 4Runner is among the most reliable models in our survey. My only concern is how old one will have to be to fall within your price range. Also, it's a large, heavy vehicle and doesn't handle well. Do you need a vehicle this large?

Unless you're planning to tow more than a small trailer or do some off-roading, I'd look for a better-handling, better-riding, more fuel-efficient car-based crossover. If you do need a fairly large vehicle, this would be the Toyota Highlander. But the smaller Toyota RAV4 might have plenty of space for you, and you could buy a newer one for $15k. I'd look at one of those first and only go larger if you determine that the RAV4 is too small. The only year for the RAV4 with iffy reliability is the 2006, first year of the third generation.

Honda's competitor to the RAV4 is the CR-V. It's also worth a look.

Probably, the hard part is finding one at a good price.

Since comfort has been an issue in the past, and you'll be spending so much time in it, I'd try to spend as much time driving the vehicle before buying. Too often people discover that a seat isn't comfortable for them after they buy a car. It's one of those things that is hard to fully evaluate in a brief test drive.

The 2008 does have a higher repair frequency than other years, probably because (as you note) it was the first year of that generation. Even it was still about average, though.

It's smart to have anything that age inspected. Plus check the service records, if possible.

I wouldn't be worried about negative impacts of low miles unless they were under 4k/year.

Sounds good to me.