Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: powayroger
Thinking about getting rid of my truck and civic and getting a SUV (See other posts about this). AWD is an option. Is it something that should be considered and is it worth it or should I just stick with FWD?
Proper winter tires are more important than awd, IMO.
I have rwd with winter tires, and i cant say that i miss awd much.
I did a winter driving course several years ago and the only car that spun out and repeatedly had trouble was a RWD Porsche with winter tires. He had to take it easy, while the other Subaru WRX and me, in my STI, were taking on the snowy hill there while in boost, as well as very good emergency handling. We all rode in each other's cars to get a feel for it, and the difference was pretty amazing.
The only car that couldn't make it up the hill the first few times, even with instructor driving, was a FWD Mazda 3 with AS tires. We were all kind of flabbergasted when we found out that that was the reason the car had to back down and gain more momentum.
The best performing cars, were my STI with LSD's and nearly new Blizzaks (kind of an unfair advantage) and an older Civic that seemed to power through everything, just as well as us AWD, winter tire-shod vehicles.
With that said, in the end, we were all AWS (all-wheel stop) and, while the heavier SUVs went better than the FWD cars, they stopped and turned way more poorly than the smaller, lighter, lower-CG vehicles.