Your vehicles in snow

[Falken]

The Honda Fit does pretty well.

I have Yokohama IG20 snow tires, 185/65R/15 though.

The Pirelli 190 Snow Controls I got when I bought the car in late November 2010 were absolutely horrible, I still have them in storage but I only used them one Winter and then went for the Yokohamas.

They are great mainly in deeper snow, slush, and reasonably good on mild ice. Glare ice is an issue though.

The Honda Fit is a super friendly to use Winter car. The Canadian version can hold a whole Gallon jug of wiper fluid which is really handy.

It heats up pretty good, windows don't fog up and the controls on everything are easy to use in the Winter.

Just got a CarQuest Deka battery for it and it has never started easier since I bought it.

My next set of snow tires will be the Gislaved Nordfrost 100 Studded as they seem to have stopped using salt for cost saving purposes.

Without salt on the roads, glare ice just keeps building. Irregular ice patches everywhere, with new ones forming every minor snowfall.

There are accidents happening from this, so I think Studded tires are the way to go.

 

[sciphi]

Cruze with Nokian Hakka R's has trouble getting going. I blame that on being a manual, and my not liking to slip the clutch. It does better with the traction control off to allow some wheelspin to get going. Once it's going, it stays going. The traction control and stability control do a great job keeping the car going on slick roads.

Our Fit has fewer issues getting going due to being automatic. The rear wheels having almost no weight on them do make it fishtail on occasion. We keep some weight back there to help out. Aside from that, it has passed many a stuck pickup.

 

[supton]

My Jetta was ok, all season or snow, although snow tires were better. But it has like two inches of ground clearance so it high ends easily, and forget about Icey hill climbs--I've had friends motor up a driveway with worn all seasons on their awd vehicles but I couldn't.

Camry is ok, but the Michelins it had sucked. Just liked the LTX's on my truck. IPikes on my truck are great, and have done a lot to help it. But I have yet to really try them out.

 

[901Memphis]

Both my Taurus an Century are pretty awesome with meaty all seasons. I can't even break rear tires loose even if I intentionally carry too much speed in the turns.

 

[Rand]

I'd agree with most of your post, However I feel the need to empathize that the hankook ipikes are average stud-able snow tires without studs.

I'd like to know how well it would do with a conti EWC, hakka r2's, Michelin xice xi3 etc true top tier studless tires.

A studded snow tire without studs is a major compromise in hardpack and ice traction by design vs tires designed to be studless.

And of course its a Rwd sports/family car vs a truck based SUV with top tier all seasons.

I expect(ed) the car to handle decent on the ipikes not get stuck, and not be a white knuckle experience. Seems like that is fairly true.

With a true studless tire I'd expect greater winter traction except in deep snow.

If you wanted a new benchmark for winter performance I'd suggest a 2015 subaru forester with blizzack ws-80, hakka r2 etc

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Given the recent dumpings we've had here, I've had lots of opportunity to try out the Charger in snow, on ice....etc. It has close to a perfect 50/50 weight balance too, and (aggressive) traction control (thanks to DBW). My benchmark for winter performance has been and continues to be the Expedition, a vehicle that became that much better on ice with the fitment of the LTX M/S2's before last winter.

The Expedition weighs a bit over 6,000lbs according to the dump scales with 1/4 tank of gas. The Charger weighs a tad more than 4,000lbs, a touch lighter than the M5.

The Charger was fitted with the Hankook iPike winter tires. It feels confident and competent in snow; far more so than the M5 on the Blizzak's, likely due to the tires being a lot narrower (the M5 was on 245 and 275 skis).

That said, the Expedition is still massively better in snow. Massively better on ice. It stops better, it goes better, even in 2WD. I assume some of this has to do with the 2,000lb weight advantage

I keep expecting a car with 4 snows to do better than the truck with the Michelins and it just doesn't happen. We have winter tires (also Hankook) on the work E250 van and the Expedition is still a more competent vehicle in adverse weather conditions.

About the only vehicle I can think that has been better was my buddy's F-250 Super Crew Lariat diesel with BFG A/T's on it and tipping the scales at north of 8,000lbs. It was a BEAST in snow and he always kept a fair pile of scrap steel in the bed to keep weight on the rear axle.

All that said, I haven't gotten stuck on a hill or had to back down from a grade or anything with the Charger. I did with the M5. I enjoy driving it, it gets up to temp very fast (Clevy.... you mentioned this about yours) and has great seat heat

 

[OVERKILL]

Well, if you'd get your butt up here for another visit, I could try that now couldn't I? LOL!

 

[fdcg27]

We had a '97 Aerostar that we bought new.
It was pretty decent in the snow on the OEM Michelins.
Put some weight in the back and it was a really good machine in deep snow, with plenty of ground clearance.
Certainly not as carefree to drive in slick conditions as a FWD car, though.

 

[Joel_MD]

My 2007 Ram 2500 diesel 4x4 is truly awesome in the snow. I just put new Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor tires on it; ready for the next Noreaster that blows through and dumps 20+ inches.

The wife's 2012 Volvo S60 is pretty typical for a FWD car. With all season Michelin Primacy MXM4 tires it does pretty well in the snow. Since my bride drives 3k miles/month I don't want to put snow tires on the Volvo because they will wear out so fast. She's from the south of France and doesn't like to venture out if it's snowing anyway.

