For snow, snow tires should be more than sufficient. That’s what we do and it works fine for us here in Utah. No AWD, just decent tires.
We bought a second car when our first was born because our existing car (2-door coup w/ manual transmission) was a bit frustrating to load a car-seat into (we did it for a year though), and my SO couldn’t drive stick. So we picked up a hybrid (the same one we drive today about 10 years later), and the stick became “mine” by default (commuter only), and the hybrid was “hers,” at least for a couple of years until I was able to junk it because I was riding my bike to work every day. We stuck with a single car for another few years until #3 was born and I switched jobs (both in the same year, new job was more than twice as far), and the bike commute just wasn’t happening.
And that’s where we are today. My SO still feels some ownership over the hybrid, but it has largely become my commuter now. We’ll probably swap the hybrid for an EV soon-ish and later exchange the minivan for something my SO likes to drive more once car seats aren’t an issue. And when the kids leave the house, we’ll go back down to one car (ideally none, but I don’t think my SO would go for that).
For snow, snow tires should be more than sufficient. That’s what we do and it works fine for us here in Utah. No AWD, just decent tires.
We bought a second car when our first was born because our existing car (2-door coup w/ manual transmission) was a bit frustrating to load a car-seat into (we did it for a year though), and my SO couldn’t drive stick. So we picked up a hybrid (the same one we drive today about 10 years later), and the stick became “mine” by default (commuter only), and the hybrid was “hers,” at least for a couple of years until I was able to junk it because I was riding my bike to work every day. We stuck with a single car for another few years until #3 was born and I switched jobs (both in the same year, new job was more than twice as far), and the bike commute just wasn’t happening.
And that’s where we are today. My SO still feels some ownership over the hybrid, but it has largely become my commuter now. We’ll probably swap the hybrid for an EV soon-ish and later exchange the minivan for something my SO likes to drive more once car seats aren’t an issue. And when the kids leave the house, we’ll go back down to one car (ideally none, but I don’t think my SO would go for that).