Our Favorite Rugged Cars for Surviving the Snow

Used Price: $3,000 to $5,000

There’s nothing too remarkable about the Ford Edge. But it’s one of those used cars that will probably run forever without bothering you. A cursory look at Autotrader shows 42 Edges for sale—that is, 42 Edges with more than 200,000 miles, one of which has 314,000 miles on the clock. So we can surmise that they’re pretty sturdy.

The AWD models are handy in the snow. I once got caught in an early-season October snowstorm high in the mountains of Oregon while driving an Edge, and it summited the unplowed crest of the highway with no worries. Then, once I was back down in the sunshine, the 265-hp V-6 proved to be pretty good fun. The Edge is also one of those cars that still looks vaguely current even though it’s more than ten years old, so you can flog a winter beater without looking like you just drove straight out of Rent-a-Wreck.

Used price: $3,500 to $5,000

This generation of Outlander (2007 was the first year) is an underrated machine. I owned a V-6 XLS and it was the rare crossover that made an attempt to court people who care about cars. It had an aluminum roof, for a lower center of gravity. It had a split hatch with a fold-down tailgate, like a BMW X5 or Land Rover LR3. And it had a badass all-wheel-drive system. Most crossovers of this ilk are basically front-wheel drive, with the ability to occasionally send half the power to the rear end. But the V-6 Outlander had a console-mounted dial that let you manually lock in a rear torque bias.

It wasn’t exactly Mitsubishi Evo rally-car hardware, but you could tell it came from the same people—turn that dial and suddenly the family hauler could execute beautiful tail-out power slides across your favorite snowbound parking lot. Fitted with winter tires, it’s like the Outlander didn’t even notice whether there was snow on the ground. Also: Its heated front seats would cook a frittata. We drove it for 60,000 miles and didn’t have a problem.

Used price: $3,000 to $5,000

Pickup trucks make great winter beaters. Four-wheel drive can be a bonus, but even rear-drive pickups can be a blast in the snow. I used to drive a rear-drive Dodge D150 in the winter, and with a limited-slip diff and a broken washing machine in the bed it could fishtail its way up any hill I cared to tackle. So while any old truck will work, we like the Canyon for a few reasons.

First of all, it was always less expensive than the full-size trucks and that’s still true now. Second, it had four-cylinder (or five-) power, so it’s relatively economical—up to 24 mpg highway. Third, the Canyon and its Chevy twin, the Colorado, are old enough now that the early ones are cheap.

They made this generation of Canyon until 2012, but your primo winter beaters are probably going to be the trucks from the first half of the run, which now go for $3,000 to $5,000. While nothing says “winter” like the honk-howl of a five-cylinder—Audi Quattro rally car, incoming!—we like a Canyon in O.G. winter beater trim: 4WD, four-cylinder, five-speed manual.

Used price: $3,000 to $5,000

At the time of its introduction, the SX4 was the least expensive AWD car on the market. Know what that means? That it’s probably the least expensive used AWD car from that era. And price aside, the SX4 hatch was cool.

It had 143 hp, a five-speed manual, and an AWD system that offered three choices: two-wheel-drive, automatic all-wheel-drive, or locked four-wheel-drive. That last mode was perfect for snow, since you didn’t have to worry about the rear end reacting to a loss of traction—you could just lock in it and ensure you had four tires clawing the pavement.

Or, as I demonstrated here, the sand. Lacking a blizzard, I drove an SX4 out onto the dunes at Glamis and had a grand time bombing around in AWD-lock mode. And as a general rule, if a car can handle dune-buggy duty, it can handle powder of the frozen variety.

Used Price: $2,500 to $4,000

We bought it a few years ago at 120,000 miles, and since then two kids at college have driven it through New England winters. With a set of snow tires on it, that thing is an unstoppable beast. It's like driving a tractor. These are fairly gutless but they're also dauntless, with a low center of gravity keeping up grip. In some markets you can still pick up old Outbacks for a song, and they just don't quit.

Used Price: $3,000 to $6,000 (The last year AWD was offered was 2003)

We got this car when my kids were young but old enough to go camping and skiing. We thrashed it all over the East Coast and Canada, but the best ski trips were to the Berkshires and Vermont. On the rare occasions when the kids would get a snow day from school, I would take a day off from work and we'd load up the van and head north. I used to love cruising up the winding up the beautiful Taconic Parkway through fresh snow (they were never very good about plowing that road), maintaining a solid 50 mph or more. We'd watch the high-priced Suburbans and Grand Cherokees roar past us…and then a few minutes later see them spin out in the median.

The secret to the Caravan was the low center of gravity and car-like ride. Those big SUVs seemed to give drivers a false sense of security, so they drove too fast and underestimated how unstable their top-heavy rig would be going around curves. Car, meet ditch. The humble Dodge would track those same curves with self-effacing ease. My kids would wave at the spun-out luxury wagons as we sailed past. We'd be on the mountain when the lifts opened; they'd spend the morning waiting for a tow.

And, of course, a minivan is so much better for loading gear—the low deck means you can fit a lot more stuff, and the gear itself sits low in the vehicle, further enhancing stability.

Used Price: $7,000 to $12,000 (depending on condition)

We had a 1999 before this one, and I'll admit it was a lemon. It went through four—yes, four—catalytic converters in one year. But it was fun. We got studded snow tires and loaded the rear end with six 50-pound bags of sand to weigh down the box. The bright silver body had a who-cares patina of dents and dings, and the odometer had long since passed 100,000 miles, so when the ice and snow hit we drove with more abandon than we would have had the car been young and pristine.

