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From a Prius AWD with 54 mpg to a Corvette E-Ray with hybrid all-wheel drive and supercar-level acceleration, the best AWD cars of 2026
Trucks and SUVs often get credited as the great weather-busting vehicles, and that’s not untrue, but some of the best performers in snow and ice turn out to be sedans equipped with all-wheel drive. Their lower center of gravity means they’re often more nimble and responsive than trucks and SUVs, and they handle rutted dirt roads surprisingly well.
All-wheel drive also creates more grip, which can prove ideal for certain performance scenarios, and several cars on this list illustrate that point clearly. Good performance in all kinds of weather conditions becomes possible simply by adding all-wheel drive to the equation.
These selections for the Best All-Wheel-Drive Cars of 2026 draw mostly on each model’s U.S. News Rating, a holistic measure of overall quality that factors in performance, economy, tech, comfort, safety, and other traits. The 10 cars below appear on U.S. News. Efficiency ranks as a recurring theme across the list too, from the Prius’s class-leading 54 mpg AWD rating to the Camry’s hybrid-only lineup, showing that all-wheel drive no longer has to come at the expense of fuel economy the way it once did in earlier generations of these same nameplates. Performance and luxury both make strong showings as well, whether that means the Corvette’s hybrid eAWD system delivering supercar-level acceleration or the Genesis G80’s near-perfect crash-test scores backing up its opulent standard equipment list. Heritage runs deep across several entries too, from Audi’s four-decade-old quattro system to the BMW 3 Series marking half a century on the market, each nameplate having built its reputation for capable all-wheel-drive performance over generations instead of arriving at it overnight. Buyers cross-shopping this list should also weigh the added upfront cost of all-wheel drive against each model’s front-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive counterpart, since that upcharge varies considerably from one automaker to the next.
