Hi all,
Wife and I are moving back up north and are considering getting a new SUV. Right now we’re in Virginia and don’t get any snow. We’re looking at all-wheel drive compact SUVs because we assume these kinds of cars will handle better in the snow. Is this assumption correct or should we just save some $ and get a front-wheel drive vehicle? Basically, is AWD worth the extra $?
Thanks for your thoughts and help!
I listen to cartalk, and find their insight to be very good.
Here is a link to their index for all wheel drive
I have had awd volvos in Florida. I find them much more sure-footed than the fwd versions. We get torrential storms, and on the freeway at speed it is reassuring to have this capability on wet pavement with standing water.
Ex-vehicle systems engineer here. These are the rules:
ABS: Always. No exceptions.
ESC (electronic stability control): Only after ABS.
AWD: Only after ESC.
Cheers,
-Dave
Yes AWD is worth it. But make sure you get snow tires if you’re going to see a good amount of snow.
AWD with good tires>FWD with good tires.
dont get an suv
get a wagon or hatchback
save money, save gas, save metal
people survived without AWD in snow for years.
remember:
AWD will not let you corner faster in the snow
AWD will not brake better in the snow. ALL cars have 4 wheel drive braking!!
it only lets you accelerate better in the snow. you can get up steep, icy slopes better, and get stuck less. thats it.
usually snow tires + fwd will work fine
remember AWD will cost more initially, and forever as it is less fuel efficient and heavier
Thanks for all the great info, everyone. Question: can good snow tires be used year-round or do I need to have two sets of tires and just swap them come winter time? Thanks again for all of your help.
It all depends on the terrain where you’re going to be driving. We got an 09 Pilot because we have 3 kids Otherwise we’d have bought an Outback. We needed steep uphill traction on ice plus some clearance.
It really depends on where “up north” your going, living in a city or in the country, how well the roads are plowed etc. If your heading to a truly snowy place (i.e. the snow belt region east of the great lakes) you may want a 4wd truck. The clearance is equally important when the snow comes down in feet rather than inches. Also depends on how far you have to travel to work and if you can work from home if you get a really bad storm.
You can use snow tires year round (they don’t perform particularly well in the dry or rain) but they’ll likely wear out faster when you’re not driving in the snow. We have two sets of wheels/tires for each of our cars, that way we just switch the set rather than taking it somewhere to switch the tires out.
Living in Canada…
You definitively do not want to have snow tires in summer unless you really really live up North (think Eskimo land). Otherwise go with 2 sets both on their own rims. So you can swap tires yourselves (if you want to).
Two dedicated sets will last as long if not longer than 2 sets (in a row) of let’s say all around tires.
Fred.
there is nothing saying you “cant” run studless winter tire year round but you will go through them fast. they are designed with a softer compound for better traction and when run in warm dry weather they wear fast. you might get 20k miles out of them if you drive them year round. a all season tire will last anywhere from 50-80k miles. if i were you i would by winter tires and cheaper rims, its a small investment at first but then you dont have to pay twice a year to have them switched onto your rims. i helped out a friend this winter and worked at les schwab, a west coast tire place.
hope this helped
cody
FWIW,
I drive a mini cooper JCW clubbie… i do have snow tires on it. It gets around very well in the snow. Just had a big storm hear in WNY last week and i had no real issues, actually passed many SUV’s etc with AWD… Alot of getting around in snow is knowing how to drive in snow and snow tires are very important. If i had my summer performance wheels on my car with snow on the ground it would be like having a car on skates.
dont get an suv
get a wagon or hatchback
save money, save gas, save metal
I just got rid of a Honda Ridgeline and bought and Audi A4 Wagon. They get equivalent gas mileage. He’s talking about a compact SUV, some of which get very good mileage.
remember:
That simply isn’t true. A front wheel drive car begins to understeer well before an AWD car would start to drift. Rally cars aren’t AWD to keep from getting stuck.
I live in one of those Great Lakes snow belts where it snows nearly every day, Dec-Feb. I have a fairly rural commute and won’t be without AWD.
