Most of the stuff we get is heavy wet snow, this last one was powder and nothing to drive through.
Subaru AWD vs Blizzard
- Thread starter loneryder
- Start date
AWD cannot fully make up for bad tires. AWD with winter tires or 3PMSF tires can go quite far in even bad weather and exceed some 4WD trucks with hiway tires.
Wet stuff is a problem. Luckily here, always powder.
It may not have been a typical piece of road snow. It was in a turnoff on Southside Drive. Or at least that's what it was like in the winter without anyone parking there. It seemed like it had been there a while and some of it looked to be thawed and re-frozen. But I had Bridgestone Potenza RE060AS which weren't great but eventually got me through it. I believe with chains I would have easily gotten through it. It was almost like digging my way out of the snow.
Did I say it was? The OP stated a Subaru was struggling on plowed roads. With decent tires and common sense, this simply shouldn't happen. It was apparent that whoever was driving the troubled Subaru that the OP was referring to was either being driven by an idiot, it had bald tires, or possibly both.
The entire point of my original post, which has taken on a life of its own apparently, is that the Subaru that I drove did a great job. In the fluffy deep snow and subsequently the packed, very slick, rutted up snow on my stretch of road towards home, the Subaru I drove handled great. It was a general comment on how well I thought it handled in the freakishly deep snow that we got last year in my general area.
Have a good day. Cheers!
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Worst tires ever.My moms Crosstrek has those and they are terrible
Once when I brought in my WRX for a courtesy alignment inspection at a Firestone shop, the report included recommended items including a set of new tires (and yes my tires were worn). But they recommended RE92 replacements. Even then, I've heard that there's some differences between the OEM version of the tire sold to carmakers and the retail version.
Our 17 came with Yoko Geos. They did O.K.. Did she get a base?
Yea, my parents are clamoring how smooth the OEM Bridgestone Ecopia HL422s were but they are dangerous outside of bluebird days. They’re adequate for SoCal or the Florida peninsula though.
There’s truth to that - not so much with the Asian/American OEMs but with the European OEMs. BMW and Porsche are known for tire approvals. While Michelin will mark DT on a OEM tire that’s made for CAFE, there’s subtle tread differences. BMW was a major driver behind Bridgestone’s run-flat program.
Goodyear did develop a tire for Toyota when they were developing the Lexus LS400 - the Eagle GA. It ended up being a popular tire with Ford and GM on the Lincoln Mark VII and the P71 Crown Vic/9C1 Caprice cop cars. The Eagle RS-A and LS were also developed just for OEM fitnent. Goodyear also developed the Integrity as an OEM “fuel efficient” tire for GM and Mopar to use on the Cavalier/Lumina and the Caravan/Voyager - Goodyear made a Prius-specific one as well.
Nowadays, Hankook/Kumho is getting more OEM fitment than Goodyear by the Detroit 3. Bridgestone is all in with BMW and Toyota. Hyundai/Kia seems to mix it up - the higher end cars(Genesis/Telluride/Palisade) are getting Michelin, the mainline is getting Hankook, Kumho or Nexen.
The problem comes in with ground clearance. Once you start pushing snow with the front bumper, youre in trouble. Its just like with my Accord. You can drive anywhere you want up to about 6" of snow and after that, its game over.
AWD doesnt matter if you are using your front bumper as a snow plow or if you beach it on the skid plates.
The consistency of snow makes a large difference. A Subaru with 4 winter tires can claw its way through 2’ of light powder. Hit 6-8” of heavy wet snow it gets buried quick.
I have done light loose powder the mid grill height on an Acura MDX. Basically snow powder drifted from adjecant fields in over snow banks. I would ram forward about 5-10 feet and back up and repeat to make it up 1/4 mile drive.
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Three winters in Vermont now and our Crosstrek has only failed to make it up our steep driveway once. Our driveway was basically just ice from a partially thawed and then frozen snow. I know that my 4X4 Tacoma would not have had a chance at making it but I agree that tires make a huge difference.
Fortunately, I had this to haul it up the driveway.
Fortunately, I had this to haul it up the driveway.
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