Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I grew up in Michigan, but moved to Florida in my late teens, so never had a chance to drive in snow. How are the road conditions up there? I'd like to work in Concord, but live in a surrounding community.
The roads in and around Concord are pretty well maintained in the winter. That said, driving in a snow storm is not fun, but most people keep their speeds down during a storm.
Many surrounding towns are quite rural and the side roads may take a while to get cleared.
Driving in snow is not hard. Keeping on the road and not hitting other cars is the hard part. Just kidding, driving in the winter is a learned perversion. I recommend always using four snow tires and driving slowly and carefully until you learn how. I have been driving winters for over forty years and I still take the cars to an empty, unplowed parking lot after the first snow and slide them around in order to refresh my skills.
If you really want to learn how to drive in the snow look up Tim O’Neil’s driving school near Littleton. The guy knows his stuff.
I was thinking about buying a VW GTI (a small, fast, front-wheel drive car) for my daily 25-miles each way commute when we move up next month. Dumb idea? Almost all of the commute is on 91 to 89 into Vermont so I figured those would be cleared first. I'm thinking with four winter tires, even with just front-wheel drive I should be OK. Am I mistaken?
-- definitely four winter tires are the way to go. I run 4 studded snow tires on all my cars and you feel much more confident. It is well worth the extra $$$, in the winter for that peace of mind.
I was thinking about buying a VW GTI (a small, fast, front-wheel drive car) for my daily 25-miles each way commute when we move up next month. Dumb idea? Almost all of the commute is on 91 to 89 into Vermont so I figured those would be cleared first. I'm thinking with four winter tires, even with just front-wheel drive I should be OK. Am I mistaken?
Check the reliability record on VW, they are among the worst. At an auto forum I hang out at, a couple of mechanics have commented on the electric gremlins VWs are prone to, and their generally bad reliability record, down there with Range Rovers etc.
I had a Golf a few years back and after two power lock failures and a power window failure I got rid of it. It would have been out of warranty soon and I wasn't about to pay a few hundred bucks every few months to fix stuff that should never break.
As for snow tires, I vote strongly against studs. Unless you drive on glare ice over 30 percent of the time or have a steep driveway prone to icing, they are IMO overkill. They tear hell out of the pavement, and they provide poor traction on cleared and wet roads compared to even summer tires.
Where I live there are "cow trails" on the major roads because so many people use studs even though there are probably fewer than 5 real snow storms per year here.
Studs are like driving on steel tires, and from what I've seen of the road clearing work done in New Hampshire, a set of quality snow tires is all you should ever need.
Take your pick, just be aware everything is a tradeoff and the tradeoff with studs is reduced traction in almost all conditions other than glare ice.
Last edited by Dwatted Wabbit; 07-16-2007 at 11:09 AM..
Reason: a
the thing with winter is people forget how to drive in it when it comes around.. Four wheel drive is great and all but you can't drive like a maniac with it.. The only outcome of that is four wheels sliding across the ice.. take your time, take a course if you can find one and NEVER hit the gas peddle hard for any reason. .esp uphill you will fishtail, down hilll you will slide ..and god forbid you are driving on a typical back new hampshire road with a 75 foot drop and no guard rail!! It'll be scary at first but you'll get used to it..
I was thinking about buying a VW GTI (a small, fast, front-wheel drive car) for my daily 25-miles each way commute when we move up next month. Dumb idea? Almost all of the commute is on 91 to 89 into Vermont so I figured those would be cleared first. I'm thinking with four winter tires, even with just front-wheel drive I should be OK. Am I mistaken?
Please be aware that sections of 89 are routinely closed during the winter due to bad black ice.
Please be aware that sections of 89 are routinely closed during the winter due to bad black ice.
Upper or lower 89?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It'll be scary at first but you'll get used to it..
