Bose,
Were you a fly on the wall at out last committee meeting?
You're uncannily close to our debate - our existing 172 airframe is very sound according to our M3 engineer, respray still looks good, but she will soon need a re-built engine and C of A, perhaps some smarter avionics.
But there are some very odd factors in choosing a new type. One is the weight to push/pull in and out of the hangar. Have just looked up the AUW of a TB10.
We had a metal Robin (French Cherokee - not a wooden sleek, economical bent wing job!) and when full of fuel you needed a couple of front row rugger players to shift it!
And although I said we were looking for a tourer, truth is it is flown most of the time in or close to the circuit by one, perhaps two, crew. But we need to have a touring capability and a 4 seater.
IO - thanks for yolur input but I don't belive one can go to the POH performance to get the real feel of take-off run. We once had a Pup 100 and on its 500 size tyres, I've had it at terminal velocity on soft top soil at 40kn - going nowhere! The Robin was also not very clever on grass, even with 180 hp it was pretty leisurely (admittedly with a fixed pitch prop).