No one likes to drive in cold climates, even some cars. The snow, ice, rain, and occasional flooding is a stressful situation to be in but sometimes it’s simply unavoidable. You want to choose a car that can withstand the elements while keeping your family safe.

There are many factors to take into consideration when purchasing a car that’s best for the environment you live in. Here are the top three tips for choosing the best car for cold climates.

Best Cars for Living in Cold Climates

If you live in an area where your seasons tend to have colder temperatures and more weather, your daily driver needs to be versatile enough to handle what Mother Nature throws at you. Regardless of which car you choose to drive in cold weather, a few rules of thumb is to look for a car that sits higher on the ground, and a car with all-wheel drive to provide more traction which creates the grip the wheels need to avoid slipping on the road (ideal if you’re driving in the rain or on wet roads). As a general category, SUV’s make for great all-weather cars because they tick all these boxes, plus the extra room of a larger vehicle gives you space for larger items like skis and snowboards.

Best Cars for Snow and Ice

When determining the best cars to drive in snow and ice, a major consideration is ground clearance. Ground clearance is the amount of distance from the bottom of the car to the road which ultimately determines if you can drive through snow. Most of the nation’s roads are in snow and ice environments, so it’s important for almost all cars across the country to take ground clearance into consideration when choosing a car. If you’re shopping for the best cars for snow and ice conditions, look into cars by Subaru (specifically their Outback, Ascent, and Forester models), Jeep (models such as their Grand Cherokee), and Ford (Broncos).

Best All-Wheel Drive Cars for Rain and Wet Roads

All-wheel drive is the best option for cars when driving in constant rain and wet roads because all-wheel drive provides the most amount of traction to keep the wheels of the car from slipping, and this feature is always turned on (so you never have to worry about forgetting to turn on this feature, compared to a Four-Wheel Drive car where you have to remember to turn this on). The more traction your wheels have to the ground, the lower the chance of losing control of your car when it’s wet outside. The best all-wheel drive cars for rain and wet roads include the Audi (A4 and A5 models), Tesla (Model 3), Porsche (911 model), and Mercedes-Benz (S-Class and EQS models).

Making sure to choose a car that can withstand the elements is important as most of the country encounters snow, ice, rain, and wet roads at some point every year. Keep you and your family safe by choosing a car specifically designed for cold climates and extreme conditions so you’ll be prepared for anything on the road. Do your research using sites like Edmunds to find cars with the best features for you.