Surprisingly, not a single southern state even makes it into the top 10.
What combination of driven wheels is most popular in my state?" is a question that nobody but a marketing professional has ever asked, but now that automotive market researcher iSeeCars has answered it, you can't help but be a little curious which locales like what.
The firm analyzed a dataset of 11 million vehicles registered across the United States with the intent of figuring out where all-wheel and four-wheel-drive (AWD/4WD) are proportionally most popular. Of course, to complete its data set, iSeeCars also had to determine the popularity of competing two-wheel drive configurations, and it gave target="_blank">The Drive its analysis of these drivetrains as well. But let's start with the study's original subject: combined popularity of AWD or 4WD by state, ranked below by the percentage of registered vehicles which use these drive types.
- 71.8: Montana
- 70.9: Alaska
- 70.1: Wyoming
- 67.8: North Dakota
- 67.8: Vermont
- 66.1: South Dakota
- 65.7: West Virginia
- 65.7: Maine
- 64.7: Colorado
- 63.4: Idaho
There are two trends most obvious among this group of states: they tend to have some mountainous terrain and are likely to see snow in their colder months. In seven of these 10 states, 4WD is more popular than AWD, with only ecologically conscious Vermont, Maine, and Colorado preferring the relatively light-duty latter.
