Having gone through the actual song and dance of finding a smaller/mid-size SUV, let me chime in:
Find what is absolutely necessary for your needs. In my case, I hated the local Toyota dealership, and the Honda CRV is a joke on boat ramps, so the "obvious" choices were gone.
I needed a reliable, reasonably efficient 4WD system, with four doors, automatic'ish, decent gas mileage, and fairly reliable, for under 30k out the door.
The last two discounted the Jeep's - poor reliability and hogs on gas, plus the 4WD that's reasonably decent isnt available until you've bought a rather high trim level.
GM wasn't much better.
Kia/Hyundai/Ford/Mazda both didn't have 4wd/AWD systems until you threshed the 30k budget.
That left Misubishi, and the RVR doesn't have a tow rating in Canada, so we bought the Outlander to tow our little 14' fishing boat.