We live at the bottom of a mountain, and getting up and down the hills near our home in the winter can be treacherous. Not so in the Silver Surfer. Knowing we were going to trade in the car in the spring, we banged and ground our way through the banks of dirty snow that the plows left at the bottom of our driveway. I loved listening to the crackling tick-tack of the studs on the slick asphalt.

Once, while heading down a short but steep snow-covered road, I was a bit overconfident in the stopping ability and the Surfer surfed toward a busy state highway. But when the front wheels hit that road's clear pavement, the studs and treads on the front tires bit. We stopped short and a snowplow whizzed by within two feet of the famous Mercedes hood ornament.

Now we have the same car but in a 2004 model, with 148,000 miles on it. We love this car. We beat the crap out of it, and it takes all the abuse we can give.

Used Price: $1,300 to $2,000 (pricing based on 1990-to-1995 average)

The 240 was so heavy its momentum carried it through hood-high snowdrifts with ease. It was built like a brick house, so the occasional off-road excursion resulted in zero damage. So little power came out of the inline four that slick-surface oversteer was nearly impossible despite the RWD layout. And within a mile of driving after starting up the car in subzero weather, the heater was so hot it would burn your eyes. Swedes.

Used Price: Good luck!

Hands down, the most awesome and surprising snow beater was the Dodge Colt (based on the Mitsubishi Orion) I drove in college. The winter of 1986–87 was especially snowy in Blacksburg, VA, but my 1.4-liter Twin-Stick Colt never faltered, even when the roads weren't plowed. The Colt went through that winter with front-wheel drive and two of the cheapest non-snow tires sold by the local Exxon mounted on the front wheels (hey, those back tires still had some tread on them, and there was no way I could afford to buy four whole tires while I was in school). Yet the Dodge would churn through bumper-deep snow with no evident effort. It tiptoed along atop the ice when plowed surfaces refroze, and bashed through iced-over snow berms when plows sealed off driveways. It even had the grip to easily dodge other cars spinning and sliding through intersections with no drama.

Mid-blizzard beer run? Absolutely. White-out drive to the ski shop to rent cross-country skis? Hell, yes. That winter I couldn't extract a girlfriend's '85 Chevette from its space with any amount of effort, and freeing my brother's '79 Mustang (302 V-8!) was a pointless mistake because it couldn't drive anywhere. I shuttled friends to classes and work for days and weeks at a time.

The Dodge did end up getting the worst of one battle, when I came out of a party late one night to find that the car had been plowed into its parking space. It fought to break through the new berm, but I high-centered on it. I rocked the car mercilessly, shifting between first and reverse to shake it loose. It came loose and took me home that night, but at a cost. By spring the clutch was slipping and the right-front CV joint was rattling, almost certainly because of the abuse of the thrash to get off that berm. I sold the car and bought the '83 Kawasaki GPZ 550 I really wanted anyway. But I've always wondered what the Colt could have done with some Blizzaks mounted on it.

Used Price: Good Luck!

My high school Sentra was outfitted with huge 185/60R14 tires on aftermarket aluminum wheels. I thought that car was as good as any VW GTI—it had so much grip on those tight Connecticut country roads.

Then it snowed.

One night I had the little Sentra packed with buddies while the roads were dusted with a half inch of fresh snow. I knew those roads well. But I was driving too fast and a little too brave because I was 16 and I had zero winter driving experience. The road curved as I neared an intersection, and a stop sign that I somehow forgot was there. Full brake lock (ABS was not an option on a bottom-feeder Sentra of the 1980s), tires sliding on the greasy road, we slid into the snow-dusted grass and leaves and just barely hit a tree. Lucky for me the trunk kissed the right side of the front bumper only hard enough to rip it off the car fairly cleanly. The side marker light and right headlamp were the other casualties.

We left the bumper in the woods, and my friends pushed the Sentra back onto the road as I drove. The car still drove fine, and I dropped my friends back at their houses. Parents were surprisingly cool about it, but I got an earful of "Slow down!" and my Christmas presents that year included a set of skinny Gislaved snow tires. Of course, it was those awesome tires that really opened my eyes to winter-driving fun. And I never went off-road in that Sentra again.

Used Price: $2,500

You could get the SR5 model with both a five-speed manual transmission and 4x4 transmission. The trucks are tanks that, like the current Tacoma, have a stellar reputation for reliability, although head-gasket failures aren't uncommon. But finding a clean one, since we're talking about a two-decade-old workhorse, will be a challenge.

Used Price: $1,500

The car already had over 80,000 miles on it when I got it, and it reeked of the Marlboros the former owner had chain-smoked; only the fumes of oil dripping and vaporizing into smoke in the engine bay overcame the nicotine fumigation. Neither my wife nor I cared. The Legacy was two grand cheap, it was roomy, and the thing was all about getting through winter.

It never got stuck—until I managed to high-center it while trying to barrel over an 18-inch wall of snow a plow had piled at the end of our long driveway. I got out the shovel, dug until the car sank to its tires, backed up 100 feet, had my wife watch for oncoming traffic, and blasted out onto the road, over and through the remainder of that wall. The Subie probably even caught air (it sure made a racket landing), but we got out.

The poor car never cost me anything but gas and the oil that it continually burned up. And it saved my wife's life when she got T-boned by a Ram 1500. That was the end of our beater, but it served us well, and about this time every winter I think of hunting up another.