my mechanic who services my 1999 subaru legacy/outback would probably be mad at me if i replaced it with an audi (or a volvo - i’ve asked). he prefers working on the subaru. we looked at an audi wagon (S line, very nice vehicle) but ultimately were scared off by the seemingly inevitable costlier maintenance.
@csa A Subaru Impreza WRX is hardly a soccer mom’s car!!
@Docknick, I’m Just Going By What The OP’s Comments Indicated. He/She made reference to Subaru And Soccer Mom Car. That’s Why I Used Quotations.
I’ll have to take your word for that certain model as we have no Subaru dealers anywhere near this area and basically no Subarus. I’ve gone to many far away soccer games while my daughter was in high school and there I did see Soccer Mom Subarus (like little station wagons) because Moms where driving them.
CSA
Every car has it’s archilles heal. The Subaru is the head casket in some four cylinders. Other then that, it has become what the SAAB wanted to be. It has carved out a nitch for the sporty, go anywhere and have a good time set. It did so by being a more reliable and practical vehicle then the SAAB. Having said all that, AWD cars ( especially the Subaru) can be very reliable if maintenance and good driving practices are followed during the first 100k of it’s life.
BTW
If you are indeed set on a used Subaru, I would recommend you buy one in central/northern Maine. With the recent heavy snow fall totals, the local dealers have seen fit to install options to help Subaru owners get to where they need to regardless. Here is a picture of one in the downtown lot that has one option installed for a nominal expense by a local dealership. SAAB never went the extra mile like Subaru does to satisfy their customers.
All 4 wheel drive vehicles need more repairs and burn more gas than equivalent 2 wheel drive ones. But if you want all wheel drive to use on the highway, nobody makes better systems than Subaru and Audi.
bloody_knuckles
If snow traction is an issue get a set of winter tires and you won’t miss AWD at all.
That has not been my experience. I got by for years with FWD and studded snowtires with my steep driveway in a hilly neighborhood, but when I finally went to AWD the difference was very noticeable.
As oldtimer points out above, AWD means more complexity and reduced fuel economy, but so far for me the former has been no problem at all, and the latter barely detectable.
You would not put a cheap set of all season tires on a Corvette and expect it to handle up to it’s capabilities. You would spend the money on decent performance tires. The same is true for an AWD car to be used for winter driving. If you want the full benefits of AWD, you get snow tires. If you don’t, you Get to accelerate a little better and not much else. You are never going to get the full benefits of AWD in snow and ice without winter tires. AWD and snow tires go together like ham and eggs. It’s not one or the other…it’s both. People who buy AWD cars and expect great winter performance with standard tires, are fooling themselves and wasting their money.
If you buy awd and rotate snow tires on in the winter, you stop reading the weather reports and get to living on your own timetable. Life is good ! That’s the reason I have a problem recommending old AWD cars for winter performance. If you can’t afford a newer one, are you really going to invest in snow tires on an old one ?
^
I totally agree.
Now that I am retired, I have the…luxury…of waiting until the roads are in good condition before driving, so I “make do” with Michelin Defenders on my Outback–year-around–but when I was in my working years, I equipped my Outbacks with Michelin winter tires, and the safety advantage of having AWD and superior tires when I had to drive in the worst winter conditions was…priceless.
There are actually snow tires for a Corvette? Gover the OEM shoes it wears, I doubt that any snow tire could provide proper sports car handling for the Corvette. I’d find a nice garage to park it in for the winter. I’m not fond of the analogy, that’s all. Maybe a Maybach with cheap snows.
I’m not fond of the analogy
The analogy implied rests on this premise. Any purpose built vehicle, whether it be a AWD Subaru, a Corvette, a Kubota or a one ton dump truck, needs the exact tires that bring out the capabilities that the vehicle was designed for. The tires will not be the same and will be different for each. But, they will be just as important for each. Tires are the single most transformative element in the performance of any vehicle,
VDC-what are your thoughts on the turbo?(thanx for the reply)
dagosa
If you want the full benefits of AWD, you get snow tires.
But who actually does that?
If you don’t, you Get to accelerate a little better and not much else.
I don’t, and my AWD with OEM tires makes my old FWD with snow tires seem nearly helpless by comparison.
AWD and snow tires go together like ham and eggs. It’s not one or the other…it’s both.
For the life of me I can’t remember ever seeing it except maybe on pickup trucks.
