AWD Vs FWD Living Through Snowy Winters?

[Corporateburnout]

Front wheel drive vehicles with good all season tires have been all I needed for driving in NE snowy weather. I commuted 45 miles each way to work for over 30 years and missed work only once due to snow when a surprise April fool day storm caught the state late cleaning the highways.

Driving experience in snowy weather is extremely important in avoiding accidents and other snow related incidents. Keeping a safe distance between vehicles and driving at a reasonable speed especially when navigating curves and exit ramps are very important.

 

[freedomatlast]

I like AWD or 4WD for situations like when inexperienced winter drivers will stop going up an icy hill. With FWD, on an incline, more of the vehicle's weight is now biased toward the rear and the front (driven) tires are more likely to slip. With AWD or 4WD, you can pull out and get around them from a stop, even with marginal tires.

 

[Danmar]

In Ontario we only drive AWD with snow tires. Need this for the "cottage" road. What is not having an accident or ending up in the ditch worth to you? Worth a lot to me.

 

[Nodak]

Good winter tires are a must have. After that if you anticipate having to get through deep snow on the roads then AWD or 4WD can be life savers. 4WD is better for very bad roads.

 

[Music Lover]

I live on the Canadian prairies. Winter tires and AWD are a no-brainer for me...I would never do without either.

Snow/winter tires have increased traction and a much shorter stopping distance. If the vehicle in front of you has winter tires and you don't, you are at increased risk of rear ending them if they hit the brakes, and of course you would be 100% at fault.

I chose winter tires that have a high rating on ice rather than those with a higher rating in snow because my belief is that better traction on ice and cold pavement is far more important than plowing quickly though the snow.

 

[Fermion]

 

[Hyperborea]

For Tennessee, I'd skip the snow tires. They have other drawbacks including fast wear and poorer stopping on wet roads. There is also the hassle of buying extra rims and swapping the wheels every year. AWD will cost you about 1 MPG, but it can be very handy, even on wet roads when you need sudden acceleration to pull into traffic for example.

You're thinking of the snow tires of 20-30 years ago. They've changed a lot since then. They used to have abysmal dry and wet road handling. Not any more. They give up very little in that area as long as the temperature is cool (5C / 40F) and give you a lot of extra grip in the snow.

 

[Big_Hitter]

You're thinking of the snow tires of 20-30 years ago. They've changed a lot since then. They used to have abysmal dry and wet road handling. Not any more. They give up very little in that area as long as the temperature is cool (5C / 40F) and give you a lot of extra grip in the snow.

they actually get softer the colder it gets

 

[Big_Hitter]

nice bugeye wrx

 

[Sunset]

Northern transplant to Middle TN here. Are you retired? If so, just don't plan to be out and about on the handful of slippery days each year. If have air travel plans and storm is coming, stay at airport hotel...

OTOH, if you need to be 24 hour available for job, snow tires work quite well. DW is an OBG with call responsibilities at two, separated hospitals. She has spare set of wheels with snows mounted sitting in stack in our garage. If forecast is dire, I just roll out the floor jack and turn on the air compressor. 15 minutes later (after checking/adjusting tire pressure on the snowies), she is set. After the roads are cleared, "we" put the regular tires back on.

Front wheel drive (on a Civic automatic) didn't cut it. Snow tires do.

Wow..... you are incredible, why not just put them on and leave them for the 2 maybe 3 months of "winter" that TN gets.

To see my view.
I put snow tires on DW's car one Chicago winter, and left them on all summer and fall and they were there for the next winter. It is a bit of an extreme lazy move, but in my defence she only drove about 2,000 miles in that car that year.

 

[RunningBum]

Good article on winter tires. Of note, a few years ago winter tires were terrible on dry pavement. Now, you don't give up much at all. It also means you can go with a better summer tire, rather than compromising with an all season tire.


https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/inside-line-asks-who-needs-winter-tires.html


Disclaimer: I don't use winter tires. I kind of wish I had gotten them when I bought my Subaru, but now I've been through 3 winters and I'm not sure it's worth it anymore.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I was thinking about getting a fresh set of blizzaks on my stock 17"s and running those year round. I don't drive that much per year anyway.

I wonder how they would do off road?

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I was thinking about getting a fresh set of blizzaks on my stock 17"s and running those year round. I don't drive that much per year anyway.

I wonder how they would do off road?

Get a set of General Altimax Arctic tires. I know someone who drives on them year round with no problems (other than the road noise). It's a good winter tire you can get with or without studs.

