So I'm finally moving to Kirkland on the 24th of this month. I'm originally from Vancouver so I'm familiar with the weather, however, I wanted to get an idea how many of you have AWD for the rain/snow? I've been thinking of a 2nd car for a while now and am debating if I need AWD or not.

My daily drive will be 20 miles mainly on the highway (work is in Everett). I'm tossing around the idea of a CRV, an Escape, etc. but if I don't go with AWD then who knows what I might get.

I have been living in the Seattle area for the last 10 years and all of my cars are either FWD or RWD. It doesn't snow much here anyway. If you want to go snowboarding or something, just rent a SUV at Enterprise and you won't even have to worry about getting your interior dirty.

Do you run on all seasons or do you switch out to winter tires?

a good buddy of mine is selling a 1999 subaru 2.5 rs that is well sorted and low miles <50K he is asking right around the price of what those other rides, and it is a COOL car, he is asking 11k for it, pm me if you are interested at all

you don't need awd for the rain and it very rarely snows here. Even when it does its like an inch or two and lasts for like 12 hours before it melts. All seasons would help but even those aren't really necessary. Any car with any tire will pretty much work unless you're going up to the mountains.

Do you run on all seasons or do you switch out to winter tires?
e46: Summers all year long. I switch to stock 17's with Michelin PS2 during winter (too cold to clean the BBS :stickoutt )
Hondas: all seasons all year long.

As long as you arn't driving around in downtown I think its fine.

When its raining some of those steep downtown hills are just a total pain.

a good buddy of mine is selling a 1999 subaru 2.5 rs that is well sorted and low miles <50K he is asking right around the price of what those other rides, and it is a COOL car, he is asking 11k for it, pm me if you are interested at all

i've personally ridden in this car a couple of times, VERY nice suby. and for the price its very hard to beat especially with the pretty extensive mods that it has.

Tom

I'm moderately interested. Is there a link to pics of the car somewhere? Thanks.

As far as non-suv's go, I'm considering things like the Accord or Mazda6 for sedans, and then the RSX, Miata for something less practical. I think the actual purchase is still going to be at least a month or two away.

You don't need AWD in Seattle. We get virtually no snow here just rain. If you want better traction in wet you could consider AWD but in my opinion its not worth the worse gas mileage.