Actually I kind like driving my Subaru Outback. Drifts pretty well with good balance and holds well in the rough stuff.

 

Lexus IS250/350awd and a good set of snow tires will get you where you want to go.

 

You looking at b8 ?

 

Most fun vehicle I’ve had that fits those criteria was an old mazdaspeed 6. AWD and 285 hp if I remember correctly. Too bad they only periodically made them and don’t think they do anymore. Still
wish if have kept it.

 

Volvo V50. There is a unicorn version AWD 6 speed. Very tunable as well.

 

I love my e90 328i - inline 6, normally aspirated, 6-speed, RWD ... I've had it now for over 8 years and 145k km. Have a set of Gislaved's on it in the winter and has so far been unstoppable. Was great for when I was commuting in from north of the GTA.

It has the sport suspension & m-tech body, so it acts as a snow plow on some unplowed back roads but other than that it's been great. It's also been an incredibly reliable vehicle too.

 

I have a Crosstrek, great wagon, fuel efficient, can go pretty much anywhere a suv can go and go tow a small utility trailer with atv or snow mobile. Amazing traction control.

 

I have a X3 and quite frankly I hate BMW's xdrive. It is intrusive as hell. It's like an on off switch when transferring power, it isnt smooth. Living in Toronto I don't know why so many think they need awd. Any car with a decent set of winter tires is all you need.

I had a 335d that was amazing in winter. During one snow storm my neighbour with a new RDX on factory all seasons (till this day he's still too cheap to get proper tires) got stuck on our unplowed street and I made it out.

 

 

not sure... 2010 and up right now....

purely "window shopping" right now

under 150K km
under $20K but the closer to $14-15K would be the sweet spot .

- not really something I can justify. More a luxury than anything else.

Commuting through the snowbelt is ok in the jetta. I work from home maybe 3-4x/winter if the roads are closed, No one bats an eyelid if I'm 20 minutes late on a bad snow day.
I've only spun once as a fairly new driver it was around 1996 - got called back to the hospital after 10pm, and did a 180 on hwy 19.

 

I am of the opinion that the benefit of a good set of winter tires outweigh the time and expenses for an AWD car simply because it's the winter. Although, to be fair, I do enjoy the hunt regardless, and to each their own. It's always nice to have a fancy car to drive in.

Lots of newcomers in Vancouver and Toronto end up driving AWD but still get stuck in the snow, but surprise surprise - They are driving on stock tires.

For what it's worth, some pre-owned Audi A4s and S4s are great value and for the most part, quite reliable. I may sell off the Corolla iM for an Audi in 2018 if I can find one in manual transmission and with a good service history.

 

I can't tell you how many friends that I have Driving AWD on so-called all season tires and that are too lazy to swap them for good snow tires.
I've convinced a few that snows are worth the changeover aggravation, and they are amazed at the improvement.
I drove AWD for years (with snows) but my last 9 years in my Mini Cooper S on Blizzaks have been a blast. I refer to it as the rally car. Only issue is ground clearance when the snow is deep.

 

I was looking at similar cars last year for a winter vehicle and ended up with a 2009 e90 335i x-drive. I settled with an automatic version so that my wife would also drive it. It eventually grew to be my "all season car". For less than $300 you can tune it up to ~370hp which turns it into an obsolete beast (with snow tires of course). It is pretty hard to beat in the snow. I actually drove it for almost 2 hours over snow-covered roads this morning and loved it. There are quite a few manual 3 series cars although I assume a manual AWD version would be more rare.

I've been really happy with it so far although it isn't perfect. The traction/stability system is definitely too aggressive (as mentioned above) and it cuts power more than I would like. But the chassis is excellent, steering feel is closer to my 996 than I was expecting, and the power is pretty intoxicating.

The biggest issue is that while the engine is pretty bulletproof, there are other components that are problematic. BMW seems to have fixed most of the problems with never revisions (water pump and injectors for instance) but maintenance costs are pretty high especially if you don't DIY. Keep a few $K aside to replace injectors etc. On the bright side I enjoy working on it much more than my 996 since it is very easy to get at the engine.

The cars I was looking at included the Audi A3/A4, Subaru WRX, and Infinity G37. I dropped the Infinity since the car felt too big and the chassis wasn't impressive. Plus the interiors clearly didn't stand up over time as well as the Germans. I dropped the Subaru since most examples I could find were pretty beat up and the interiors weren't great. Between the Audi and BWM I went with BMW mostly due to the n54 engine. My second choice was an A3 with the 3.2L engine.

I wouldn't recommend it for everyone especially if you use dealerships for repairs. I think it is a great winter car though.

To answer the original question though, if your goal is primarily for a winter car I would definitely go with AWD. RWD might sometimes be more fun, but with AWD you can accelerate out of anything.

 

odd some mention xdrive being intrusive (or are we talking stability control?) ... my dad has a e60 535i (absolutely adore the car) I've found xdrive 100% seamless, easily a straight up rival for Quattro(miss my b5 S4 btw)/subi etc. Very playful car when you want to, and very secure when doing point A to B... to note, Xdrive is rwd based while Quattro/Subaru's are fwd based
I have an older xc70 and haldex awd is a joke compared to xdrive/quattro
e60/e90 N.A. cars are port injected still and very reasonable to keep maintained

Oh, and winter tires > awd

 

Xdrive is controlled by a servo and its action is basically on and off. Yes its rear wheel biased and under normal conditions it drives fine. But once TC is fully off you will see how flawed the system is.

I'e driven a 335 xdrive on DDT at Mosport and xdrive is trying to kill you coming out of the apex with the throttle pinned. The system goes need more power to the front, nope not anymore oops yes again... Makes the car unstable, I have never experienced that in a car before till BMW's xdrive. It's fine for daily driving but it's far from being a good system, also the transfer case might as well be made out of glass as the plastic gears in the transfercase breakdown all the time.

​​​​I have the X3 not because I love bmw but out of necessity due to size and fuel economy (diesel).

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