Quote Originally Posted by GLC1968 View Post
About my history - I have lived all over this county in all types of conditions. When I learned to drive, it was in the snow before there was front wheel drive. I've owned 4WD, AWD, FrontWD and rearWD cars and driven all of them in the snow and ice. First of all, not all FWD is created equal. And AWD isn't going to help you if it doesn't have the necessary clearance. Thirdly, a reasonably heavy front wheel drive car might be all you'll ever need unless you move to the mountains or the country where plowing is sporatic at best. Even then, chains rock.


I did drive a 2010 Matrix while ours was in for routine maintneance and it sucked. Visibilty was poor, the inside felt 'plasticky', and handling was lousy. If you do still consider a Matrix, opt for an older one. The new ones are lacking in my opinion.
As far as a reasonably heavy FWD car being good enough, that does make sense. I had a 1992 Chevy Lumina (hand-me-down from my parents) before getting the Corolla, and that car did really well in the snow b/c it was kind of big and heavy. However, I'm not excited about the idea of going back to a car that size--it's awkward in tight spaces and for one person a big car just doesn't make a lot of sense. Thanks for the info on the Matrix; I would be looking at the older ones since those would be the ones in my price range. I wonder if handling on new Toyotas in general isn't very good...I had a rental for the first day after my accident and it was a very new Camry. I did NOT like the feel of that car...didn't even feel connected to the road, which was especially scary given the experience I had just had. Not sure if it was just because it is a bigger car than I am used to or what, but I was not impressed at all!