That article is interesting.

Tires obviously are useful. The winter before last, partly due to summer tires on the rear of my FWD vehicle, I hit some drifted snow and ended up in a uncontrollable fishtail sending me in a 720 down the road and into a field. This was in partial blizzard conditions. The rear of the car floated up and drifted off completely out of control. One thing I might have been able to do was floor it and pull the ass end out of the fishtail, but instead i stopped accelerating, didn't hit the brake, as that would have immediately spun me, and tried to control the car and recover the fishtail, which put less weight on the rear and threw me into a full on spin after about 100 yards of correction back and forth, the usual degenerating situation.
The cause of this accident was speeding by me in conditions I should have known better to speed in, not really the tires. I knew I had inferior rubber on the car, and yet I was trying to keep up with a car that was both heavier, and with 4 studded tires.
Ironically, this was my first experience in a very light FWD car, as all my previous winter cars were RWD and heavier, and I would not have lost control in a RWD car like I did with this go kart. Still, as I learned how best to drive it, it turned out to be a better winter car than all my RWD platforms, it would slip a different way, but overall the FWD platform had better traction. an AWD vehicle would have had even better traction that that, but once you add speed, they all tend to slip

For me, and I agree with some of the sentiments above, AWD, FWD, RWD, snow tires, no snow tires make little difference if a driver does not analyze conditions, and drive appropriately.
A guy with bald summer tires and 2wd who understands conditions and drives properly is less likely to get stuck than a fool who drives like a fool in a car set up for weather with AWD and excellent tires.

I also have seen a disproportionate number of AWD vehicles stuck over 2wd, and I attribute that completely to boneheaded idiocy of drivers, as otherwise they are better snow vehicles. The bad driver knows this, and drives dangerously thinking that general better traction also means better traction at speed.
The way I see it is a dog and a man both running on ice and trying to make a quick corner, chances are both will fall, even though the dog with 4 legs will have better traction in general.

The problem here is training. People are unaware of how to back their car into a parking space, and yet drive in all weather conditions

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Absolutely! I've driven FWD, RWD, 4x4, dually and single rears, tandem axles, light vehicles and heavy vehicles and have never had an issue with any of them. All it takes is training and some common sense.

As a kid learning to drive, my father used to take us to our company lot whenever it snowed to learn where the traction limits were and how to correct for them when those limits were reached. As a 15-16yo kid it started out just seeming like a good excuse to go do a bunch of donuts but looking back I really did learn a lot about how a vehicle reacts and how to counteract it. They don't teach any of that in your basic driver's education.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

X2

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It's a car not a science experiment! Open the throttle!

* AWD is designed by people who can't drive, for people who can't drive.
* The marketing says (to me) even a monkey can drive like a professional.

I have no issue with Audi, they made nice tractors, perhaps they will learn to build a car one day.


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Yes. And Common Sense + AWD > Common Sense + other drive configurations > Lack of Common Sense.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

When I was in our local FD back in my high school days, we would bring a truck to the school and blow high expansion foam all over the parking lot for the drivers ed students to go slip and slide in...
Bet they don't do that anymore... it was fun and instructional...

My dad also took us to a local store with a huge parking lot to practice snow driving. The lessons I learned there have saved my a$$ a bunch of times...
Thanks Dad!!!

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

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OMG, these days you would have had to call Clean Harbors to come clean up that mess!

I think my dad used it as a good excuse do some donuts in the lot himself.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

How would you compare the topography of the greater Detroit area with that of areas in the Rocky or Appalachian regions of the US? Is it possible that even skilled drivers can derive benefit from an AWD system in such areas during winter months? In my 35+ years of having a driver's license in my wallet, I've dealt with mountainous slippery winter roads in everything from V8 RWD ponycars to AWD cars and SUV's. I think that I can drive, but if you put me in a parking lot at the base of the Pocono Mountains during a heavy snowfall with my choice of cars limited to a 1979 Z-28 Camaro or an Audi A6 of any year, I will take the AWD Audi every single time.

I would too -- however, when I had a Miata as an only car, I drove it in snow frequently. Carried chains and swapped on a set of winter tires. No problems stopping or going, and passed quite a few cars in the ditch.

The only time I was close to being stuck is when I drove the thing into a ditch that didn't look like a ditch, because it was full of snowdrift. Managed to get out under the car's own power, though, so all was good.

My Aunt Hattie, who has an arthritic back and delivers food to shut-ins, is more likely to be able to move my barbell set from the basement to the attic than to slap on a set of snow chains.

I seldom if ever had to actually use the chains. A good set of tires was sufficient.

If it is strictly winter high wind, ice/snow.

I find front wheel drive superior handling compared to AWD at 1/5 or less of the MSRP and maintenance cost.

If you put me in a parking lot at the base of the Pocono Mountains during a heavy snowfall with my choice of cars limited to 1979 or earlier, I will take the Cadillac Eldorado front-wheel drive with snow tires and chains.

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Most "AWD" is in fact FWD until the fronts start to slip a bit. Then a visco coupling or clutch engages the rear axle. The "good" AWD systems have an actual center differential that torques all the wheels all the time, but that's less common than what I described.

My Miata with the limited slip torsen rear end was worthless on an icy road. It would not go in a straight line even on a level road with a crown. With chains it would have been ok and probably with an open diff prolly fairly good too but it was nose heavy enough to not be at all good on icy pavement.

Light car, wide tires, limited slip, nose heavy, rear wheel drive.....a bad combo.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

My old 4-matic wagon is absolutely awesome in the snow. I've never put a snow tire on it either. I've cut a flying U-turn on 6" of snow at 35MPH to end up 2 lanes over facing opposite direction. This was to prevent hitting 2 train engines that blocked the roadway without any fore-warning, with only 4-5 car lengths to react.

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90 300TE 4-M
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