- I'm not sure about y'all,
but when comes up to us here in Wisconsin,
we pretty much choose cars for everything that we do.
One, that we get to put all the cool stuff into.
Like the wheels, the tires, the suspension.
(exhales)
But that's just the place to get it, boom!
Then you have the other one.
You got the one that you take the photos of
and you put all over social media.
And then, you have ugly one, the ugly child,
the one that is not your favorite,
but it's the one that's dependable.
The one that you put in the closet
and hope no one notices,
pretty much Harry Potter in the first movie.
But hey, that doesn't mean that it's actually a bad car.
We just have to have a second car, because guess what?
Winter sucks.
We know it sucks.
And it just tries to kill our cars.
Okay, I'm Alex, Alex.fi on Instagram.
And today we're gonna be talking
about the top five best winter beaters
out there right now.
Let's go.
And in all honesty, we wanted to try
and keep it a little bit realistic, because trust me,
I'd rather have an Audi RS6, as well,
but apparently, I have responsibilities.
And buying a $130,000 wagon is not the most viable vehicle
to purchase as a winter beater.
But winter beaters are all about well, reliability, heat,
the fact that they suck the least
at driving in -20 degree weather.
So to start off at our first option,
we'd have to go with an old classic,
the old trusty, and rusty probably, a Volkswagen GTI.
The Mark 4s and Mark 5s are getting
pretty realistically priced,
and have always been a great bang for your buck,
either as a summer car to modify, or a winter beater.
All right?
They aren't all all-wheel drive,
but that really doesn't matter
if you have a good set of tires.
The car is small, it's compact,
and you can store quite a bit of stuff in it.
'Cause you know, (sighs)
maybe this is a revelation for some,
but I don't ever take anything
out of any of my cars, pretty much ever,
from like November to March, because it is terrible.
We know you're not gonna take anything out, all right?
That one coffee cup, she's sittin' there.
Because if it is -15 degrees, that cup gets cold.
And the Volkswagen, it gets decent gas mileage.
And the fact that it's small
means that the heater can actually heat up the space
relatively pretty quick!
It matters, trust me!
Okay, there's nothing better than having
a good heater in a small car.
It's the best thing in the world.
Number two on the list would be the classic, all right,
the classic B5 A4.
Now, A4s are a dime a dozen these days,
especially the B5 platform.
What makes these a little bit better
than the GTI would be the quattro system,
if you can snag it.
Now, most Audis have the quattro system already,
but there are some that came in a front wheel drive model,
and you're gonna wanna stay away from those, all right?
None of that.
All right, get the quattro.
If you've ever had it before, you know why people love it.
They are killer systems.
They help keep your dumb (beep) on the road,
when you're trying to show off
to your passenger by drifting in a parking lot.
And they don't look half bad.
B5 A4s and just the B5 platform in general,
was probably one of the best looking Audis
you could get at the time.
And it's still probably pretty close up there.
And sure, it's not an S4,
but the likelihood of something happening
to this car in the winter time
is probably the same odds that I have
when I play Dakota in ping pong.
I whoop his (beep).
Bang, bang, boom!
Get outta here!
You know what I'm sayin'?
Audis do relatively pretty well
in the winter weather and the elements,
especially when it comes down to rust.
Now, nothing is impenetrable to salt.
But the older Audis came with some winter packages,
rust protection services, and did a decently good job
with their wheel wall cover liners,
that keep a lot of the gunk out
that you normally see rust out anything else.
And if that's not enough,
you may just fall in love with it enough
that you end up driving it forever and modifying it.
Seen that happen before.
The only thing that's not really the best thing
about the A4s is the old leather seats.
Because until those heated seats kick on,
those things are like straight ice.
Number three on the list would be the Ford Focus.
New generation, not the ST, okay?
The Ford Focus, like 2014 and up,
aren't too terribly priced,
even though they are more than the others
on the cars on this specific list.
But they do a decent job at daily driving.
They do a good job at keeping traction.
And it is good at making you feel like it's okay
if someone bumps into your fender because of ice.
Now, the Ford Focus is a newer generation car,
which also means that you're gonna
get some newer tech with it.
One of the nice things about new cars
is that they got fancier styles with the heating,
and the air conditioning, and the stereo system.
And they got just more efficient ways,
and all that sort of stuff.
I mean, the Ford Focus is a newer car.
And with things like a heater, and a sound system,
and interior generally having better tech
than the old cars on the list,
it just helps keep you comfortable faster and longer.
Not ST, because I know you,
you're gonna turn it into a race car if you get that model.
'Kay, so don't do that!
But if you do, fitmentindustries.com
could probably get ya hooked up
with some wheels, tires, and suspension.
That's just how she goes.
If you wanna run an ST in the winter time,
you're probably just gonna over stear into a snow bank.
It's just not how it works.
Number four has gotta be the classic,
the old and trusty, and probably rusty, okay,
the car that you either had in high school,
or have someone that you know that has this car,
it's like the car of, it's just the car of the late 2000s,
the 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX flyby.
Okay, now these cars old.
The plastics, they ain't that good anymore, okay?
Things shake and get rickety, but that's okay.
Because they sound good, all right?
They got the symmetrical all-wheel drive.
They got the bur, bur, bur, bur, bur,
like the (engine revs), you know?
They got the World Rally Blue.
It's got the stuff.
It's just a good car.
And in all seriousness,
the flybys are a great winter beater.
Now, save the spark plug jokes
and queue up the rust fender jokes,
but honestly, they are a banger of a good car.
They're good priced.
They're decent looking.
And throw an exhaust on it so you can smile
every single time you have a cold start,
and winter won't be as bad anymore.
You just kind of get over the fact that sometimes,
that car makes some interesting noises.
And last but not least, I would argue,
is, again, a Mazda Miata.
Let's go, woo!
Yeah, no, we're not doing that.
We're not doing that.
People just need to stop being mean to them.
You can winter drive a Mazda Miata.
It's just a risky bisxuit.
The last one I would have on here would be
the Mazda MazdaSpeed3, or a non-MazdaSpeed option.
Now, Mazdas do a proper job with their cars.
They're a hot hatch.
They sound great.
They can be reliable front-wheel drive.
And because of how they were made,
they aren't really that expensive anymore.
Now, you have to keep those bad boys clean
to keep rust away from them,
but they're like a beast of a good overall car.
Put a little bit of blow-out valve noises in there,
if you want to get the Turbo model,
or maybe you don't and you just want to get a little intake
so you can get all (inhales) noises.
Then there you go.
You'll be happy as rain.
But what the good thing is about it
is sense it's a hot hatch, you've got the space.
And because it's a little bit newer,
you've got the tech for a nice beater.
And it's a Mazda, it's gonna keep
your overall costs down, which is good.
It's a good idea.
So what's your winter beater?
Do you have one, or do you live in one of those cool states
that doesn't have winter and instead has those cool things
like insane crime rates and high taxes.
(gun fires)
Pretty lucky guy.
Let us know what your winter beater is below,
if you do have one, and of course, if you're looking
for aftermarket wheels, tires, or suspension,
be sure to check out fitmentindustries.com
for all of your winter beater car
or non-winter beater car needs.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
and we will see you later.
Peace.