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Unless you'll be doing a lot of winter driving in the Catskills or Adirondacks or the like, a conventional FWD with seasonally appropriate tires (read: snow tires in winter) will be all you need. There will be maybe 5 days per year where having AWD would make driving significantly easier. I can tell you though, it sure is nice to have on those 5 days where it's particularly handy. You don't necessarily need an SUV though, there are a lot of conventional cars these days that have AWD as an option or even as standard.
Toyota Rav 4 AWD, and Subaru AWD offer an excellent traction control. But no control is going to work at its best with the wrong tires. And the Subaru being better than others is pure BS. I drive both Toyota and Subaru and can't tell the difference. Mercedes, BMW, Audi Cuatro, all have outstanding traction control systems, too.
Want a real 4wd? Buy a Jeep of your choice. I can't believe the push in this thread for the always having to pull them out of the ditches subarus and toyotas.
I have 4WD & AWD vehicles and I can tell the difference across numerous manufacturers. Based on your budget and being a student on a budget get a Subaru and have a set of General Grabber HTS tires placed onto it. With AWD you don't have to play with any buttons,switches, levers. If you had a higher budget than I'd say go for a Toyota Highlander or a Lexus RX350. The Subaru is not a flashy car and is highly reliable. I sold my Subi to a neighbor a few years back with around 210k on it. He currently has 350k on it.
I lived in Iowa for 18 years of my life...first chance I got I moved straight to Arizona! I've driven in more snow than I ever wish to see again and from experience, NOTHING beats a 4X4 truck (with sandbags in the bed) or an SUV. A midsized or crossover SUV is still going to have more problems in the snow than say a Chevy Suburban 4WD or a Ford F150 4WD.
It goes to show that one cannot always be prepared. Although I have three Jeep cherokees, one very highly modified for off road use, a Mercedes Unimog 406 with Michelin XM47 tires (the best snow tire ever made for an on/off road vehicle, and a Chev K2500 Burb 4X4 with front and rear Positraction and Mud Terrains, here I am in Cleveland Ohio with my one wheel drive Chev Cargo Van with all season tires and nothing in it and needing to drive to Cincinnati Ohio tonight in the biggest storm in 25 years to hit the midwest.
It goes to show that one cannot always be prepared. Although I have three Jeep cherokees, one very highly modified for off road use, a Mercedes Unimog 406 with Michelin XM47 tires (the best snow tire ever made for an on/off road vehicle, and a Chev K2500 Burb 4X4 with front and rear Positraction and Mud Terrains, here I am in Cleveland Ohio with my one wheel drive Chev Cargo Van with all season tires and nothing in it and needing to drive to Cincinnati Ohio tonight in the biggest storm in 25 years to hit the midwest.
I think the "type of car" issue is overrated. 4WD, AWD...blah. What's imporant? - TIRES. A 20 year old rusted out FWD car with good snow tires with good tread can run circles around any SUV with standard tires (except when you get to the deep snow factor).
This is from a 4WD SUV owner.
That's why I suggested a new Subaru with snow tires. Best combo possible. Plus, AWD is great in more than snow. It's great in rain, gravel, dirt, and taking corners fast
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