Rear wheel drive SUCKS!

[Thump553]

Originally posted by: Squisher
I'll have to say that the Prius I own is the worst vehicle I've ever driven in the snow including my old '81 Camaro. How do you exactly rock a vehicle out of being stuck with an electronically shifting trans???

And, conversely my '98 F150 4X4 OFF ROAD is one of the best. It beats out the '03 Trailblazer 4X4, 2000 Tahoe 4X4, and '97 Blazer 4X4 I've owned probably because of the Michelin LTX M/S's I put on it. I've always been a proponent of SUV's over pickups in the snow, but this truck with its 6.5' bed loves the snow.

I've never taken the Z28 out in the snow.

My wife's Prius is on it's second New England winter and has yet to get stuck. FWD with CVT, along with a passable amount of ground clearance is great for snow. And my snowblower is broken and my driveway is a long steep hill, so it has gotten some severe tests. The Prius is at least as good, if not better than the Saab I had in the snow.

I grew up on RWD and don't miss it at all, especially in the winter.

 

[ponyo]

Never drove in the snow more than a quarter of an inch. If there's snow on the ground, I don't drive. Too busy making snowman and taking pictures to move the car.

 

[EvilHorace]

Around here, most with RWD cars use a set of 4 snow tires every winter. I've done that for years with my RWD turbo Volvos (745T, 945T), and FWD 855T too. I can safely drive by everyone else on the roads, pass 4WD PUs, SUVs in a blizzard with several inches of snow on the roads. Without snows, yeah RWD does generally suck in snow.

 

[LS8]

I guess the OP can't drive. I have been driving various RWD cars all my life and never had a problem.

 

[AMCRambler]

I had to get snow tires on my GTO because the all seasons I had on there weren't cutting it. They were pretty worn down so the lack of tread did not help. Besides the snow tires I've got three 40 lb bags of water softener salt in the trunk to add weight. Just having the extra weight over the drive wheels was a big help.

You know I was wondering if you could use that trick they used on Top Gear on the Polar Expedition special. When they got stick in the snow they deflated the tires by 1/3rd and the truck pulled itself right out of the hole. Basically by doing that they increased the surface area of the tire making contact. Pretty clever. I'm sure you can't go faster than 30 mph or your tire might pop off the bead but it seems logical.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
You know I was wondering if you could use that trick they used on Top Gear on the Polar Expedition special. When they got stick in the snow they deflated the tires by 1/3rd and the truck pulled itself right out of the hole. Basically by doing that they increased the surface area of the tire making contact. Pretty clever. I'm sure you can't go faster than 30 mph or your tire might pop off the bead but it seems logical.

That's what you don't want to do... We have pavement, hard roads underneath the snow so you want thinner tires to dig down into the snow to the pavement where you can get traction. This is one reason why you don't want wide summer tires is you sit on top of the snow more and lose traction. In that top gear episode, they had no pavement to get down to so they wanted to stay on top in that case.

 

[Colt45]

I <3 quattro.

 

[RichUK]

Alternative transport is the way forward in these extremely snowy conditions. 😎

The amount of settled snow on the roads, etc. is even worse than it was yesterday. If I look out of my office window now I can see two awkwardly parked BMWs which have suffered the same issues I had yesterday.

 

[bruceb]

If you got stuck just outside your home, that was a sign for you to get back in the driveway and take the day off.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
You know I was wondering if you could use that trick they used on Top Gear on the Polar Expedition special. When they got stick in the snow they deflated the tires by 1/3rd and the truck pulled itself right out of the hole. Basically by doing that they increased the surface area of the tire making contact. Pretty clever. I'm sure you can't go faster than 30 mph or your tire might pop off the bead but it seems logical.

That's what you don't want to do... We have pavement, hard roads underneath the snow so you want thinner tires to dig down into the snow to the pavement where you can get traction. This is one reason why you don't want wide summer tires is you sit on top of the snow more and lose traction. In that top gear episode, they had no pavement to get down to so they wanted to stay on top in that case.

When you're stuck or can't make it up a hill, it's is a common trick around these parts. Just have to make sure to fill the tires back up once you're out of the predicament.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: halik
Anything over 2" of snow would permanently ground my v8 CLK. Even with traction control and high gear, the thing wouldn't move (summer 265s in the rear didn't help...).

My A6 hasn't gotten stuck yet, and that's with bald Pirelli P0s

get winter tires+rims... and no, do not buy winter performance, buy real winter tires.

 

[2dt Drifter]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: halik
Anything over 2" of snow would permanently ground my v8 CLK. Even with traction control and high gear, the thing wouldn't move (summer 265s in the rear didn't help...).

My A6 hasn't gotten stuck yet, and that's with bald Pirelli P0s

get winter tires+rims... and no, do not buy winter performance, buy real winter tires.

Don't you love the people that leave their snow tires on year round? Especially the ones with studs...
Snow tires are excellent for the mountains but aren't always necessary.

70's here in Denver this week so we haven't gotten any snow lately. Although when it does snow everyone that has moved here from Cali in the last decade FREAKS out.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: 2dt Drifter

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: halik
Anything over 2" of snow would permanently ground my v8 CLK. Even with traction control and high gear, the thing wouldn't move (summer 265s in the rear didn't help...).

My A6 hasn't gotten stuck yet, and that's with bald Pirelli P0s

get winter tires+rims... and no, do not buy winter performance, buy real winter tires.

Don't you love the people that leave their snow tires on year round? Especially the ones with studs...
Snow tires are excellent for the mountains but aren't always necessary.

70's here in Denver this week so we haven't gotten any snow lately. Although when it does snow everyone that has moved here from Cali in the last decade FREAKS out.

Don't think studded is legal in my part of the world. We are having one heck of a winter.

Some areas of Toronto (East York) got 144cm this winter so far til end of Jan.

 

[jteef]

Originally posted by: DEMO24
I'm guessing you probably don't have snow tires on there, which in that kind of snow would help you a lot. Although I've also read that, that M3 is a bit scary to drive in the snow. Good luck! 😛

what? granted its not as good as a subaru or quattro, but the m3 has a favorable weight balance for a RWD in the snow. With my blizzacks, its great in the snow. even with all seasons i drove through blizzards to the ski resorts in utah, no problem. with my summer tires, i couldn't get up a .5% grade tho, lol.

 

[Jabbernyx]

Originally posted by: 2dt Drifter
Don't you love the people that leave their snow tires on year round?

More power to them if they like crappy dry performance and crazy wear levels. 😉

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: angry hampster
If you've got 8-10" of snow, it doesn't matter if you're FWD, RWD, or AWD, you will get stuck if you don't have a lot of weight and ground clearance. Lucky me, I've got both. :laugh:

You don't need ground clearance in 8-10" of snow. I've driven through unplowed roads with 12" of snow in a FWD car plenty of times without getting stuck.

A good set of snow tires and some weight over the drive wheels is all you need.

Hell my RWD VW beetle went through 12" of snow no problem.