The Prius C might not see another generation because ...

Subaru certainly has a good thing going in our neck of the woods. They are all over the place!

With that being said, many people around here in MN are absolutely convinced that they *need* AWD to 'survive the winter'. As a lifelong Minnesotan, that argument is complete BS...but is fantastic for marketing purposes. We have never owned any kind of AWD vehicle. Yes, I suppose it would be nice to have...but as mentioned above, you would be surprised what a good set of tires will do. If fact, an AWD vehicle with a crappy set of 'from the factory' tires is no better than any car with a crappy set of tires. I've seen many, many AWD vehicles in the ditch during the winters ( including Subarus ). I'd wager many of them have the factory set of tires on...or the drivers are just a bit too 'confident'.

In fact, a Prius with a good set of tires is one of the best winter driving vehicles we have ever owned. I'm frankly pretty astonished at how good they are in the snow.

So yep, personally I do agree that AWD is a bit of a 'nonessential' item. Also agree that the clearance on a Subaru is a bigger plus in my book. Also agree that there is now way an AWD vehicle will ever be as cost effective as a 2WD vehicle...they are inherently less efficient. Buyers don't seem to care about that though (yet).

By the way, isn't Subaru supposed to release a vehicle using Toyota's hybrid drive system? That might be an interesting combination.