Yaris sales hit new low...

[Onwrdigo]

I stand by what I say about Mini. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderful looking cars. But I worry for the guy getting the Countryman All4. "That" particular Mini has been rated the most "troublesome" of the whole line. But since he knows how to work on cars, maybe it won't be a big deal when it does something nutty.

Kudos to him for finding a first generation xB for his Daughter. Still have my '05. It has been the "best" car I have ever owned. And they are "great" snow cars even in automatic transmission guise.

Yea, being in Connecticut during winter is a big deal. Here in NC, we got socked pretty hard with a couple of storms in the flat lands this year (where having 4WD is not a necessity) and our mountains got nothing when those storms happened. My Yaris was home, I was in the xB, and it got me through beautifully when others, including some 4WD's were being stranded by their owners on hills on the side of the road. So it can simply depend on "driver knowledge" when it comes to weather. I went to college in the NC Mountains with a VW Rabbit. They never canceled class even in the worst winter storms. You "had" to learn how to drive in snow/ice no matter what kind of car you owned. So, again, it depends on the driver and "yes" severity of the overall storm and frequencies of the storms if you do or do not need 4WD.

Just being friendly here. I love cars that give little or no trouble. I think the guy would enjoy a new RAV4 4WD XLE far more than the Mini Countryman All4 and for less money. At a car show recently, one of those All4's had a sticker for $37,000'''' and according to the sales rep, it was not even the fully loaded one??!!. You can get a whole lot of reliable 4WD RAV4 for that kind of money and have some change left over for a top notch ski rack and new skis/equipment for the whole family to hit those great ski slopes in the Northern territory.