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I always hear how great Subaru's are in snow but I never had any luck with our Outback, it was quite squirrelly on snowy roads . Ironically, the Legacy I had was much better, and though I had gotten it high centered before, it handled quite well. My Audi on the other hand can practically plow snow without getting stuck and I choose that over my Land Cruiser during a snow storm. I have snow tires on it, but is essentially a snowmobile on wheels. While everyone is spinning their tires trying to get traction when the light turns green, I am already far ahead.
As far as AWD goes, from my own personal experience, it is superior to a FWD car with snow tires. It absolutely helps you control the vehicle better going down the road as well as cornering ability. If a FWD car gets wheel spin it will practically pull the car in that direction while AWD will help you maintain/ regain control. I would agree that the stopping ability is the same, but where I live AWD is a must for the winter, again, just based off of personal experience.
Living in New England, its quite frustrating to see how many people drive unacceptable vehicles during a snow storm. Driving in the snow is fun if you have a capable vehicle and know how to handle it. With that said, there are definitely some vehicles with better AWD systems than others but regardless, for snowy weather, AWD and snow tires are a must.
But, I was able to maneuver in fairly deep new snow in driveways, for instance, with just front wheel drive and a lot of patience. You drive forwards and then rock backwards, and then move forwards again, etc.
Quick way to burn up a front wheel drive automatic transmission.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Quote:
Originally Posted by phlinak
^^^This.^^^
Also, new Volkswagens (2018 forward) all come with a standard 6 year/72,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, which is one of the best (if not the best), so reliability issues should not be a concern.
Don't conflate warranty with reliability. Old Kias and Hundais, as well as some old Dodge junk, have 100k warranties and needed them. Doesn't help when the car won't start or the dash looks like a Christmas tree due to warning lights.
A friend has a Passat diesel and another a Jetta diesel. The engines are great but they've had so many electrical problems from new that it wasn't worth it. Anecdotal, yes, but they are the only people I know who have Volkswagens so it's 100% failure across that sample size.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
2,254 posts, read 2,739,837 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlaskaErik
In 50 years of driving I have never seen chains on a car in Alaska. Never. I don't know anyone who owns a set of chains. I'd be surprised if anyone in Wisconsin uses them either.
Studs, yes. Chains, no. I miss the days when Anchorage used to leave an inch thick layer of packed snow and ice with some sand on the city streets to allow use of studs. Now they seem to plow to the concrete which wears out my studs. They also seem to use salt now which really sucks. Never had rust on any of my trucks in Alaska until they started with the salt.
The biggest snow I see in northern Wisconsin is Drummond at 72" and Bayfield where you get lake effect with 103". Most of the state gets more like 30" to 50" per year. The highest point in Wisconsin is Timms Hill at 1,900 feet. There isn't any mountain driving. Most of the state is totally flat.
Unless you live on a long dirt road or somewhere plowing is horrible, any FWD car with snow tires will do just fine.
I always hear how great Subaru's are in snow but I never had any luck with our Outback, it was quite squirrelly on snowy roads .
Here's mine with Nokians on cheap Tire Rack closeout alloy wheels. The stock Bridgestones are not good winter tires. As has been written 20 times in this thread, tires are what matters. I winter at a ski resort with 200" of annual snowfall in my driveway and there are only a few days per winter where AWD and ground clearance matter. It's a bigger deal to have the clearance at mud month.
Says the guy from southwest Florida. As an Alaskan with over 50 years of Alaska driving experience, I'll take an AWD car with factory tires over any FWD car with Blizzaks or any other winter tire any day of the year, especially winter days. My wife has a Subaru Outback and she'll be moving long after that FWD with Blizzaks is spinning its front wheel. Same with me and my Chevy Silverado.
I agree with this.
My old AWD car with decent all-seasons was much more capable than my current FWD car with snow tires. I'll take 4-wheels turning vs 2 any day.
But with that said, my recommendation would be an AWD vehicle with good ground clearance and winter tires.
Stop propagating this stupid crap, yes, we all know 90 and early 2000's VW's were quite unreliable but that is not the case anymore.
I had a 2001 MK IV GTI for 14x,000 miles that was solid. The scheduled timing belt/water pump replacement at 105K miles was by far my biggest repair bill. In those years, it really depended on where the car was built. If you were driving a poverty spec $13,999 Mexican Jetta with the 2.Slow and rear drum brakes, yeah. Total garbage. The German GLI trim level of the same car was fine. My German-built MK V 2007 GTI was solid, too. I traded it because my SUV was rusting to bits and wanted to consolidate to one car. Like any recent car, most of them will go 150K miles without much expensive going wrong. A GTI is certainly a more interesting daily driver than a CamCord.
Here's the kind of day I took the SUV skiing. You don't have many of those in Wisconsin. I ran studded snow tires on the SUV. That thing was dangerous on black ice with the stock tires. In normal winter driving conditions, my GTIs with snow tires were better than the SUV because they were so much lighter. They had much better cornering and braking.
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