 

[2017ish]

Wow..... you are incredible, why not just put them on and leave them for the 2 maybe 3 months of "winter" that TN gets.

To see my view.
I put snow tires on DW's car one Chicago winter, and left them on all summer and fall and they were there for the next winter. It is a bit of an extreme lazy move, but in my defence she only drove about 2,000 miles in that car that year.

TPMS light is irritating and not willing to pay for another set of transmitters (she didn't like the idea of a piece of tape either!). We only put the snowies on 1-3 times a year, for maybe 2-3 days at a time. Even that is overkill in Nashville, but we err on the side of caution. (And she puts a fair amount of highway miles on the car; by removing them quickly, we improve her safety and save the snow tires. Figured that this would enable the snowies to last the five years to retirement, and it looks like that was right.)

 

[travelover]

You're thinking of the snow tires of 20-30 years ago. They've changed a lot since then. They used to have abysmal dry and wet road handling. Not any more. They give up very little in that area as long as the temperature is cool (5C / 40F) and give you a lot of extra grip in the snow.

I didn't just make that up - that was a caveat given in a recent Consumer's Report piece on snow tires. I think snow tires in Tennessee is an impractical idea.

But on cleared roads, they might not grip as well as all season tires and they tend to wear more quickly. Nearly all do not have treadwear warranties or government assigned grades for Treadwear, Traction, and Temperature. Winter tires should be removed once seasonal driving conditions moderate.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/tires.htm

 

[ls99]

Get a set of General Altimax Arctic tires. I know someone who drives on them year round with no problems (other than the road noise). It's a good winter tire you can get with or without studs.

Good tires!. I have a spare set of wheels with them for my Jaguar rear wheel drive. Put them on in Dec, off in March. Superb in snow. I am in SW PA. Theay are also superb in wet roads.

I don't know if I would do that in Tenn. Probably stick with all seasons.

 

[Walt34]

I know we can get by with a rear wheel drive car because I did it for years. But a 4WD pickup is a lot easier in snow! So it can be done, I don't know that I'd spring for it in Tennessee. I guess it depends on how badly you need to get to work.

With a 4WD pickup truck one thing I learned very quickly is that while it goes great in the snow it doesn't stop worth a damn, even with anti-lock brakes. The GMC I have now weighs 2.5 tons empty and that's a lot of mass to bring to halt on snow.

I just stick with the all-season tires on my 2003 GMC 4WD pickup and have had no issues. It will go in 2.5 feet of snow but that is pushing the envelope - I only did it because I was going to get probably 12 hours of overtime.

Now that I'm fully retired we just plan ahead and stock up when snow is forecast and don't go out.

Practice and experience is important. Whatever you buy, when it snows and you can go out without time pressure go to a large EMPTY parking lot and deliberately put yourself into a skid and recover multiple times. You don't have to be going fast for this - 10 to 15 MPH is plenty. You'll begin to get the "feel" of an incipient skid and correct for it before it gets to the point that you cannot recover. You'll also be relaxed in a skid and with practice will correct without thinking about it. This is an important skill to have where it snows, I'd say more important than tires or drive train.

 

[2017ish]

... Whatever you buy, when it snows and you can go out without time pressure go to a large EMPTY parking lot and deliberately put yourself into a skid and recover multiple times. You don't have to be going fast for this - 10 to 15 MPH is plenty. You'll begin to get the "feel" of an incipient skid and correct for it before it gets to the point that you cannot recover. You'll also be relaxed in a skid and with practice will correct without thinking about it. This is an important skill to have where it snows, I'd say more important than tires or drive train.

Excellent point. We were lucky enough to have sufficient opportunities to take our then-teenagers out to learn on such excursions before they left the house.

 

[NoiseBoy]

I've been commuting 40 miles each way on rural interstates in Illinois for 19 years. I started out with a compact, sporty FWD car with moderately low profile tires. It was fine when the rubber was new e.g. lots of tread depth, but got progressively worse as the tires wore down, which happens faster with sport tires. It was no fun at all when a winter storm hit and I was near, but not down to the wear bars.

