Sales Surge for All-Wheel-Drive Vehicles

CHICAGO--Feb. 24, 2014: According to recent data from Cars.com the extreme winter weather conditions across most of the United States resulted in a nearly 20 percent year-to-date increase in all-wheel-drive vehicle sales. As momentum within the automotive industry builds, data shows manufacturers correctly anticipated this surge in sales, effectively capitalizing on the prolonged winter.

"It's clear that automakers planned for this growing demand in all-wheel-drive vehicles, anticipating regional needs, and car shoppers responded as expected," said Jesse Toprak, chief analyst for Cars.com. "Our estimates show that Mid-Atlantic states, such as New Hampshire and Vermont, ranked among the highest in per capita all-wheel-drive sales, a strong indicator that both climate and recent weather conditions amplified consumer demand within the region."

Cars.com reports that the majority of all-wheel-drive inventory in 2014 is in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions – a combined 57.1 percent. The Southwest (3.9 percent) and South (10.8) contribute the least inventory. State-by-state, New York (10.4 percent), New Jersey (8.0), Pennsylvania (7.4), California (6.3) and Illinois (5.3) contribute the highest percentages of Cars.com all-wheel-drive inventory.

The most popular states in terms of all-wheel-drive concentration are New Hampshire with 3.34 times the all-wheel-drive inventory of what its population should account for, Vermont (3.03 times), Connecticut (2.90), New Jersey (2.84) and Massachusetts (2.27).

Further data from December 2013 suggests the top-selling all-wheel-drive models in the United States include: