Peter Rauch

After passing the test 10 years ago I found it challenging to rent from my flight school and started searching for a family-sized airplane.  In that I trained in a 172, I was thinking 182, but as I looked more and more, a 6-place airplane made much more sense for my mission. 600NM, four people and luggage.  Three airplanes met my criteria, all with some form of disadvantage.  T206H, a Cherokee 6 and a Bonanza.  Bonanza is fast, but with retractable gear, more limited useful load and weight and balance, I disqualified it pretty quickly as insuring would be challenging..  Cherokee 6 was priced right, but was a more challenging search.  In the end the 206 was the right airplane. I bought a T206H with a few hundred hours on it.  Insurance required 20 hours of dual in the airplane.  Tip tanks gave me extra range or  useful load and I can put four adults and luggage in the airplane and  fly for 5 hours.  Its weight and balance envelope is remarkable.  All in all a great airplane.  That said 145Kts doesn't scream through the sky and it burns ~16gph.  Good luck with your search.  Understand your probable mission as that will help narrow your search.  I at all possible, get a demo flight.  And Ronald is right,  Get the spouse on board.  It matters.