Driving in snow.

[freebeard]

Maybe you accidentally a word?

Put weight on the drive wheels and carry bags of sand and pieces of carpeting. And two bumper jacks in case you have to lever it up out of a ditch.

[redpoint5]

Summer tires are awful in the snow. Even "all season" tires aren't so good. At minimum I'd get a set of used cable Z chains just in case.

[Xist]

The mother of a client said that I need to invest in a Subaru for its all-wheel drive. I had one of those. It had fewer miles than most vehicles that I have owned, yet a record amount of maintenance. It got the worst fuel economy of any vehicle that I have owned and I spent still more on repairs.

The cheapest AWD vehicle in the area is a Subaru Outback for $2,700. I cannot imagine that paying for itself, but if I went the winter beater route and just hoped to sell it for 90% of what I paid three months later--it would still probably make more sense to just stay home.

The cheapest allegedly drivable Subaru back in the Phoenix area is $1,900, although there are eleven cheaper Subarus--with horrible problems.

Why do people post cars for $1? I rarely click on those. Does everyone else? Someone put $1 for an old Subaru and did not actually give a price in the description.

I will give you 50¢!

Then of course there are all of the completely unrelated vehicles with random keywords. Why wouldn’t I look for Prii and then fall in love with a Ram?

The cheapest AWD vehicle was a 1998 Explorer v8.

That is exactly what I need!

Searching the Phoenix area for “4x4” I had five pages of vehicles for $1 and dozens more between $3 and $149.



It seemed they referred to hundreds or thousands of dollars, but why? This is one of your greatest investments and you are too lazy to give your actual asking price?

There is a $600 Bronco without a title they use to pull a 27” trailer.

I was not aware they made those.

Why oh why would you “own” a car without the title? What happens if you are pulled over? Do they haul your vehicle one direction and you in another?

Someone is trying to sell a nonrunning “4WD” Sonata for $750.

2000 Jimmy “It is not pretty but seems to run okay.”

I hate you.

Craigslist. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

I will definitely choose to stay home over spending this long in Craigslist. I do not understand how OfferUp is supposed to be any better. It may be more popular in places, but it has fewer search options, and the people are just as lame.

Much of the snow has melted, but dirty roads are horribly muddy. Dirt roads? Who cares?

Everyone canceled, but I wrote many progress reports today. I wish that I had finished them, but for some reason, women that I have taken out decided to interrogate me.

I hope that all of you had good days.

[Frank Lee]

I wouldn't go off on a 4x4 hunting spree cuz some Mom said so. They'd have EVERYBODY in 3xpeditions and Subdivisions and Escapades.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Craigslist. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

I will definitely choose to stay home over spending this long in Craigslist. I do not understand how OfferUp is supposed to be any better. It may be more popular in places, but it has fewer search options, and the people are just as lame.

Much of the snow has melted, but dirty roads are horribly muddy. Dirt roads? Who cares?

I've never had an issue with Craigslisters. Best roommates ever were found there, and no hassle car purchase and sale. As I've said before, people generally make it very obvious if they are dirtballs right away. When interviewing for a potential roommate, when a guy said he was being evicted for unknown reasons, and that's why he needs a place to stay immediately, that's your queue to send him down the road.

Offer Up has a rating system, so that's how it's superior to CL. You can avoid a lot of frustration by only dealing with people that have proven to be reliable.

I flag posts that have unrelated keywords. A Honda Civic is not related to a Toyota Prius.

[Fat Charlie]

I flag posts with cars for $1.

[freebeard]

Craigslist. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

All the good stuff is on Bring A Trailer.

https://bringatrailer.com/

[redpoint5]

The worst people on CL are those looking for free stuff. You'll get a million questions and people will ask for you to deliver the things you're giving away for free.

For that reason, I don't list free/cheap stuff on CL. That stuff belongs at Goodwill. Sell only valuable stuff, and you'll get decent customers.

[All Darc]

Is installation free ???

Originally Posted by redpoint5

You'll get a million questions and people will ask for you to deliver the things you're giving away for free.

[Isaac Zackary]

I've lived in one of the most snowiest places in the USA for all my life and have about 20 years driving experience here. I've seen it all time after time again; terrible blizzards where you can't see 2 feet in front of your vehicle, avalanches, black ice that seems to form out of nowhere, snow several feet deep, places where the ground freezes and pushes up big mounds of frozen dirt, over long steep mountain passes with deadly precipices, sometimes in the middle of nowhere. And all that in all sorts of vehicles, from FWD to RWD to AWD cars, trucks, SUV's, buses and tractor trailers. And I've never seen where an average driver needs AWD or 4WD.

For most people in snow country in the USA, AWD is more of a convenience than a necessity. If they live where it snows a lot in the USA, there will be snow removal services. The only people that actually benefit from AWD, 4WD and higher ground clearances are those that have a long unmaintained driveway, or those that insist on driving in that one terrible freak storm that happens every half a decade.

AWD and 4WD only really help get your vehicle moving. That's it. Once you're going down the road it doesn't really do anything to help you. Cornering is going to be the same. Braking the same. The road isn't going to dry out in front of your car just because it has AWD. Ground clearance usually isn't much of a problem. It seems to be more of a problem in big cities during a terribly snow year when snow removal services has a hard time keeping up with their job. But we're talking once every couple decades, and something that's not that hard to work around.

Some say you need AWD for engine braking down long mountain passes. But that's only if you have a huge trailer behind your vehicle. Otherwise engine braking is fine on two wheels if you slow the vehicle down with the brakes first before selecting a lower gear.

The main thing is tires. Don't even think of driving on snow or ice with summer tires or tires with less than 1/8 tread on them. I don't care if you have 4WD, 6WD or 40WD or WD-40. All season tires are ok on snow and ICE. Consumer Reports say you still take about twice the distance to stop on all seasons than on snow tires. But if you go extra slow you'll be ok. But even snow tires don't do miracles. Snow tires can slip and slide just like any other tire on snow or ice. But they do a much better job of holding more traction than other kinds. And if it's snowy and icy out, I go at least 2/3 the speed limit, if not slower, even with studded snow tires. And finally chains are the best for snow and ice. Put them on the drive wheels, and don't go over 30mph with them.

I can proudly say I've successfully towed a 4WD Ford Expedition out of a snow bank pulling it uphill with my 1985 FWD VW Golf! It's all in the tires!

AWD can give you a false sense of security. 2WD let's you know that it's slippery. When you come up to the next stop light, the guy in the 2WD car is going to want to slow down much sooner than the guy in the AWD car who now has a higher risk of slamming into the back of a stopped car. Just look at the rate of deaths in any particular vehicle comparing between AWD/4WD and 2WD versions. The statistics paint the AWD/4WD vehicles like death traps. A 2013 2WD Chevy Suburban is statistically one of the safest vehicles to drive. Your chance of dying in one is something like 6 in a million. But jump in the 4WD version and your chances are now tens of times more likely to die in a deadly wreck. If you get an AWD or 4WD vehicle, drive it like as if it were 2WD.

[YouTube]