I recently moved to Colorado from Texas, and in anticipation of this move, I purchased a 2004 GMC Sierra 2500HD. It was intended to be a safe vehicle to drive in the snow. Well long story short (and due to the unreasonably high real estate prices) I live 84 miles from where I work, so it was not practical for fuel economy. My wife drives a 2009 Prius and I put studded snow tires on it and blast past people with 4x4 or AWD with no risk of losing traction on snow and ice. So the whole reason for owning a $20k truck was negated by $400 tires. I put about 18k miles/year on my vehicle so I sold the truck and yesterday I purchased a 2008 Prius with 117k miles on it. It is in immaculate shape and has all the features. This has been my favorite car (the wife's that is) to own (mainly because I am a shadetree mechanic and do my own maintenance (I once rebuilt the top end of an engine in the parking lot of an apartment complex)). Also, I am 6'7" and (very) comfortably fit in a Prius. I love the look on people's faces when they see me get in or out of it. Already put in a dashcam (In my experience in driving the wife's car, people like to pull out in front of a Prius). Picking up my train horn from Harbor Freight tomorrow, then I just need to order aftermarket seat heaters and she'll be all set .
I have a set of General Altimax Artics (not studded) on my 2007 Prius and also just blast around most 4x4/awd vehicles on snowy/icy roads. I also have an AWD vehicle (w/o snows) as an option to drive but the Prius with snows is more than sufficient. Before the Prius I owned a 21 mpg 2002 Subaru Forester (w/snows in winter) as my commuter car and the Prius has proven almost as capable. The Subaru had a little less slippage accelerating from stop lights in the snow/ice but I never really required the increased ground clearance nor needed to climb any snow/ice covered hills.
