i really enjoy the capacity of our minivan. (kia sedona) I am MUCH more likely to carry lots of people than huge cargos. But when I need cargo, I can move seats and carry a lot of stuff.
yesterday I changed the Mass Air Flow sensor in my daughter’s car. this ambitious swap is not something anyone who knows me would expect me to try. But i got the part, patched 2 videos, and spent 30 minutes working it out. Did text a friend (mechanic) a question but figured it out before he replied. (full disclosure - it is not hard to do this, but more to my general lack of skill/ambition to do this stuff.)
Check engine light no longer on. Fingers crossed that the intermittent “rough idle” doesn’t return.
In general, I agree with you, I just quibble on the “every”.
When my kids were little, I had a station wagon that I eventually upgraded to a minivan- aHonda Odyssey - which at the time was the head and shoulders above the rest, pick of the litter in minivans. It was great. It served us well. It was large and in charge for getting people and stuff everywhere we wanted to go, except up the side of a mountain in a snow storm. For that I prefer to always have AWD available. Yes, Toyota has AWD minivans. I am not sure they did when I bought my Ody. I will not buy another Chrysler product. I’ve had 3, and while I liked them when they were new, they all developed early onset, frequent repair needs of all sorts.
I’m carving out AWD as a bit of a niche need, There are fewer options in minivans, but there are options. There are also 2WD SUVs.
People overvalue the need for AWD in general. FWD will handle a couple inches of snow. AWD will get you through a few more, and everyone starts to get stuck beyond that. AWD won’t keep you from sliding into a ditch, or from sliding through an intersection.
At least within city/suburbia, it just isnt necessary. I live up a hill in a neighborhood. I’ve done it in RWD in the snow, with traction control. There are certainly exceptions, like Buffalo NY, or in the mountains anywhere. I’m just looking around near me and how much AWD exists that is unnecessary.
I did have a 4WD vehicle at one point. Sure, it “got around better” in the snow, but I went absolutely no where in the snow that I couldn’t go with FWD. I did have a RWD truck once that almost got stuck on a half inch of snow on a highway entrance ramp. I got through that situation and went back home.
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I’m guessing that you don’t live in Chicago, or Minneapolis, or Detroit, or any other rust belt city. AWD is a requirement, and 8 of my last 10 vehicles were 4WD or AWD, the Odyssey being one of the exceptions.
What would you do when you have to go somewhere when you have a week with 36 inches of snow?
move
We get snow in my city, less than the ones you mentioned, but enough that everyone thinks they need it. Chicago? It’s about as flat as a city will ever be, except for about half a block ~between Broadway and Clark. I am sure street parking or having a garage on the back alley is a complete pain in the ass to deal with. It was snowy last time I was there, nothing more than an inch or so and it was all fine.
36” of snow in a week? That’s once a decade? Just about everything near me shut down last time we had 6”, until after the plows came through when it stopped. It’s all manageable.
I am not going to disagree that having it just in case you can’t plan ahead of a snowstorm buys you an element of freedom. I am just saying, that is all most people are really buying. It’s a few grand in additional costs between adding it as an option, additional fuel, and maintenance, net of anything you recover at the time of sale. Tipping the instacart person an extra 100 bucks and staying home would be a better deal.
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Or, storing up, since they can be predicted a week in advance.
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Right, its just an alternative. Some people have jobs that require them to be on site, even when it snows. There was a time, when I had my 4WD, that I had to go pick up my kids from school, as freezing rain hit and the busses couldnt run. That may not have been manageable to get there without it, at least not for several hours until salt trucks made their way around.
Funny how some are obsessed with edge cases even though a workaround is relatively easy. As others have said, for that once-a-decade event, hunker down with your emergency supplies and wait a week.
Reminds me of all the people who buy a truck because of that once every one or two year event - “I might need to haul some stuff”. Plenty of people rent trucks for just such an occasion.
So DTNF wants a 600hp economy car so he can speed from Cali to Vegas, and he gets admiration for knowing what he wants. I want AWD so I don’t end up in a ditch in the winter and I am a shameless, overindulgent overconsumer?
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Yes, to both.
Next question??
To Actuary it: how many days of snow and how much snow (frequency and severity) should factor in to this decision.
Plus, owner preference.
Blanket statements are stupid. All of them.
It depends on your use case. If you live in an area where you need AWD multiple times a year (say if it’s hilly and often icy), it makes sense. If not, you are paying for a more expensive vehicle with more points of failure and lower energy efficiency.
I had a (RWD) BMW 335i for a while in Denver, took it skiing, never had a problem. The secret is snow tires, total game-changer. I did occasionally have a problem because it had the sport package so about 5” of ground clearance. In deep snow I became the snowplow.
AWD is nicer to drive when it rains as well. It’s fine to have a preference. It’s on the majority of cars now, people are starting to expect it. It’s just an expensive way to deal with something that has many alternatives.
Do you mean available? Because I don’t think the majority of cars sold in 2025 actually have it. I could be wrong, of course.
Hmm, various sources from a quick search give 40%, and note SUV preference is large driver of that share, as SUVs are more likely to have as an option. Say people seeking safer driving in bad weather and performance are main motivations.
Personally, in a warm weather state, rain is the worst driving environment I will be in (when it snows I won’t drive). I think the additional control is nice, but tradeoff is lower efficiency.
I read ~58% this morning before posting that.
Sorry, edit in process for long while. Can’t claim authoritative status in number. Personal fleet.is 0/6. 
The percentage of new light-duty vehicles produced with AWD or 4WD systems has increased rapidly over the past decade, reaching a majority share of the market. In 2022, nearly 60% of new light-duty vehicles produced in the U.S. had all-wheel or four-wheel drive, and since 2017, it has been the most common drive type.
Not sure where I got the 58, maybe something else I clicked. It was very low effort research.
30% of the US population lives in the “snow is rare” zone. Also lazy/AI
Would you hand over the keys to your BMW to your 16 year old daughter to go out in blizzard conditions? Do you think it’s a crime to feel more assured by handing her the keys to an SUV in that weather?