As it's December 3rd, the snow is starting to fall again and we are already under our THIRD Winter Weather Advisory/Winter Storm Warning so far, it got me to thinking:

Based on driving experience (location, number of years behind wheel), proper tires, TYPE of conditions, etc., which do you feel most confident driving?

For me, even with 27 years in Atlanta, 4 winters in WI makes you a veteran in a hurry... for me, AWD hands down over FWD... wouldn't consider rear, but that's based on MY driving experience in winter. 4-wheel, IMO, is worse than front and deceiving in instilling false confidence against your conditions.

 

I've gotten over some tough hills in my Legacy GT. Never once have I had to get out and push and I live in the mountains. Perhaps this is why Subaru drivers are so loyal to the brand. 4WD just makes it difficult to make turns.

 

Oh boy.. The white stuff will be bearing down on us soon here in the North East.. NYC has experience some horrible winter storms over the years.. Blizzards, ice storms etc.. From my experience nothing beats AWD in the thick nasty stuff. I have a RAV4 which is 4WD & an X3 that is AWD. The 4wd Rav4 would still slip & slide & get out of hand despite having all season tires and LSD. I would have to give the Rav4 more throttle to get the vehicle in line during slippery situations.. . I never got stuck in the Rav4and I still drive the silver sweetheart in the winter. The AWD X3 is great in the white stuff. The vehicle would never get out of hand and would go about its business without fuss.. The DSC (dynamic stability control) would never go haywire since X-drive does its job in splitting the torque effectively.. AWD has the clear advantage from my driving/ownership experience..

 

FWD vs AWD:
FWD gets less traction, more predictable, driver's are more alert because they don't have that false sense of security
AWD gets more traction so when you are stuck you have more wheels trying to get traction, still predictable if you know how to drive AWD, depending on the driver you could believe that AWD is a fix all solution when in fact depends on the driver.

I would probably never get a 4WD vehicle unless I was towing or off roading. I like the torque sensing.

All said and done. Winter tires on any application if you're the right type of driver. AWD plus winter tires probably the best though but if you were making a decision on a car and did some winter driving I wouldn't base upon which car I buy on whether it handles good in snow.

 

I'm seriously looking at Audi and the quattro systems over the other AWD systems... have several friends here in WI that SWEAR by them over (name a competitor).

BTW, 1 inch of snow already since my first post... 5"-7" today will push our total in 3 storms (in just two weeks) to 22"... WAY ahead of last year's record pace of 101".... <sigh>...

 

if snow is your worries then go subie or audi.

i'd stick with rwd or awd just cuz it's fun to drift in snow and I don't get as much (northern NJ)

 

I drove my bro's IS300 in the snow once. That think is awful on dry land, I don't know what I was expecting. I had to turn the traction control off just to get in the garage.

 

Definetly AWD, which is why I own the GS 350 AWD instead of the 450h.

I have owned driven all of the above in the from 2a dodge neon, dodge stratus, a Jeep Cherokee an IS300, and an X5.

The dodges were much better than the IS, which would scream to bang into something and the Jeep sucks at turning as someone else mentioned. It got over things, but handled like crap. The X5 though, even without snow tires and a staggered set up, was quick and nimble throught the hills of Yonkers where I used to live. Now, I will never go back and will ALWAYS have to have at least one AWD car. I know it only snows for about a month max, but for that month, the peace of mind makes a HUGE difference.

 

i will be using my 4wd diesel for snow. i've had lots of awd cars and they are fantastic with the right tires but usually they're too low. i had a awd grand cherokee that did great. i'm fine with either awd or 4wd, i know that stopping and turning are still not much different than a 2wd vehicle so i make the appropriate adjustments to my driving and have no problems with either.

 

Last several vehicles have been AWD since we run the local mountain passes a lot. Both current Lexus are AWD and have been superb in snow and ice conditions.

 

I like FR with snow tires so you'll know it's likely to spin, so you'll drive more carefully, unlike many awd and 4wd, gives people false sense of safety by able to start off quick like normal road unaware of the condition of the slippy road, which people will finally realize when they crash, stopping a car is the same to all cars... and the heavier your car is, the more time and space you'll have to allow to stop.

Many people think all seasons are ok with FF or awd/4wd, but the tires still lack the grip of the snow tires when stopping, if you can't stop, any drive cars will be useless as you're crashing it anyways.

I haven't driven FR for that long but I've already witnessed enough people off to the side or crashes, and I'm fine driving carefully in snow/slush/iced roads with my GS on Blizzaks, I've driven my second winter, and driven 4 times across half the Canada in snow and slush, only problem I have is changing lanes on slush when you'll suddenly change from salted parts of the road to built up snow...

I've had a AWD before, I've gt sucked in by the snow on the sides of the roads before, I can just power out, that's the problem I'm worried with FR though... so thus I drive careful in snow in FR.

Blizzaks are the single most important investment I've ever done in my life.

 

AWD

Nobody does AWD better, under 35K, than Subaru. Over 35K, there are several great systems...Audi's Quattro and Acura's SH-AWD are probably the best.

But remember.....AWD is just a traction advantage for getting going from a stop and being a little more sure-footed on slippery corners. It will usually NOT make you stop any quicker, or overrule the laws of physics if you deliberately do something dumb in the snow. And, on ice, especially black glare ice, it is only marginally better then FWD.

 

I live in Vancouver, right now it's about 10 degrees.

I think I like AWD over 4WD, but I've never had any serious enough winter driving to seriously test either.

All my winter driving (skiing included) is done in the IS300 (RWD).


Does my post even count? lol

 

We have an rx with awd, an lx with 4wd, and an es which is fwd. With the amount of snow we have here, the lx470 is our choice time and time again. The rx is ok, and the es is suprisingly good, but theres nothing like the lx. And its obviously more stable when swtiching lanes with those strings of slush between lanes on the highway. When in the rx or es, you feel almost afraid to merge, but with the lx it feels like nothings there

 

In slippery conditions, AWD is unbeatable for 2 things:
1) enabling you to accelerate aggressively
2) enabling you to get OUT of trouble
The 2 can be interactive, as you might imagine.

In most slippery conditions, AWD systems offer no real advantage when braking, driving at steady-state speeds, and cornering (with the exception of torque-vectoring AWD systems). In really deep snow, AWD helps with maintaining a given speed.