When you think about Subarus, you probably think about all-wheel-drive cars and crossover suvs designed to battle winter blizzards and journey further into the, um, Outback than a typical vehicle can. After years of exposure to the company’s advertising, you might also wonder what it is, exactly, that makes a Subaru a Subaru. As it turns out, in addition to AWD, fuel efficiency is high on the list and three of the brand's models are in the top 5, best all-wheel-drive MPG cars.
With summer half over and strange weather patterns affecting most of the country, we started considering what winter might bring, and how drivers might best combat severe weather during the colder months. Given that consumers are sensitive to fuel economy, and because most car buyers choose automatic transmissions, we decided to find out which vehicles equipped with all- or four-wheel drive and an automatic were the most fuel-efficient on the road today.
The results were just as surprising to us as they are to you, but not, apparently, to Subaru. We list the best awd mpg cars here, from most fuel-efficient to, well, least most fuel-efficient.