Has anyone driven a Miata(or any small rwd car) in the snow?

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: phantom309
Terrible. I tried to back my Porsche 944 out of our driveway - about 50' long, about 2" of snow. Got stuck three times - eventually had to sprinkle kitty litter over entire driveway just to get it out. In my WRX you wouldn't even notice you were on snow.

You suck at driving then. The 924S/944/968 are very good RWD cars in the snow. I took my 924S out on unplowed roads on a day when my university (University of Pittsburgh) was closed because we got more than 1.5 feet of snow overnight. I did not get stuck once.

ZV

 

[brian_riendeau]

The key to driving anything well in the snow is tires! I have a Chevy S10 with a V6 and Firestone Winterfire tires, and a AWD Subaru Legacy with all season tires. Sometimes the truck goes along better than the Subaru does, I get a foolish ammount of traction from the dedicated snow tires. I have no trouble with either vehicle in snow, although the truck can be very scary to drive with regular tires My truck is a shortbed, regular cab, 5 speed manual with no power options so it is fairly light and torquey.

My wife has a Saturn, being FWD it is supposed to be nice and safe, but really it just spins the tires all over the place to get going anywhere with the all season tires. In a FWD car, a loss of traction usually ends up being understeer which is relatively safe compared to a RWD vehicle that will oversteer if you lose traction.

I would much rather drive my RWD truck + snow tires that the Saturn + all seasons in any ammount of snow. Obviously if I put snow tires on the Subaru it would be better...

 

[Vic]

I have driven a Miata in the snow, and my opinion is that it is the 2nd worst snow car I have ever driven, after an early 70s 240Z. The ass end is light and twitchy, and has virtually no traction for starting off, especially up a hill. Snow tires would be a must.
Don't get me wrong. I like Miatas for some fun driving on a sunny day, but they are no fun in the snow (except in a flat empty parking lot ).