02-28-2017, 09:56 PM
mattkime wrote:
>>Yeah, IMHO 4WD/AWD is a must have in WI.
Any fool can out stupid 4WD/AWD and a careful driver can make do without.
...I should talk to my family about this. Maybe I shouldn't be so dismissive. I need a "real wisconsin" perspective on it.
I live in La Crosse, WI. An hour from Madison. I have a Subaru Forester and a Pontiac Vibe AWD. I personally wouldn't purchase a car without AWD. It isn't that you necessarily HAVE to have it, it just makes it much much easier to get around in the winter and is one less thing to worry about. There will be days in the winter where it is not safe to drive with a FWD only car. Probably a only a handful of days in a bad winter season. We had one day like that last year, none this year. You would just have to plan on not going in to work or anywhere else those days.
I'd also add that I would pick up a set of snow tires, or all seasons that rate highly in the snow. I had a set of Pirelli P4 4 Season Plus tires installed on the Forester. They are kind of a hybrid of All Seasons and Snow tires but you can run them year round and they have a 70k mile tread life warranty. They handle significantly better in the snow/ice than all seasons. I'd say probably 85% as good as a dedicated snow tire and easily 10x as good as the stock all seasons.
As far as cars, my short list for AWD SUVs would be:
Subaru Forester/Outback/Crosstrek
Mazda CX-3/5
CR-V/RAV4
For Cars:
Subaru Impreza or Legacy
Audi A4
Volvo S60