Well, the big factor there is I wouldn’t want to hand over the keys to a 16yo just knowing it had 300hp, but let’s put that aside.
I wouldn’t mind a teen driver out in the snow in a RWD with snow tires. Provided it has stability and traction control, otherwise not many teens know about oversteer. But I wouldn’t fault someone for wanting AWD.
If there is a blizzard, the 16 year old isn’t driving anywhere.
I think it comes down to what you think of when you hear “cars”.
AWD is on the majority of vehicles sold. The data I found (2024 EPA auto trend data covering 2023) put AWD in 83% of new “trucks” (minivans, “truck” SUVs, and pickups), but only 25% of new “cars” (“car” SUVs and sedan/wagons). Since “trucks” are the majority of sales (~62%), you end up with a clear AWD majority.
So if you only think of a sedan when someone says “car” – yeah, most of those are not AWD. But if your concept of “car” includes beefier vehicles, then yes, most are AWD. (E.g., Ford sells a lot of AWD pickups.)
We got 36” of snow over a day or two back in 2000 and the city was shut down for a week to 10 days.
We had 15 inches of snow in Monday, the town shutdown for a day, I had 4-5 ft piles of snow across my driveway from the snow plows. They stacked up 10-12 ft of snow just past my driveway when they widened the road after the initial snow clearing.
TL;DR 36” is a dumb use case. 10” of snow messes things up enough on its own.
For no particular reason, I like the idea of a car with quad captain’s chairs and no center console, so that you can get up and “walk” to the middle of the car without getting out. Minivans might be the only way to have that though. (I’ve always liked minivans. Jaspess has never liked them, though.)
I’d like three across, so my first officer is on my right and my car counselor is on my left.
