Do you need AWD in Fort Wayne?

About $1,400 and one mile per gallon.

People expect all-wheel drive to be a big, painful upcharge that wrecks their fuel economy. On the two vehicles I sell most, it is not close to that.

RAV4: AWD is a flat $1,400 on every trim that offers it. On an LE or SE you go from 43 mpg combined to 42. One mile per gallon.

Camry: AWD is a flat $1,525, available on every single trim. A Camry LE goes from 51 mpg to 50. Again, one.

Highlander: nothing to decide. For 2026 it is all-wheel drive only.

Prices as of August 2026 and they move. Fuel figures are EPA combined.

AWD helps you go. Tires help you stop.

All-wheel drive sends power to more wheels, so you get moving from a stoplight on a snowy hill instead of spinning. That is real and it is worth money in a town that averages 32 snowfall days a year.

Here is what it does not do: it does not shorten your braking distance, and it does not help you hold a curve on ice. Braking and cornering are tires. Every time.

A front-wheel-drive car on real winter tires will out-brake and out-corner an all-wheel-drive car on worn all-seasons. That is not a controversial opinion in the industry; it is just not what gets advertised.

If your budget covers both, get both. If it only covers one, put it in tires. I would rather sell you a front-drive car and have you spend the difference on rubber than sell you AWD and watch you slide through a stop sign on Illinois Road in February.

RAV4 and Camry AWD is not truck four-wheel drive.

The all-wheel drive in a RAV4 or Camry is an electric motor on the rear axle — no driveshaft running back from the engine. It engages the instant the front wheels slip.

It is excellent for snow, slush, wet leaves, gravel and a slick boat ramp. It has no low range and it is not built for trails or deep mud. If that is what you need, you want a Tacoma or a 4Runner, not a crossover. Different system, different job.

The base RAV4 has no heated seats.

The LE does not offer them. The SE is the first trim that has them, along with a power driver’s seat.

People find this out in December and they are not happy about it. In a place with an average winter low around 20°F, I bring it up in August on purpose.

A couple of others worth knowing: the heated steering wheel only shows up on the upper trims, and windshield wiper de-icer is standard on Woodland and Limited, optional in the middle, and not available on the LE at all.

Wash the underside, not just the paint.

INDOT runs more than 1,000 plows and treats over 29,000 lane miles across the state. All of that salt ends up on the bottom of your car.

Toyota has recalled Tacomas for shock absorber components that corrode, and for rear brake hoses damaged by packed mud and debris. Neither one is a scandal — but both tell you the same thing: in a salt state, washing the undercarriage is maintenance, not detailing.

Do it through the winter and especially during March thaw, when the slush is at its saltiest. I am not going to quote you a rust statistic, because nobody has published a credible one for Indiana. I will just tell you what the recalls say.