Irulan's post summed all everything very well and as others said, skills and common sense are the number 1 issue but technology can provide such additional safety it should be used when possible.

My only issue is all the comments about Suby gas mileage. Yes, the older ones might having been lacking in this dept but I have a 2010 Outback with the revised automatic Lineartronic™ CVT 4-cylinder Boxer engine. In September we drove about 2,000 miles on a trip with long and short distance hops. The car was loaded to the max with a wide cargo box and we ran the air conditioning most of the time (on max whenever we were on dirt roads). Just as we arrived back at home, the average mpg dropped below 31. If I go through a full tank doing nothing but super short errands I'll still see 23 mpg.

For a tall heavy car with AWD that takes me skiing, fishing, hunting, and exploring on dirt roads (sometimes aptly named Nasty Flat Rd), I'll take it. It's better than my hubby's smaller Audi A4 wagon got. Yeah, it doesn't get 40 mpg, but, frankly, those cars wouldn't be the right tool for the jobs required by my lifestyle anyway. Like Irulan, I need ground clearance just to get out of my driveway at times (Plow? What's a plow?).

We're also on our 6th car with AWD (4 Subies, 1 Audi, 1 Mazda) and have never, ever, ever, had any additional cost with maintaining AWD. It only adds weight which will show in the mileage and potential tire wear but all cars need tire alignment maintenance anyway.