10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

The obvious inexpensive AWD answer for most petrolheads is Subaru, but for the select few who aren’t boxer fans, there are some viable alternatives
10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

Let me say this right off the bat - I love Subaru. I owned a terrifically rusty first-generation Legacy wagon, and a slightly less rusty first-generation Legacy turbo sedan. Even with bits literally falling off as they pounded down the highway, they were enjoyable to drive and a riot in the snow, so I’m not a hater by any means. Thing is, if I didn’t exclude Subaru from this list, it would basically be a list of Subies from the last 30 years. That’s boring for me as an automotive scribe, and it’s not exactly new information to share amongst the CTzens.

That’s why I’ve opened up the Christopher Smith Book of Alternate Autos and flipped to the inexpensive all-wheel drive section. Note that I didn’t say cheap - inexpensive cars are well-used but still in reasonably good condition, while cheap cars usually require some creative measures to open doors, start engines, shift gears, or possibly all three. They might even require one-inch steel tubing and extensive welding to secure the rear suspension due to excessive rust in the strut towers. When I said things were literally falling off while driving, I wasn’t joking.

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

My advice: Avoid cheap all-wheel drive cars unless you’re an engineer with skill on a welder, or you’re just brilliant at finding ways to make the impossible possible. Instead, spend a bit more cash for something inexpensive, and on the odd chance you don’t want to go with a Subaru, here are 10 alternatives covering a range of genres to choose from.

Audi A4

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

This is clearly a no-brainer, though the B5-series cars through the 1990s do have a sketchy rep for reliability. The good news is that early B6-series A4s are available in the under-$5000 range, and I don’t need to tell you how much fun they can be.

BMW 330xi

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

Another AWD German contender, the E46-series 330xi is arguably better in the reliability department than the Audi, but with current values trending just right around $5000 for high-mile cars, they’re at the budget limit. If that’s a concern, opt for the slightly less gutsy but still fun-to-flog 325xi.

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For those who want something completely different, there’s the Eagle Summit from the early-mid 1990s. This rebadged Mitsubishi Expo (or Space Runner in Euro markets) combined all the styling dynamics of a minivan with none of the practicality, but it was fairly nimble and available with a five-speed. With Mitsubishi lineage there’s always the possibility of a 4G63 swap, and they can be had in decent shape for well under the $5000 mark.

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This is probably the hardest car on the list to find, and actually its all-wheel drive system is only part-time; the rear wheels get power only when the fronts slip. But it was offered with a six-speed manual, and it’s still the only factory-built Civic capable of power-on oversteer, albeit only in slippery conditions. And there’s no denying this neat little wagon has a serious cult following in the States.

Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

No way could we have a Subaru alternatives list without including the all-wheel drive Eclipse. The trouble with these is that prices - and degrees of condition - are all over the place. Find one all tricked out and you’ll easy pay over $10,000, or you can score a project car for $500. That’s a tempting price, but trust me when I say you don’t want someone else’s Eclipse GSX project car. Be patient and find a good, stock, all-original GSX; they’re getting harder to track down, but they’re still out there for less than $5000.

Ford Aerostar AWD

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

Don’t hate on the minivan, especially one using old-school body-on-frame design with truck components, and more importantly for our purposes, rear-wheel drive. That matters because the Aerostar’s AWD system is part-time similar to the Civic, except the rear is always under power and the fronts only engage when slip is detected. So yeah, the AWD Aerostar has legitimate practicality and all kinds of epic four-wheel drift potential.

Mercedes-Benz E320 4Matic

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

Thanks to the questionable reliability and awesomely expensive maintenance of pretty much all W210 Mercs, you can score a late 1990s to early 2000s E320 4MATIC sedan or estate for just $5k. As long as it stays working, that price will get you exceptional luxury and modest horsepower to move you along. Just be sure to keep another $5k on hand for the unexpected maintenance…

Ford Five Hundred

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

It might be uninspiring, but actually the Five Hundred is a heck of a nice car for $5000. Their bland styling and average V6 performance made them unpopular, hence the low price, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a nicer all-wheel drive car in the U.S. with lower than average mileage, good reliability, and gentle maintenance costs. And it will still pull off nausea-inducing AWD donuts in empty parking lots. If you’re just looking for a reliable, inexpensive AWD car to keep for a few years, this could be the one.

Volvo S60

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

Here’s the all-wheel drive Volvo you’ve been waiting for. Sure you could score a V70 estate if you must and still sneak in under $5000, but the early-run S60s are definitely the more fun Volvo for the price. That’s because the all-wheel drive models get the turbocharged inline-five with a Haldex system that can send up to 50 per cent of that power to the rear wheels. Be wary of transmission issues, but if you find one with good maintenance history, it could be a keeper.

