icy road conditions? (Milwaukee: house, maintenance, living)

[bigshot82]

I'm moving to Milwaukee area, and also getting a new car. How often do you get ice on the road? Is it necessary to have a AWD? I'm not a fan of SUV's, but I'm wondering if they actually make life easier up there? or not really?

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by bigshot82

I'm moving to Milwaukee area, and also getting a new car. How often do you get ice on the road? Is it necessary to have a AWD? I'm not a fan of SUV's, but I'm wondering if they actually make life easier up there? or not really?

It sure does help if you park on the street. If you park underground in a heated garage and only drive to work, I wouldn't worry about it. I keep a rear wheel drive car (w/ traction control) in Milwaukee. It still gets me around quite well, although it is a little tough to street park. Other family members drive AWD cars and won't go back to anything else. In fact, I used to have to work in Michigan's Upper Peninsula years ago, and at that time I also had a rear wheel drive car. The U.P. is the snow belt, and I survived just fine.

I think AWD cars make life easier, but as far as being necessary, they're not, unless you live out in the country and have a long driveway that you don't plow. I would probably take AWD over front wheel drive, though, if that's an option. I hate FWD cars, but that's just my personal opinion, and only because (IMO) the power comes from the wrong end, and you lose the ability to do cool stuff like with rear wheel drive. I also own an FWD car, although it lives in Arizona.

[Milwaukee Ronnie]

All wheel drive is not a neccessity by any means. Unless you're planning to live in an outlying area with a long driveway.

[BacktoMilwaukee]

That's the one thing I'm not looking forward to about moving back. Parking my charger on the street. I love that dang car, and I know from previously living there it will get nicked and scratched and be filthy dirty 4 months of the year. (The house we're looking at only has street parking). Oh well, good to know that one can survive with RWD.

[sunflower53072]

Snow tires help alot.

[Ron Burgundy]

I drive all winter with front-wheel drive and my normal treads and don't think twice. As long as you're on the busy roads, snow/ice shouldn't be an issue, as they get more than enough traffic to stave off any weather-related road issues. And even when you're not, when the weather really hits, just accelerate slower, don't drive quite as fast, and don't tailgate and you'll be fine.

[MidwestAir]

You don't need a 4x4. Front wheel drive is plenty unless you live in the sticks. What you do need is a vehicle with a suspension that can take a beating. A huge problem in Milwaukee (besides government employees taking free vacations) are the streets. They are full of potholes and bumps. Just about every city street right now is full of awful bumps, and I'm not sure if that's from water that gets in the cracks in the street freezing and expanding, or because they havent been repaved in 70 years.

[Dea13]

I never had a 4x4 until end of 2007 (and that wasn't a necessity just happened to like the vehicle). I can tell you I leave it in 2 wheel drive almost all winter. AWD will help in snow but not really for ice. That said, if you can drive in snow or learn to drive in snow you'll do fine. If you can't, AWD isn't going to help anyway

I'll second the need for a good suspension. Pot holes this year have been some of the worst I've seen.

just a tip - I always keep one of those big utility brooms like people use in their garages in my vehicle with a shortened handle. Cleans off show WAY faster and easier than a snow brush. For someone short (like me) it really makes it easy to clean a car or truck off.

[karfar]

Make sure you tires still have good tread, I just recently had to replace 3 tires & that happened AFTER all the snow that dumped on us. It is almost impossible to drive on very snowy streets that haven't been plowed if you don't have good tire tread. Ice isn't a factor because even if you have AWD, it's still going to be a problem. Just make sure your tires are in good condition & you should be fine. Oh yeah, get AAA in case we get dumped on again & you find your car stuck in a snowbank because of the plows. This happened to me during the last big snowfall.

[Hntr]

You don't need AWD or FWD, just decent tires as Karfar said. We lived in Milwaukee for thirty years, I don't think I ever missed a day of work because of driving conditions. The worst day I had was in May of '90 or '91, we got a freak snowstorm that dumped about a foot of snow. Most of the snow removal equipment had been put away for the year by the city/county maintenance so it was pretty rough going.

Milwaukee is really good about plowing and salting the streets and highways. Of course the main streets get done first, side streets last.

I think my main concern with the Charger would be the salt, it can do a number on it.