Autocar: FWD w/ winter tires vs AWD w/ all-season

[UG_Passat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l2cMlNRX_A&feature=player_embedded

Winter Tire = http://www.pirelli.com/tyre/gb/en/car/sheet/winter_sottozero_serie2.html
which is a "Performance Winter" tire

 

[Donald]

First of all, that is a dusting, not real snow. What about winter tires on a 4WD?

People in my neck of the woods use 4WD to get up hills when the plows have not done a great job yet?

 

[UG_Passat]

What is does is try to clear the misconception about AWD, which is the similar misconcpetion here as well.

Most people think AWD with all-seasons is more than enough, which gives them the false sense of security.

So it shows the FWD with winter tires can perform, especially better in other areas that is important in driving: cornering and braking.

Of course, AWD + winter tires is the best combo.

 

[bigjl]

If that is the link is anythingike the link that was posted up a while ago, one vehicle was a Legacy, the driver of the Legacy looked like he was deliberately making a meal of it to prove a point.

And those tyres are not all seasons.

All seasons are very rare in the UK, only ones I have seen for sale are Vredestiens, and they aren't cheap.

Also a Yeti isn't AWD, it is fwd that sends power to the rear wheels in certain situations.

A Subaru is AWD.

I have winter tyres in the Volvo, good through standing water, do I think they were better than normal tyres?

Yes.

Do I think it would have for stuck without them?

No.

The wife's Clio has for normal tyres and had no problems in the recent snow in the UK.

 

[rjundi]

I did a little race against a Passat wagon with winters (noticed tread) with my Subaru Legacy wagon with all-seasons from a light. My car did beat out the Passat by a long shot.

Stopping a different story.

That being said AWD + all-seasons in deeper snow or steeper inclines seems to prevail over FWD with winters.

Winter tires definitely better but hard to justify them for myself when there all of maybe 5-10 days/winter where the roads are so bad.

I am definitely going back to the Nokian WR G2 or WR G3 as my next set of all-seasons(w/winter capabilities). The Yoko Avid ENVigor leave lots to be desired in terms of winter driving but wife got terrible flat in front of tire store and walked out with them. At least they were relatively inexpensive.

 

[kkreit01]

I haven't seen the videos, but it's also highly dependent on "which all-season tires" are used on the AWD. Some are horrible in snow. Some are great.

 

[durallymax]

AWD/4wd with snow tires is very nice.

In the recent storm I was driving around in our 11 2500HD Chevy with traction control and Firestone Winterforce LTs. I was on a 6 lane highway doing 30mph in the middle lane with the left covered in a couple inches of snow and the right packed with cars. My exit was a ways up so I just decided to take the left lane. Smooth and no sense of any loss of control the whole time moving past everyone. Many others followed as I did this. Drove around the entire day basically never feeling a loss of control other than a slight fishtail here and there when the TC wouldn't respond immediatley.

Then went to driving my FWD car with Blizzaks. A lot less accelleration, but great otherwise. No TC on this car.

Then drove my Fiances RWD mustand with Xi3's and TC. It was manageable but somewhat annoying coming from the above two vehicles. It was nice always being able to stop and steer though.

Then at the end of the night ended up having to drive the 2wd suburban with Firestone Wilderness LEs that are probably 40% or so. Boy was that a disaster. It is an older one with no TC.



I think all of those experiences in one day showed me quite a bit in two ways.

1. Snow tires still are awesome as is 4x4.

2. Snow tires condition you to your comforts with them and when going away from them you no longer have the skills needed to properly control all seasons on a RWD. I think if I wouldve went from the 4x4 with the snows to the RWD without, it wouldve been an even worse feeling.

 

[Thermo1223]

Originally Posted By: durallymax


2. Snow tires condition you to your comforts with them and when going away from them you no longer have the skills needed to properly control all seasons on a RWD. I think if I wouldve went from the 4x4 with the snows to the RWD without, it wouldve been an even worse feeling.


This is how I took my wife's nice new Rabbit and sent it into a curb.

My car a 2000 Jetta had no TC/ESP but had Nokia WR's so I could drive around like it was summer during snow storms, even with the TDI's torque.

Her Rabbit had factory Continental All-seasons with ESP/TC and while ok in the wet they did not hold a candle in the snow to the Nokians. I decided to drive her car to work one day in the snow and guess what happened.

I took turn as fast as I would in the Jetta because I knew it would stick. Not so in the Rabbit and into the curb I went. Screwed up the electric steering and bent some tierods/knuckle/control arm. I wasn't even going 20MPH, live & learn.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I had to laugh last good snowstorm we had. There was about 6'' of unplowed snow on ALL of the roads. Cars were off everywhere (and suv's) - I had some problems in the Focus too. It was a very heavy, wet, slick snow.

When I got home to my apartment complex,I was greeted by the usual line of cars stuck on the hill. A guy in his Silverado 4x4 was smoking the tires trying to get up ... could smelll the burning rubber. About the time the driver got out and started cursing, I walked on by in the Focus up the hill with no problem. Also stopped and turned into a parking spot (also on the hill).

Really surprised that a 4x4 wasn't able to climb, even without show tires if you can get all 4 moving usually you can climb. My Jeep, which has great all terrain tires isn't that great in the snow right now (even if it had snow tires). All of the weight is in the front and it's RWD (no 4x4 at the moment). All it does is spin the left rear.

 

[FCobra94]

Originally Posted By: UG_Passat
What is does is try to clear the misconception about AWD, which is the similar misconcpetion here as well.

Most people think AWD with all-seasons is more than enough, which gives them the false sense of security.

So it shows the FWD with winter tires can perform, especially better in other areas that is important in driving: cornering and braking.

Of course, AWD + winter tires is the best combo.

Exactly. For instance, I would take a FWD car with good winter tires over an AWD car with [censored] all-season tires any day of the week when there is snow/ice on the ground. There are varying levels of all-season tires. Some are certainly good enough in snow, especially with AWD. Others, not so much.

TireRack has some good vids showing all-season vs winter tires in an apples-to-apples comparison, where both cars are RWD:
http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index.jsp?video=23&tab=winter#viewAll

Obviously the results aren't very surprising, but it just goes to show the importance of a good set of winter tires when the conditions call for it.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: FCobra94
Exactly. For instance, I would take a FWD car with good winter tires over an AWD car with [censored
all-season tires any day of the week when there is snow/ice on the ground.

I would even take an RWD car with good winter tires over an AWD car with all-seasons.