My 2003 Saab is sort of a project; trying to fix it up and turn it into a fun daily driver. I'm thinking about buying some nice 17" rims with summer performance tires, and then put some snow tires on the OEM 16" rims for next winter. I've never had a sedan with snow tires and I'm eager to find out what I'm missing!

My stepson's 2006 Saab (Saabaru) 9-2x Linear (same as a non-turbo Subaru Impreza) is AWD and is amazing in the snow, even with its mediocre Firestone all season tires.

 

[andyd]

Technique is more important than equipment. Also, just because, you can drive in a snow storm ,doesn't mean you should. The ex-gov, would put on a sweater and advise the populace to stay home until the plows were done. Lot less news that day

 

[exranger06]

My Ranger does really well in the snow. I have Michelin LTXs on it. I don't bother adding weight in the back. If I have trouble getting going, I shift into 4wd and I get going no problem. You have to be careful giving it gas around corners or the back end will swing right around on you.

The Explorer handles excellent and will go through anything.

I haven't really gotten the opportunity to drive the Bronco in the snow yet, but I imagine it will handle excellent and will also go through anything.

The Accord is pretty bad in the snow, but I have half-worn all-season tires on it. I don't bother with snow tires because I have two 4wd trucks at my disposal whenever I need them, and the Accord stays home in bad weather.

We haven't gotten the opportunity to use the wife's Crosstrek in heavy snow yet, but it's been great on icy roads so far.

 

[badtlc]

My FWD Escape is pretty dam amazing in my opinion. I have never had snows so I don't know what it can fully do. It also doesn't have a way to disable traction control and lockin the front wheels. It obviously isn't great in ice.

Despite all that I have gotten around in 12" snow when a couple of times, once while the wife was in labor of course! The only time it has gotten stuck was on the farm where my wife was trying to park off the drive way (gravel) in the grass because her grandpa told her to. It was in about a 3-4' drift and of course she couldn't get back out.

Someday I dream of having snow tires on the escape and going to the mountain or somewhere with lots of snow and see what it can do.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: ChevyBadger
Truck is awesome in snow, obviously 4wd. Although the Cooper AT3 tires that came on it when I bought suck. Impala is pretty good, put General Altimax's on it and they're great.


How much tread do the Cooper AT3s have? I've read they are supposed to be pretty good in the snow.

I'm actually pretty disappointed this year. The biggest storm we have had has been 2".

 

[Quattro Pete]

Between our two rides, the Q5 wins in the snow. Alas, it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. The Q5 has AWD and it has brand new winter tires. Winter tires on my 530i are 5+ years old. They have plenty of tread left, but I feel like they don't grip in the snow as well as they used to - possibly the rubber just hardened over the years. Regardless, I can still get around just fine. Hoping to get at least one additional winter out of them.

 

[Olas]

My winter wheels have Uniroyal MS6 Plus rubber and it feels like I'll run out of ground clearance before I'll run out of grip, the consistently shock me with how well they perform in bad conditions.

 

[dlundblad]

My Jeep does pretty good in 4WD, but in 2WD its about worthless with the open diffs. I have the selec trac transfer case with the full time (AWD) option. When things get very bad, the part time option locks the drive shafts together. Seems to do pretty good all in all. The Goodyear Duratracs really help too.

 

[MCompact]

All do great except for the Club Sport(which wears EHP summer rubber all year long) and the '02(which is not allowed to see salt).

 

[SwampSurvivor]

My XJ Cherokee is useless in 2WD in the snow. I've always run good tires on it, too. The studded and hand siped goodyear workhorse are pretty good for me and I ran Nokian Vatiiva for a year or two in the winter.

One winter when my front differential failed, I had to drive it 2wd. There were a few times where it just would not move. Period. Not a fault of the tires - it could stop on a dime in the ice and hard packed snow, just not enough weight. Ended up adding a few hundred pounds to the rear to be able to get it to move.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
My XJ Cherokee is useless in 2WD in the snow. I've always run good tires on it, too. The studded and hand siped goodyear workhorse are pretty good for me and I ran Nokian Vatiiva for a year or two in the winter.

One winter when my front differential failed, I had to drive it 2wd. There were a few times where it just would not move. Period. Not a fault of the tires - it could stop on a dime in the ice and hard packed snow, just not enough weight. Ended up adding a few hundred pounds to the rear to be able to get it to move.
Yeah Cherokees aren't heavy enough in the rear. I've done lots of 4-wheeling in my grandpa's Cherokee and the rear end always breaks loose, and when the road is real rough it sometimes likes to slide and jump around in the rear. It's even got the limited slip rear end, but in 4x4 it's unstoppable.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

They have a front biased distribution. I have a 3/16'' steel winch bumper with big unibody tie-ins so mine's a bit more front heavy.

The upside is, they'll climb like a mountain goat!

 

[IndyIan]

As I progressively stiffened up the suspension on the old Neon, it got a bit worse in the snow. I always ran 155/80R13 snows on it, so it still was quite good in loose slush or snow. But with stiffer suspension, it was easier to initiate a 4 wheel drift, which I found fine, but it isn't how I'd set up the car for my Mom to drive...
The current cars are fine in the snow, I notice the Focus isn't quite the hillclimber that the Neon was as I think its got more even weight distribution(wagon, Al block engine, lighter MTX) but its fine on the road.