Cars

Ten cars ranked for a Pioneer Valley winter

We weighted ground clearance, heater speed and what happens on an unplowed hill at 6 a.m.

By Gil Brannigan · August 15, 2026

We drove or borrowed these ten cars between December and March, all of them in the valley. The scoring is arbitrary, so here is the arbitrary part up front.

Thirty points went to the hill, a quarter mile of unplowed dirt road in Conway at a steady 9 percent grade, driven at 6 a.m. after a storm on whatever tires the car showed up wearing. Twenty-five points went to ground clearance, taped at the lowest hard point under the front subframe rather than copied off the brochure. Twenty points went to heater speed, timed from a cold start at 12 degrees. Fifteen points went to what winter tires and steel wheels cost at Route 9 Auto in Hadley, because a car you cannot afford to shoe is a car that slides. Ten points went to visibility through a salted windshield.

We did not score acceleration, ride quality or the stereo. In February none of that matters.

1. Subaru Outback Premium

89 points. We taped 8.5 inches under the front subframe, close enough to Subaru's 8.7-inch claim that we are not going to argue about it. Warm air out of the vents in 4 minutes 40 seconds. The Outback walked up the Conway hill twice on its factory all-season tires without a wheel spinning long enough to notice, which no other car here did. Tires and steel wheels run $900 mounted.

The Outback is slow and the continuously variable transmission moans on a long climb. Neither of those is a winter problem. The wipers park over a heated grid at the base of the windshield, and after a freezing-rain night in Williamsburg ours came unstuck while everyone else on the street was chipping.

2. Subaru Forester

87 points. Same 8.7 inches, same hill result, heat at 4 minutes 55 seconds and cheaper tires at $880. What the Forester wins outright is visibility. The side glass is tall, the rear pillars are thin, and after a plow buries the end of your driveway you can see the berm you are about to climb. In a lot of new crossovers you cannot.

It is loud on I-91 and it is not quick. Fine.

3. Toyota RAV4 Hybrid AWD

85 points. The rear axle has its own electric motor, so there is no driveshaft waiting to be told what to do, and on the hill it just went. We measured 8.1 inches. Heat is the weak spot at 6 minutes 20 seconds, because the engine keeps shutting itself off before the coolant is warm. Tires and steels, $920.

4. Ford Bronco Sport Badlands

83 points. The tallest car here at 8.8 inches, and the fastest heater by a wide margin at 4 minutes 5 seconds. It climbed cleanly. The Badlands comes on all-terrain tires from the factory, which flatters it in this test.

Two knocks. It is shaped like a filing cabinet and sounds like one above 65, and it is the thirstiest thing on this list by a lot. That is a real cost if your commute is Greenfield to Springfield.

5. Honda CR-V AWD

80 points. 8.2 inches, heat in 5 minutes 10 seconds, and a clean run up the hill on the second attempt. The all-wheel drive waits for the front tires to slip before it does anything, and on packed snow you feel the pause. Tires cost $1,050 because the CR-V wants 18-inch wheels, which is where the Subarus quietly win.

6. Subaru Crosstrek

77 points. Every bit of the Outback's clearance in a car that parks on Main Street, plus the cheapest winter tires in the test at $860. It lost the points on the hill, where 152 horsepower and a nervous transmission meant we had to keep the revs up the whole way and it still took two runs. Heat in 5 minutes 30 seconds.

If you are 5 foot 4 and you live up a dirt road in Ashfield, this is probably your car anyway.

7. Hyundai Tucson AWD

73 points. 8.3 inches and a competent hill run, then it gave the points back. Heat took 5 minutes 45 seconds and tires are $1,010 on the 19-inch trims. Worst of all, the climate controls are a flat touch panel with no knobs, and a touch panel does not know your glove is a finger. We spent a week peeling a glove off at 15 degrees to turn the fan down. Somebody designed that in a warm room.

8. Chevrolet Trailblazer AWD

58 points. Here is where it gets bad, and the reason is money. The Trailblazer is cheap until you want all-wheel drive, at which point you need the larger engine and a higher trim, and the sticker lands within a few hundred dollars of a base RAV4 that is bigger and worth more in four years.

The 1.3-liter three-cylinder also takes forever to make heat, 7 minutes 30 seconds, the slowest number here that is not a hybrid. We taped 7.9 inches and it took two runs at the hill on its all-season tires. Winter tires are $890, the only bargain part of owning one.

9. Toyota Camry AWD

49 points. A very good car for ten months of the year and a bad one for the other two. We taped 5.5 inches at the front subframe, and the plastic air dam below the bumper catches the ridge of packed snow at the end of every plowed driveway. Ours came home with the corner tabs pulled loose.

The hybrid drivetrain will not idle long enough to make heat, so the cabin took 9 minutes 10 seconds at 12 degrees, and the seat heaters are how Toyota hides that from most buyers. It made the Conway hill on the second try. If your street gets plowed by seven, buy one and enjoy 45 miles a gallon.

10. Mazda3 hatchback AWD

34 points. All-wheel drive in a car with 5.4 inches of clearance is a party trick, and the Mazda3 hatchback is the worst winter car we drove this year.

Start with what you cannot see. The rear window is a letterbox, the rear pillars are as wide as a hand, and with salt haze on the glass the over-the-shoulder view is a gray suggestion. Backing out of an angled spot on Pleasant Street took two tries and a spotter. The 18-inch wheels come wearing all-season tires that turn to plastic below 20 degrees, and a proper winter set is $1,180, the most expensive shoes in the test on the least capable car.

It did not climb the Conway hill on the first two attempts. On the third we got up by carrying speed from the bottom, which we would not recommend on a road with a ditch. Heat was quick at 4 minutes 20 seconds. That is the nice thing we have.

Dennis Aubuchon at Route 9 Auto, who mounted most of the tires in this test, put it more simply. "Everybody wants the wheels," he said. "In April they want the wheels. In January they want to get to work."