Aren’t you in Texas? 
Just to give some background, I speak as someone who has autocrossed for 10 years, have won local season long champsionships, had fastest time of the day quite a few times, and competed at nationals a couple times.
ive driven AWD, FWD and RWD cars, and even once autocrossed an SUV…
A FWD car will only understeer sooner than an AWD car in a corner if you apply power, which you really shouldn’t be doing at all if you are taking a corner in the snow and concerned with safety.
However, I will grant that if you were RACING in the snow, and AWD car would let you get through the 2nd half of the corner, when powering out, faster.
you absolutely cannot enter the corner or hit the apex with any extra speed due to AWD though.
and yeah, there are SUVs that get better MPG than the worst wagons. all else being near equal though, a wagon will get better mpg.
worse clearance, though unless you are in the boonies where they don’t plow for days, won’t matter.
remember:
That simply isn’t true. A front wheel drive car begins to understeer well before an AWD car would start to drift. Rally cars aren’t AWD to keep from getting stuck.
I live in one of those Great Lakes snow belts where it snows nearly every day, Dec-Feb. I have a fairly rural commute and won’t be without AWD.
Aren’t you in Texas?
The typical road conditions and plow schedule really do make a difference in vehicle selection. I grew up in the Lake Michigan snow belt, whic is like Buffalo, NY without the PR, and my first car was a Ford Escort that handled well on regularly-plowed but slippery city roads.
If you don’t have clearance concerns (are in the city or along a common trunk route where they plow quick) then there’s something to be said for smaller cars because they’re easier to stop in crappy icy conditions, and winter driving is frequently more about the stop than about the go.
There were a lot of words there, but my experience is that a AWD car gets me through corners significantly faster than FWD. If you ever find yourself up this way in the winter we can do our own experiment. We can even do it double-blind to make it more interesting.
like I said, from a racing perspective, it certainly gets you out of corners faster when traction is limited.
but from a safety perspective it WILL NOT save your ass if you go into a corner and there is not enough grip for your speed.
it only saves your ass in a corner if you are acting like a hoon and trying to accelerate out of an icy corner =)
if the op is intending to race commuters on twisty snowy passes I highly reccomend AWD
but people get the impression that a FWD or RWD car will spin or slide more easily in a corner.
only true if you get on the gas in a corner. dont!
There were a lot of words there, but my experience is that a AWD car gets me through corners significantly faster than FWD. If you ever find yourself up this way in the winter we can do our own experiment. We can even do it double-blind to make it more interesting.
Good quality snow tires on all 4 wheels makes a real difference. I’ve owned both AWD and FWD over the years and the all wheel with snows is really nice for back roads and when the snow is falling faster than the plows can keep up. Depending on where you live, that may not be all that many times every year. AWD adds some expense, but SUV’s in snowy areas will generally have it. Rear drive is to be avoided.
I currently drive a minivan with 4 Nokian snows on steel wheels that I bolt on in the fall. It works fine, I travel with a tow chain and emergency supplies and get where I’m going and don’t tend to stay home due to weather. AWD would be nice to have, but in a minivan it adds too much cost for my tastes.
Mostly, you have to learn to drive in the snow, understand how the car behaves and know how to hook up and extract a stuck vehicle if you end up in the ditch
it only saves your ass in a corner if you are acting like a hoon and trying to accelerate out of an icy corner =)
The only way to not accelerate out of a corner is to not deccelerate going into it? I’m not sure that’s wise.
I’ve driven through about 30 Michigan winters (not counting past lives) in all manner of vehicles. Like I said, I won’t buy a 2WD car with the commute I have now. Not saying it’s mandatory, just well worth the expense. I drive my wife’s Civic occasionally, I can get where I’m going, but it is significantly more difficult.
Thom
Nokian WRs solves the problem. All seasons (60K mile tire) with a snow rating. Coupled with AWD its a good solution, very popular in VT. Will not be as good as dedicated snows, but most people don’t need dedicated snows.