I think whatever kinda car you have, it is good to have a set of winter tires instead of crappy all seasons if you get snow where you live.

Not the old diesels, and their suspension designs are too antiquated and too heavy to outhandle a lighter FWD car. Sure in their day they were good handlers for big sedans especially compared to the American junk, but nowadays, notsomuch.

I hate FWD. I miss the RWD in the 420. My FWD car way outhandles it though. I'll survive it.

Now what's really fun, is when the engine stalls. I had a Ford Tempo that stalled out about 4 times on me, all in the snow. First time was on the hiway. Somehow, I managed to shift into neutral (auto) and restart the engine. Another time, on a country road and I ended up in the ditch. A neighbor drove by and stopped. He couldn't do anything. 'What we really need', enter a Toyata 4X4 comes into sight, 'Yeah, that'. The Toy pulled me out. Another time in the ditch and somehow, I pulled it out. The really interesting time was I was creasting a hill. The engine quit. You have to figure, that basically, the drive train looks up. So in esence you are hard breaking in the snow. I am going down a hill, in the snow, 'breaks locked' and headed towards a bridge. I am turning left, then right, then left, trying to keep it pointed forward. Then the end swaps. I am going backwards across a bridge. On the other side is a drop off. I am basically out of control. Fortunately, I hit the concrete barrier of the side of the bridge. So, that stops me. No real damage done. I restart the car and drive on.
I remeber something simular with an '78 Civic. It was in 4-6 inches of s now. I hit a chunk, and the car got out of control. I am goig 45 degrees down the two lane state road. Furtunately, no traffic is coming. I turn the wheels to the right as far as I can. Then the car just snapped back to going striaght. It was still running. Both of those cars were real beaters, though.
I have had my '75 Bricklin out in the snow a few times. On was Thanksgiving in Tulsa OK, about '88. I have been invited to dinner across town. There was an inch or two on the road. The Brick handled OK in the snow, just couldn't giving it the gas or the tail end would kick out. For a RWD it is balanced almost 50%/50%.
I also have a Jeep Comanche. It is/was 2wd. I think it handles as well as either of my FWD Contours. I am planning to install a Dana 300 Transfer case. That way I will have FWD, RWD and 4WD, plus Hi-Lo in each of those. Ford had a rally car in the late 80's, the SR2000, I think. It was suppose to be an Escort based vehicle or related. I think more for image or sales and possilbe (h)omoligation ( the O in GTO). It too had Fwd, Rwd and Awd. Supossivly, all of them had applications in different terain in Ralley type of racing. The last one I saw for sale was about $125K, a few years back.
Tom

the FWD vs RWD debate will continue.......however, when it comes to snow and ice conditions, I think a Subaru just might be king of the hill. years
ago I lived in the Northeast and had to make an emergency trip in "snow blind" conditions. the Subaru station wagon I was in "floated" on top of the snow which allowed me to navigate roads other cars could not.

I've thrown two or three sand bags from Lowes in the trunk of a 300D and navigated some very iced up roads in the north east.

Husky - I shared your opinion on Subies for winter handling too...until I got my GL. This thing is like a bloody tank. :D I've driven it through some nasty winter blizzards this year and it shrugged it all off. I've got Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 snow tires on it. It just tracks through anything and doesn't lose its grip. It is definitely the most confidence-inspiring vehicle I have driven in tough winter conditions.

Ditto Don's remark on stopping! The GL is almost too easy to drive in the winter. I've caught myself going too fast a few times and then you have to remember to leave enough room to stop - at which point FWD, RWD or AWD means squat and it's down to brakes and tires.

For the summer though, it's RWD for me please. ;)

I assume we are talking mercedes GL here? if so, do you have the gas or the diesel? I've checked them out at the dealer and they look very very nice.

Yep, in my sig below, the GL450 (gas). I really like the diesel option, and would have bought it if available at the time. The only drawback to the GL thus far has been gas mileage, which isn't great - although more than acceptable for such a large, heavy vehicle with 300+ hp.

I love this vehicle, it's awesome. Tows our boat with ease. Lots of room for the kids and gear. Great in winter. Has every option you can think of (Bluetooth integation for phones is particularly useful, we have a cellphone ban while driving in Ontario, can only use hands-free, which I support).

So, no real negatives for me thus far.

sounds like a real nice ride. as far as gas mileage, sometimes we put up with that to drive a luxury car or SUV. I wish benz would come out with
a GL with a more powerful diesel than the current offering. but, it looks
like that might be a while.........

Yeah, I would guess you're right on that one. There is always the Audi Q7 V12 diesel...;)

Heavy vehicals tend to do pretty good in the snow. I guess the weight helps to give the tires a better bite.

My truck is great in the snow, compared to say the Golf I was driving last year. The Golf was to light and was thrown around on crap roads, where as the truck just plows right through.

I think part of the problem is emission requirements for diesels in the 50 states. I recently spoke with a diesel shop and they told me some of the new "clean diesel" injectors are utilizing five cycles versus one. this makes for a far more complex injector pump which is more prone to failure. they said they regularly see injector pump failures at the 100,000 to 120,000 mile mark. with more complexity comes more failures. of course that makes a lot more $$$$ for those in the "fix and repair" biz.

Diesels cost to much. Price out a diesel 3 series and a gas one and tell me that the diesel makes sense.

The diesel costs so much more than the gas car that you would probably have to drive 100k miles before you see a payback. More so since modern gas engines require less maintence than a diesel, and get pretty darn good fuel mileage.