[Cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by The X Men

The weight diff. between AWD and RWD is less than 300 pounds, fuel consumption is the same in the city and 1 MPG diff on the highway. 0-60 MPH is 0.1 sec diff and the cost of the AWD is about the same as snow tires, rims and TPMS.

Small price to pay for the additional safety AWD provides.

You're missing the fact that the driving dynamics are also quite a bit different in the X drive cars. AWD is great for safety, but the reality is for many people 360 days of the year they won't drive the car in snow, so for the 5 days they might have to is it worth those tradeoffs?

Also - you can't say an Xdrive car pays for itself based on the cost of the tires. An AWD car with all seasons will be most price efficient, but won't handle as good as an RWD car with summer tires in the summer and dedicated winters - especially if you push your car towards the limits (which if you bought the 3 to be a sports sedan and not a luxury sedan, probably happens fairly oftne).

It all depends on your driving habits...Audi made a pretty successful business out of selling AWD cars. I just care that the car is safe enough to get me home in bad weather, the wife has a truck for blizzards (no AWD is going to get you over the fact that the car only has a few real inches of ground clearance)