Dodge Magnum SXT AWD

10 All-Wheel Drive Subaru Alternatives In America For Under $5000

Admittedly you’ll need to get pretty specific to find an all-wheel drive Magnum for $5000. Forget about having the Hemi V8; only the SXT with a 250bhp V6 will work, and it will probably have high mileage and/or some maintenance issues to address. But I still think the Magnum is one of the coolest estates ever, never mind that it actually came from America. It stretches the budget, but in my opinion, it’s worth it.

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Comments

Wai Ning Lai

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong where it never snows…

01/17/2016 - 09:46 |
86 | 0

Top Ten comments of the Week right there!

01/17/2016 - 09:55 |
6 | 28

And Ocean Park claims that they have snow by spraying foams everywhere

01/17/2016 - 10:34 |
26 | 0

You need to look at israel now its winter and 25 degrees celcius

01/17/2016 - 10:45 |
4 | 2
Evofanatic

Nothing beats a good old sleigh though.

01/17/2016 - 10:12 |
50 | 0
Kanjozoku

I don’t for How much money it goes for In america,but the 4motion w8 passat Is also cool.

01/17/2016 - 10:28 |
22 | 0

They are cool cars, but you add oil to it everytime you add gas, they’re thirsty whales. But nevertheless, great cars.

01/17/2016 - 11:21 |
8 | 0

It’s amazing how many great cars VW group managed to make out of the B5 platform. We have the 4 Motion W8 Passat, the 1.8T Passat/A4. the 2.8 Passat/A4 and let’s not forget the crown jewels: The Audi S4 and RS4. Come to think of it, none of the cars made on the B5 platform were bad (aside maybe from the cheap Skoda’s that were made on it). My FWD A4 1.8 (N/A) dragged itself out of 50cm of snow today. The snow level was above the hood, and all I did was just break up the snow in front of the front wheels (like 20cm in front of them, I just smashed it with a shovel so as to break any ice that might have formed). Meanwhile, some other guys were failing miserably at getting out, after they had cleaned the snow from around their cars. An old Renault 19 was just spinning it’s wheels uncontrollably, and an E-class snaked it’s way out of it’s parking spot and down the road (barely).

01/17/2016 - 14:57 |
8 | 2
Igor Konuhov

It’s amazing how 1.5k eur worth of junk is “just under 5k” in USA, just because of the badges

01/17/2016 - 10:40 |
34 | 0

Merica, country of opportunities and American Dream and all kinds of that stuff

01/18/2016 - 04:29 |
2 | 0

It’s amazing how it costs money to ship cars overseas.

01/18/2016 - 04:45 |
6 | 0
Stewart brapley

Some of these are either super hard to find in awd or waaaay over priced if you do, the talon for example. But then again so are subarus.

01/17/2016 - 11:00 |
8 | 0

Most awd car in snowy country are overpriced

01/17/2016 - 14:17 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

Mmm.. A Volvo ..

01/17/2016 - 11:26 |
30 | 0
Nave

-17 here in Sweden.

01/17/2016 - 12:17 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Nave

18 degrees here in Portugal

01/17/2016 - 14:12 |
0 | 0
ValveLiftMan

In reply to by Nave

0°C here in Cologne. Still no snow though.

01/17/2016 - 15:23 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Nave

-30 here in finland

01/18/2016 - 07:03 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Nave

41 degrees Celsius in Melbourne, Aus. U mad?

01/18/2016 - 08:02 |
0 | 0
gheed

In reply to by Nave

-17? Where did you get that? Yesterday it was like -35 to -37 up here..

01/18/2016 - 13:37 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Here in finland AWD Volvo is great choice. They can handle cold starts like its nothing and grip is unbelievable.

01/17/2016 - 12:38 |
16 | 0
The Silver Paseo EL54

Maybe not under $5000 but still a sweet 4WD alternative for an Impreza WRX STi. #obvious

01/17/2016 - 12:49 |
12 | 0

those rims though

01/17/2016 - 13:12 |
20 | 0

Something us Americans apparently didn’t deserve though as it never came state side.

01/18/2016 - 03:59 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

Äh Mazda 6 Mazdaspeed?

01/17/2016 - 12:59 |
24 | 0
Lassë Lund

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Is that really 4WD/AWD?

01/17/2016 - 13:45 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

They have plenty of comon issue thought like the rear diff mount and … rust

01/17/2016 - 14:17 |
4 | 0
wild_toilet 🇧🇷 (Miata Addict)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

My brother had one before. Long story short, the owner before completely f*ed up the car, changed a lot of things, and we had to sell it after having it not even for 2 months.

01/17/2016 - 15:49 |
2 | 0
Christopher Smith

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Would luv a MS6, but they are still selling well above $5000 in the States :(

01/17/2016 - 17:44 |
2 | 0
Sebastien mueller

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

pretty hard to find one under 5k in the us :/ My friend just bought one with a salvage title for 7500

01/18/2016 - 02:57 |
0 | 0