Quote:
Originally Posted by Joenavy85
maybe it's my dirt track experience talking, but i'll still stick with RWD
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I have driven both front- and rear wheel drive cars in the winter and I will always prefer FWD.
RWD on snow is much more fun - that is, if you can afford to get out in the snow and play with the car.
But if you HAVE TO drive, especially long distances, in the dark, in adverse conditions, in the mountains, than boring FWD just is the way to go.
When driving my two Mercedes (w123) in the winter, going uphill wasn't that funny.
When moving to the Eifel region I organised scandinanian-spec winter tires - only then was I able to get up the steep slopes to the village where I live. Unfortunately these tires were next to undrivable on anything else but snow and ice - rolling resistance as if someone had put glue to them, the rubber beeing so soft and profile so extreme. They did not really work on dry or wet roads either. But that was the only way I could get up that hill...
With the front wheel drive Saab one year later I was surprised by winter: 20 cm now in a single night and ice underneath (at least on the slopes, where all the other vehicles had been skidding and sliding).
As I had just bought the car it still stood on old tires (new ones had been ordered, but not fitted yet): seven year old Michelin Alpin with less than 3mm left.
On an 8% grade with snow and ice underneath I had to stop several times, as the hill was blocked with trucks and cars whose drivers had first run out of traction and then out of talent and were littering the road in a pretty chaotic way.
And you know what? The little FWD Saab just did not care. Ancient winter tires without profile, soft accelerator and clutch feet and no problem at all.
Nop way I could have made that with my Mercedes or BMW. Perhaps with studded tires, but they're illegal in Germany...
RWD is the only way to get traction when accelerating and having lots of power. (In the summer, that is.) RWD is great for big, heavy sedans and for powerful sport cars. RWD is great for fun.
But in winter, if just HAVE TO GET THROUGH, than nothing beats FWD. OK, all-wheel-drive will be better still.
