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It has more to do with the fact that volvo & saab NEVER ran wide tires as a rule. The factory tire were always narrow skinny tires that cut down to the pavement instead of floating on top of snow like wide tires always do.
Don't get it? Think sled runners vs snow shoes.
Though Saab & Volvo's didn't run wide tires stock, that's not the reason they old RWDs were beasts in snow. It has to do with weight distribution, but it has primarily to do with limited-slip differentials.
I'm currently farting around in an old Volvo wagon I restored. I have good tires on it. By far, it is THE best non-4x4 vehicle I've ever driven in snow. Winter traction is one thing the old Volvos got right.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Depends also on the snow,
Weight and power distribution are what I watch for. I pulled my $6k 4x4 out far too many times using my $75, 1951 gmc pickup. Low slung and torque-y (and not too much power) was very helpful.
Generally I like Frt wheel drive, traction control helps. but I have driven hundreds of thousands of mile in treacherous mtn conditions using rwd (usually trucks / semitrucks). I didn't have / need a set of studded snows while living in WY and Colorado for 28 yrs. My first month in PNW 'wet-side' introduced me to freezing rain and HEAVY snow that will fill your wheel wells and jam things to a halt. I fetched a used car from MN and drove 1600 miles of blizzards across 6 states and got stuck within a few hundred yards of home (Pnwe_t).
Though Saab & Volvo's didn't run wide tires stock, that's not the reason they old RWDs were beasts in snow. It has to do with weight distribution, but it has primarily to do with limited-slip differentials.
I'm currently farting around in an old Volvo wagon I restored. I have good tires on it. By far, it is THE best non-4x4 vehicle I've ever driven in snow. Winter traction is one thing the old Volvos got right.
Nonsense!! I drove Volvos for years and not one of them had a limited slip differential which was not standard equipment on Volvos. My Volvos never failed to get me to work even if the snow was deep!!
I have a Saab 9-3 and for some reason it's remarkable in the snow. Compare that to a friend's CRV which handles pretty terribly in the same weather.
I have heard also that Mazda 3's are underrated in the snow as well.
So what cars perform better in bad weather that aren't 4x4?
It might help if you posted up at least what region in the country you will be driving in, and it would help to know why you don't want to go to 4X4 (and what about AWD like a Subie or Audi?)
In general it seems to me that European cars have better handling, particularly in slick conditions. My old Scirocco gives a lot of feedback on slick surfaces, better than my 87 Camry.
Subie is better than either one of these.
Good point that it's not just about the car, it's about tires. If you can spring for some dedicated snow tires on their own wheels, if you have a place to store them, if you live in serious snow country, you won't regret buying them.
It has more to do with the fact that volvo & saab NEVER ran wide tires as a rule. The factory tire were always narrow skinny tires that cut down to the pavement instead of floating on top of snow like wide tires always do.
Don't get it? Think sled runners vs snow shoes.
Umm yeah. NO. Theres plenty of Volvos and Saabs that came with "wide" tires.
Nonsense!! I drove Volvos for years and not one of them had a limited slip differential which was not standard equipment on Volvos. My Volvos never failed to get me to work even if the snow was deep!!
I ran skinny snow tires every winter.
You are wrong. LSDs were common in Volvos.
What width tire you chose to run is irrelevant to that fact.
Nonsense!! I drove Volvos for years and not one of them had a limited slip differential which was not standard equipment on Volvos. My Volvos never failed to get me to work even if the snow was deep!!
I ran skinny snow tires every winter.
My last 2 940s (we're going back a while here) had Eaton locking differentials as factory equipment. It was standard equipment on at least one year, then IIRC, it was optional. I had at least one 240 with LSD a while before that, plus a couple others with open diffs. The open diffs weren't as good in snow, obviously, but they were pretty good. I got through the upper peninsula of Michigan all winter long with an Eaton equipped 940.
The Eaton units were awesome. As long as you could find something to grip with one rear wheel, you could drive through a 4' snow drift. The cars were virtually unstoppable. The lockup mechanism made for some very tail happy handing, not that I minded, as I got a lot of entertainment out of it.
FWIW, I have never had a Volvo that had tires any thinner than comparably sized cars at the time. The old base 240s were on 185/70-14s, which was a very common size for similarly sized sedans. The 740/940s were on at least 195s, or might have been as big as 225s for the 940s with the larger diameter wheels that came on the uplevel models. They still handled well as long as the tires were good, because the weight distribution was just right.
Maybe the really old ones were riding on very thin tires though. That wouldn't surprise me. But a lot of cars rode on thin rubber a long time ago anyway.
My last 2 940s (we're going back a while here) had Eaton locking differentials as factory equipment. It was standard equipment on at least one year, then IIRC, it was optional. I had at least one 240 with LSD a while before that, plus a couple others with open diffs. The open diffs weren't as good in snow, obviously, but they were pretty good. I got through the upper peninsula of Michigan all winter long with an Eaton equipped 940.
The Eaton units were awesome. As long as you could find something to grip with one rear wheel, you could drive through a 4' snow drift. The cars were virtually unstoppable. The lockup mechanism made for some very tail happy handing, not that I minded, as I got a lot of entertainment out of it.
FWIW, I have never had a Volvo that had tires any thinner than comparably sized cars at the time. The old base 240s were on 185/70-14s, which was a very common size for similarly sized sedans. The 740/940s were on at least 195s, or might have been as big as 225s for the 940s with the larger diameter wheels that came on the uplevel models. They still handled well as long as the tires were good, because the weight distribution was just right.
Maybe the really old ones were riding on very thin tires though. That wouldn't surprise me. But a lot of cars rode on thin rubber a long time ago anyway.
I drove a '61 Volvo for a few years, and the tires were not any different than the ones in other cars. Maybe some folks got used to the skinny tires on the Model T, or maybe the ones on the WW2 Jeeps
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That said, skinnier (narrower) tires do provide more traction than similarly-designed but wider tires.
I drove a '61 Volvo for a few years, and the tires were not any different than the ones in other cars. Maybe some folks got used to the skinny tires on the Model T, or maybe the ones on the WW2 Jeeps
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That said, skinnier (narrower) tires do provide more traction than similarly-designed but wider tires.
Narrower tires most definitely help with traction in the snow. An old air-cooled VW Bug, with the stock skinnies, was a monster in the snow! Of course, having the engine setting behind the rear wheels helped...
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