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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.