People who buy AWD cars and expect great winter performance with standard tires, are fooling themselves and wasting their money.
Nah, it enables me to actually make it up slippery hills instead of just leaving wheelspin tracks halfway before throwing in the towel, and also to avoid getting stuck.
@auto-owner.
If all you need an AWD car to do is get up your driveway so you don’t have to shovel it, I understand where you are comming from. 
Many don’t buy them. They don’t drive in snow that much and don’t see the need…or they are too cheap. They never had snow tires on their fwd cars either. But, people’s refusal to use them does not diminish what they do for a car in winter. Snow tires actually help AWD cars accelerate, corner and brake a whole lot better then all season tires in snow and ON WET pavement below 40 degrees.
If you live in an area with regular snow, you spend less money on tires rotating between two sets each summer and fall then trying to drive all seasons alone. If you don’t see snow that regularly, I get it.
But, you trying to explain away the benefits of snow tires with AWD because you don’t use them…huh ? Do you actually think your car stops and corners while coasting better with AWD without snow tires then a fwd car with snow tires ?
Around here we call Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs and BMW coupes early warning devices.
When we see them in the median or sitting atop the guard rail, we know it is starting to get slippery.
Have to admit I agree with OT,I watched a camaro heading up the grade ,“balling jack” throwing a roostertail of snow,a few yards later after a I80 degree turn,He slowed and headed back the way He had come from.
“Around here we call Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs and BMW coupes early warning devices. When we see them in the median or sitting atop the guard rail, we know it is starting to get slippery.”
Just down the road from my house, there is a person (who obviously isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer), who manages to get his late-model Mustang stuck on the same corner every time that we get a large snowfall. After 3 years of this, you would think that he would have learned that he needs tires that actually provide winter traction, but apparently that thought hasn’t yet occurred to him.
In regard to dagosa’s suggestion of pairing an AWD vehicle with winter tires, auto-owner replied, “But who actually does that?”
Well, me for one.
While I now have the luxury of being able to stay off the roads until they have been plowed and salted, during my working years I used Michelin’s excellent winter tires on my Outbacks.
What you–and a lot of other people–have failed to recognize is the biggest advantage of winter tires, namely their ability to stop your vehicle in a far shorter distance, as compared to so-called “all-season” tires. Being able to stop in ~30 feet less distance can frequently make the difference between hitting something and not hitting anything.
@VDCdriver
My best friend bought a Subaru for his wife who was a reporter for the local newspaper and had to go to any story, regardless of the weather. He bought the car within a month after riding in and driving my Subaru with snow tires in the winter. I casually mentioned that the snow tires had a lot to do with the excellent performance . Instead, he listened to the hype of the dealer and bought the Subaru without them and I guess just assumed that Subarus magically did not need them.
After a week, his wife was in hysterics with him. She called it a death trap. She said she would take off ( her first time driving AWD) and not realize how quickly they could accelerate with out snow tires, and suddenly, she is going too fast and over driving the all seasons that came with them when it came to stopping and turning. He bought snow tires within the week. His wife had more "influence " then me I guess.
“suddenly, she is going too fast and over driving the all seasons that came with them when it came to stopping and turning”
Yup!
Being able to stay on course on a turn, rather than having to correct a swinging rear end or a totally sliding car, is one of the other huge advantages of winter tires. Those who have never used them just don’t understand how much of a safety advantage they provide.
Once a powered wheel begins to slip, you can’t turn any more whether it be AWD of fwd. Traction control cuts the power out to defeat the slippage, but at the expense of having any momentum to make a hill. Each winter when my wife drives our AWD car out our road and up steep hills over snow, the car begins to slow down and cut the throttle, making her wonder if she can even make the hill. Each year I remnd her to engage the traction control cut out switch which does not allow the computer to cut the throttle as she climbs the hill. It does allow the wheels to spinn, but snow tires catch enough to easily continue tunning on curves going up hill and still retain momentum. Without the snow tires, you are a gonna and can’t even take advantage of this feature. Everyone on our road who lives past the first quarter mile has AWD or 4 wd…EVERYONE also has snow tires. The learning curve is fast and definitive.
We could have our road sanded more regularly and more heavily so everyone wouldn’t need snow tires. But sanding and salting over an unpaved road has to be done Many times more frequently as on a paved road. Because we have to pay for our own upkeep, it’s much much cheaper to just put winter tires on all our cars and trucks. Wwe save the sanding for the fuel oil and gas delivery trucks.