2012 Subaru Impreza Long-Term Road Test

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fordson1

Travis, I live in the northeast, and believe me, FWD cars like the Ford Focus do just fine here. From your perspective, they make sense only for weather-free locations like LA? In your heavy rain you encountered, any modern FWD hatch would have been just fine. Stuff like that is much more a function of tires than anything else.

duck87

You know, I've lived in Toronto and Windsor/Detroit areas, and even though we never get the crazy amounts of snow that you'd find in places like Calgary, we still get a pretty good blanket of the stuff year after year, and I never had problems with any of my 2WD cars, either front or rear drive. I never really understood why people think AWD is necessary in anything less than a foot of snow (anything more and most people stay at home anyways), especially when it only helps marginally when you're turning and most certainly does not help when you're braking... i.e. the most important part.

duck87

(that applies to rain by the way. In this case it makes even less of a difference, as long as your tires work well in the rain. Continental ExtremeContacts. Do it.)

legacygt

"Grow on you" is exactly what Subarus do. They are not great looking cars. They don't have great tech and there's rarely anything eye-catching or memorable from a brief sit in the cockpit. They are not at their best on a stand at the car show or in a showroom or dealer lot. But while other cars might be at their most impressive the first time you sit in them or the second you drive it off the dealer lot, Subarus are at their best 6 months later or 6 years later. Their engineers clearly take a long term view of customer satisfaction. This approach may not be the best for rapid growth or sales success fueled by great looks or nice features (see Hyundai). But it is great for sales growth driven by customer loyalty and word of mouth.

tatermctatums

Could someone please explain to me exactly how having AWD helps with driving in the rain? I feel like the tires make the all the difference in the rain, not the drivetrain. The same could be said for in the snow. Any competent driver with decent tires can drive a car with any drivetrain (FWD, RWD, AWD) in pretty much any weather. For example taking a Mercedes SLS AMG to Mount Rushmore in the winter.