Eventually I'll need to replace my 02 Taurus SES with something fresh, as the Taurus is nearing 175,000 miles, it's got rear quarter panel rust that is worsening, and repairs are becoming a little more frequent. It's not worth much as it is now so I'll probably run it as long as I can, but when it comes time to make a purchase of another vehicle, provided I'm within the northern VA, MD (non east coast), southern PA areas, would it be worth it to purchase something AWD?

Our climate is so finicky in winter it is hard to say. My girlfriend has a 4WD suv, and she will probably never want anything that isn't 4WD/AWD, I could go either way, AWD or FWD for a daily. Unfortunately is no 1 car that meets all the criteria I have for being the perfect car for my situation so I'll have to find something that meets most of the criteria lol the AWD vs FWD will help thin the heard a lot.

 

Mike,

No. Get a truck with 4WD.

 

Jeremy,

No. Too much gas money.

 

Subaru WRX or Subaru Legacy maybe? The new Ford Fusion comes in AWD right?

 

WRX isn't quite good enough on gas for my taste. Legacy is iffy. The new Fusion does, and that is one of the ones I have in mind right now. It has a 17.5 gallon tank with AWD (16.5 with FWD) and gets 31mpg vs 33mpg for the FWD layout with the 2.0L Ecoboost and paddle shift A6

 

My Duramax dosen't do too bad on mpg. It would be better if it was lighter...crew cab, extended bed, and dually hurts that area.

 

I'd get the F-150 Ecoboost most likely if they were affordable. 19-22 highway 36 gallon tank..Yeah I could go over 700 miles between fill ups but filling it up would rape my wallet.

I'm going to throw a CTS AWD into consideration. Mpg is the same as what the Taurus is rated at with the same size tank.

 

AWD/4WD is over rated in this area. Unless you live some where with very steep roads that don't get salted/plowed.

I go everywhere in my little beater Ford Aspire. I've only had an issue when trying to climb a road that was icy and very steep.

 

AWD/4WD is over rated in this area. Unless you live some where with very steep roads that don't get salted/plowed.

I go everywhere in my little beater Ford Aspire. I've only had an issue when trying to climb a road that was icy and very steep.

 

Id just buy a fwd car and if you are worried about winters here buy some steelies and put winter tires on them. For how random the winters are here your reasoning doesn't really add up. With a good tire the fwd will do fine for what we get.

 

You're complaining about mpg and you want an underpowered truck?

My Duramax gets high teens to low 20s on the highway. Hell, I was getting 15-16 pulling a 6k lbs trailer over mountains this weekend.

 

Underpowered? I don't want to turn this into a truck argument but I wouldn't call a twin turbo V6 truck that makes more power/torque than the V8's underpowered...150 would weigh considerably less than your Duramax too lol

 

Having personally owning both an AWD and FWD in the same exact model vehicle.
Gas mileage will suffer noticeably from FWD to AWD

You get better traction with the AWD but how often does it really snow
that you need to kill your MPG's for the added traction...that's something you
have to ask yourself.

I also found that if traction was the same,
the FWD was faster off the line.

 

So in your opinion, the Fusion FWD is rated at 33mpg and the AWD is rated at 31, the AWD would be worse than that and slower off the line on dry smooth pavement? Perhaps the FWD would be the better choice then...thanks for the input.

 

My old beater neon is fwd, gets 43mpg, and i've gone through 3+ inches of snow in it perfecly fine. If the snow is worse than that, you shouldnt be on the road anyway. Mike, you're putting way too much thought into this.

 

That thing gets 43mpg?! Wow lol. Mine got up to 36 I think. I had considered a beater neon like my old one but it doesn't have ABS and I found out after stopping the same way I did sometimes in the Taurus as I did sometimes in the neon, I want ABS lol.

After looking at payments on the Fusion I may downsize to a Focus Titanium.

 

ABS is wack. Do the HPDE school at Summit Point. You'll learn to threshold brake and you'll never need abs again.

 

Don't believe what they say about
2 miles difference from AWD to FWD it's a lot more than that in every day
driving status....that figure is more like if you were perfectly
rolling on a highway with no stopping.

For what it's worth, being that you are in MD and the real amount of
days you actually get bad weather where you would actually need or
prefer a AWD IMO it's not worth it.

 

You will need to worry more about the dumbasses on the road more than getting through the snow...

 

^^ Amen.


I rock a '06 TDI, FWD and 45 MPG. I drive 300 miles a week and it only costs me $25. It does ok in snow and ice. Winter tires would help w/snow and ice traction. I Had a 2004 WRX for 6 years and only got to drive it in the snow once. Lame.