My next car was an AWD sedan with all-season tires. Much better, although snow and ice performance still degraded as the tires wore down. I feel AWD helps with low speed slide recovery in addition to getting started and going up inclines. I currently have an AWD SUV with all-season tires and a RWD sedan with summer tires and I chose my tool by the morning radio forecast

My advice is to first, avoid buying any car with sporty, low profile summer wheels and tires unless you want to sign up for swapping them out for dedicated winter tires every year. Next, AWD is handy, cheap, and available on so many good car models today that I think you should get. I doubt that it's necessary for TN winters, but again, unless the extra $1500 or so is going to break you, I vote for having it. Finally, monitor your tire pressure regularly and don't try to squeeze every last mile from your tires. I still think that good tread depth is the number one factor in winter driving.

 

[MRG]

Practice and experience is important. Whatever you buy, when it snows and you can go out without time pressure go to a large EMPTY parking lot and deliberately put yourself into a skid and recover multiple times. You don't have to be going fast for this - 10 to 15 MPH is plenty. You'll begin to get the "feel" of an incipient skid and correct for it before it gets to the point that you cannot recover. You'll also be relaxed in a skid and with practice will correct without thinking about it. This is an important skill to have where it snows, I'd say more important than tires or drive train.

+1000
It's not hard but you don't want to learn how to do it with others around.

I watched a woman who was not used to driving in weather rear end me. I watched as the panic overtook her and she slid into my truck. Her eyes were huge!

It was icy, she didn't have anti-lock brakes and didn't know to pump them. Heck there were only 2 vehicles in 5 lanes and she managed to drive right into me. I am sure her next vehicle had anti-locks, cause that one was totaled.

Be comfortable with braking, slids, starting on hills(or have a plan on alternate routes).

I've seen people do silly things when they didn't understand what their vehicles could do.
Our last home was in a very hilly area. When it got snowy or icy it wasn't uncommon for someone in a marginal vehicle to drive down the steep hill in front of our house and not be able to get up the next one. Then they couldn't get out either way!

 

[pb4uski]

I think your best bet is to just ask some of the locals what they do and how it works out for them and then decide.

My hesitancy in suggesting anything is I'm not sure how much bad weather they get and how much is ice/black ice vs snow. As an example, I live in Vermont and we get a lot of snow. We both have AWD vehicles with all seasons, but when I was working and traveled more I had AWD with snow tires that would go "up the side of a barn with frost on it". OTOH, the retired couple up the road has FWD with all-seasons and it works out fine for them... if the roads are bad they just stay home until the road crews get a chance to clear the roads.

Walt's suggestion to practice in an empty parking lot is a good one. In some situations your best way out may be to actually use some gentle throttle to gain traction rather than brake and in other situations more throttle just gets you into more trouble. Finally, too many people start spinning their wheels and give it more throttle... but in most situations where your wheels are spinning you actually want to ease off on the throttle and allow the tires to regain traction. Winter driving is very situational.

 

[brewer12345]

I think asking the locals and looking at what they drive is the wisest choice.


With a Subaru with AWD I never had real issues with snowy roads. With a 4X4 pickup I can go mudding off-road and plow through whatever I wish so long as I do it slowly and carefully when things are slick (so I can be sure of stopping in time).

 

[pb4uski]

Yup... 4WD or AWD don't help you stop in bad driving conditions... I am continually amazed at how many people don't understand that.

 

[Koolau]

The main thing to know about AWD is that it does nothing for braking. It'll help you get going and can help you keep going in a straight line but it won't help you stop, so you still have to drive cautiously and leave plenty of distance.


.

+1

Had 'on demand' 4WD back on the mainland for a while. It would get you into trouble a lot faster than the brakes would get you out of it.

Spent most of my years in snow country and I found that having a vehicle with either manual transmission or an automatic which could be placed in 2nd gear made a big difference in getting out of slippery snow (and even ice). Using 2nd gear manual or auto lowers the torque available so that non-limited slip differential vehicles won't spin one tire (the one without the traction.) YMMV

 

[RetiredGypsy]

Based on the responses here, and asking several people I know who've moved to and lived int winter areas ranging from southeast to northeast, I've decided on the CR-V AWD. I'm special ordering one from the factory because down here in Florida, apparently it's almost impossible to get an AWD model, especially in the right color.

Practicing in a large empty lot is a fantastic idea.

For the most part, I'm in complete agreement about just weathering through bad weather in the comfort of a nice warm house. Unfortunately there will be times that medical appointments come up that can't be missed, regardless of the weather. Very rarely, but I think AWD with the proper tires in those instances will be well worth whatever extra expense comes.

I am going to be sad to see the average MPG drop significantly from my Civic to the SUV. Doing the math, that difference only adds up to about a penny a mile difference, but even so that's about $120/year difference at current gas prices.