Mini-vans have power to haul people and pass on the highway. They should be able to handle 6 adults without too much trouble, also they put tonnes of power in there so men will be less reluctant to get them!
As for maintenance mr2's are not too bad, i'm not totally sure about the mk2's but my mk1 hasn't treated me too badly.
Regular maintenance is pretty accessible spark plugs, oil, distributor cap, etc. If you plan on doing lots of major work to the engine it would be an idea to drop the engine out, but you could probably do most things with to it without doing dropping er.
One big thing i'll say for the mr2 is,
at least i don't have to pull out my passenger seat to replace spark plugs!!