Honda, Hyundai or Subaru?

I have to agree with Benny and Harv. All wheel drive has been great for me. Sometimes there is a choice about driving in slippery weather, but many times there is not. Sometimes you are caught mid-trip. I think last Thanksgiving in NJ there was an ice storm that hit while we were traveling to the relatives. Once we got off the highway we saw a ton of cars just slide off the road. We had no problems and arrived in one piece.

Another reason for AWD:  20+ inches of very dense snow, plus some sleet, in the last 24 hours.

This would have taken me hours to shovel:



Zelda was in a crunch and had to get to work today.  

Selected shoveling, (mostly the plow snow) and we blasted right out.

I'll still shovel it all eventually, but at a much slower pace.

Harv, that doesn't look like 20" . More like 8....

Unlike the CRV, the Civic was not clear of snow last night.



I shoveled 8" last night and probably 14" today.

With New Jersey becoming snow country, Ho Ho may have to bring you a snowblower.

I have a neighbor who has a LARGE L-shaped driveway. He refuses to buy a snowblower. So everytime it snows, it's shoveling time for several days. His wife does it.

She seems cheary about it and I've not seen shovel imprints upside his head.

ok..that looks much better..

what year and model is your crv...my daughter got her license , now I can get a new car..

OoOooO!!  I'm kind of envious!   Of the snow part, not necessarily the shoveling part.  Skunked again in the ADKs.  Oh well, going out to ski anyway.  

Oh yeah, this is a car thread.  I bought myself a '97 subie outback over the summer.  I love it on the snowy roads.  Better than our Pathfinder actually.  I take alot of crap from people when they see that I bought a car so old.  I laugh at THEM every month when they make their car payment.  I would rather spend my hard earned dollars on ski gear!  lol  The vehicle just needs to be reliable transportation to the mountain....and work which supplies the revenue for ski gear/passes.  

Our 2010 Outback has 207,000 and just performed like a snowcat in the Jersey snow!

just a question..how can a 2010 car have 210k miles on it?

My bad...it is a 2000!

Denis.N wrote

Ice on the road, snow storm - those are not the conditions where snow tires make all the difference.

Disagreed.
(unless I didn't exactly understand what you mean by that.)


Jason.. If you haven't gotten anything yet I still agree with x10003g. A4 2.0T quattro's are awesome cars. AWD system is on par with, if not better than Subaru's. Throw some Hakkapellita RSi shoes on it and you'll be driving a tank. Plus Audi gets much better gas mileage than the Subie. (Outback gets around 27 highway/19 city. As x1000g said, his A4 got around 32 average.

Audi and Subaru repair costs/reliability are about the same.

The A4 is nice, but my budget is 21k...

A4's, way cool. But wouldn't the room of an Outback be better for a ski vehicle. Anytime we go skiing (4) the Vue is packed.

We have found several CPO Audi A4s for $19k in the tri-state area.  They have manual transmissions, quattro, nicely equipped.  How are their repair costs?  Our Outback has been flawless.

almost 100% going with the Subie legacy sedan..
Audi repair costs are high and the A4 uses premium gas

Goreskimom wrote

We have found several CPO Audi A4s for $19k in the tri-state area.

What year? My brother is looking at getting a new car once he graduates, that's right about in his price range. He's between an A4 Avant, an Outback, and a Forester.

Repairs will be higher Audi v Sub. How much higher depends on how you drive and if you can find a trusted indy mechanic when you are out of the warranty. Some a4s coming off lease will have very low miles and with adding an extended warranty you will not have too many $$ repair problems. The sub engines have oil flow problems. Sometimes there is oil starvation. I am not familer w/ all the issues, but I know 1 person who had this happen and the mechanic said it is a known problem. Try googling it. The a4 2.0 turbo is bulletproof.

Audi a4 until 2008 are a little tight in the rear seat especially if people are 6' or over in the front seat. Using the ski sack will also crowd back seaters and some interior ski sacks will only hold 3 pairs. With 4 people in an A4 you will most likely need a rack or a box. The A4 trunk is huge. The A4 wagon is about the same interior size as an outback. The outbacks are not much better for rear seat space. I cannot sit in the back of either car for long periods of time.

I have had 7 audis since 1989. I use premium about 5-10% of the time. I have never had an engine problem and most of the Audis were run over 100,000 miles. I only use premium when the car is fully loaded (4 guys + ski equipment) or very hot periods in the summer. Some people claim better gas mileage w/prem but this has not been the case for me.

They are both tanks in the snow and unstoppable with snow tires. I find the Audis are much more relaxed and quiet on multiple hour highway trips vs. Subaru Outbacks. This might not be true in a Legacy as I have not been in a Legacy for a long trip. You should be happy with either car.

x10003q wrote

They are both tanks in the snow and unstoppable with snow tires. I find the Audis are much more relaxed and quiet on multiple hour highway trips vs. Subaru Outbacks. This might not be true in a Legacy as I have not been in a Legacy for a long trip. You should be happy with either car.

They've probably fixed it since then, but my friend has had 2 second gen Outbacks, and he said the weather strips were pretty bad, so there is a lot of ambient noise from the wind and road.

Just avoid GM. When I called them to complain about all the repairs my 4WD Aztek required, I was told that "because you drive where it's cold and snows the repairs are normal wear and tear". No wonder they went bankrupt.

tom

Subie wont let you down.

Great car and even a better car company to do biz with......they really do care.