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Its so hard to buy a small car these days in the US. The offerings are pretty poor. Mitsubishi Mirage, Fiat 500, Chevy Spark. And then if you want AWD there are
by s0rce 6y ago
Its so hard to buy a small car these days in the US. The offerings are pretty poor. Mitsubishi Mirage, Fiat 500, Chevy Spark. And then if you want AWD there are basically no options (I drive a discontinued Suzuki SX4 because everything else is bigger). Not to mention the lack of practical small city cars but everything else keeps getting bigger. The small Rav4 is now much larger and there isn't a little crossover replacing it.
- nsriv 6y agoHad the same issue, and ended up settling on an HR-V AWD.
- analog31 6y agoI don't know if your use of AWD is for winter driving, but I've learned that snow tires make more of a difference during the winter than AWD. You can get a set of snow tires, mounted on rims, balanced, and inflated, delivered to your doorstep by TireRack for what seems like a reasonable price.
- noizejoy 6y agoThe problem with winter tires is in regions where you get fewer than 10 days of snowy roads per year. That’s where AWD plus traction control are really helpful. And that technology is also useful on wet or dusty roads, not just on snow.
- s0rce 6y agoSome snow but mostly I also like to take the car onto gravel and fire roads. Probably wouldn't use snow tires as I'm in coastal California and only see snow a few days per year in the mountains.
- bborud 6y agoYou drive on summer tyres during the winter? In that case, yes, being on the right tyre will make a bigger difference than having AWD. Where I live you will actually be fined if your tyres are not "suitable for the conditions" - which essentially means that if you are on summer tyres during winter, you are going to get a pretty hefty fine.
- analog31 6y agoWe use snow tires during the winter. But in the US, summer tires are sold as "all season," and handle poorly in snow. We're not required to use snow tires in our region, and they salt the roads heavily, to the detriment of my bicycle. Over the past few decades of living in this region, folks have pretty much settled on "needing" AWD to drive in snow, and then gaining relatively little benefit, while insisting that "all season" means that they don't need snow tires. I asked my mechanic about it. His take: "They should stop salting the roads, folks should get snow tires and learn how to drive."