I agree...tires are the main factor first and foremost.

 

My OE Dunlops barely passed state inspection last February. remember, during the wicked bahd stahms? I replaced them in October or so because I didn't want to start another winter on them.

Are snows better than all seasons? Sure.
Is AWD better than FWD? Definitely.
But are all seasons good enough for the winter? Yep.
Is FWD fine in the snow? It's a whole lot better than the 77 Sedan deVille I was using as a teenager in the late 80s.

It's a poor workman who blames his tools. You had your tires inspected and found it was their fault? Just look at them and ask yourself if they've got enough tread to hold on to something. And then you drive according on their condition and the weather conditions. I've been driving in Connecticut and New Hampshire since I got my license, never once on snows. I pay attention to the world around me, I use a manual transmission to let me have some control over the power I'm putting down, and I don't believe that because I'm not on a snowmobile I can't get anywhere.

I loved my Subaru, but it wasn't the subaru-ness that passed the Jeeps, it was me.
It wasn't their Jeep-ness that sucked in the snow, it was their lack of skill and/or understanding that led to excessive timidity.

Now I've got fresh tires, better than the OEs, and I'm looking forward to getting where I'm going in the next couple months despite the weather.

 

You're right Charlie...you're probably just a better driver than everyone else.

I'll be sure to wave to you when your car is being pulled out of a ditch on I-95.

 

So if I go off the road, you'll blame the driver. But if you're having traction issues the problem is with the tires and not because you were "doing something wrong"

Okay.

 

None of my vehicles have pure winter tires, the Jeep has HORRIBLE tires for ice,
they are a big MT with huge tread blocks and no siping. The 330XI BMW has Continental Allseason Contacts.

Full winter tires or studs are a waste of money for me we just don't get enough ice in Portland Oregon. I've run them before and got < 25K out of both sets.

I am going to replace the Hankooks just because they are noisy and seem too hard for the weight of the car, not a tire I'm impressed with at all.

Tires are so variable that sure I can see a FWD beating a AWD but with equal tires, assuming the cars are the same, IE 2wd audi vs Awd Audi the FWD is toast if everything else is equal.

The Fit vs my 330xi yea its a knife to a gun fight.. The 330 has awesome traction and stability control hill decent control and probably one of the top 5 high performance all season tires made..

 

Ok so I don't know how fast the jeep was going you passed, how fast you were going, how deep the snow was that day, whether or not there was ice underneath it, how much weight you had in your car or what kind of tread you had on your tires. I also don't know what kind of tires you recently bought or how those new tires will make you change your driving habits so I really can't make a judgment like you were willing to make about me but should you wind up in a ditch I will still wave to you.

 

LOL and you never know,, the Jeep just may not be in a hurry.. Or give hoot that you passed them?

Oh and I'll wave too..

 

Driving in snow is easy, even on all-seasons.

ice is the tricky bit.

 

I love my 2010 in the snow.... the only issue I have had is trying to plow through the "plow" gunk at the end of the driveway.... lil guy got stuck.


Other than that, just all season tires and 80lb bags of cat litter in trunk


FWD's in the snow are fun

 

Putting weight in the back of a FWD car is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing.

Why are you doing that?

 

Because it helps you get sideways!

 

driving in snow i try to fill my tank and i just take my time and if ice is a factor where you live you could own a military grade hummer and it will still slip so maybe its just the roads by you, i have never had issues in my fit in snow only on secondary where i could see where there was ice present and i buy no name or cheap tires and she still handles good research, research, research max i pay per tire is 60 a tire new maybe cheaper I got a fit not a ferrari dont think im hitting 200 any time soon and i live in NYC pothole capital of the world and my tires last

 

because I like to balance out the weight a bit more.... front is still heavier with engine and me up there... now back is weighted down to.


Car Drives like a champ in snow. after 103k miles and only 2nd set of tires haven't had an issue with this weight distribution.

 

I got a brand new set of Bizzaks and I didn't have one issue driving in the snow this year. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the tires though...I must have miraculously gotten better at driving in the snow after living and driving in it for 30 years.

 

Our Base 08 has been great in the snow, and got better once we replaced the OE Dunlops. I test drove it in 4" of snow and slush. I had an older Focus for a couple of years and couldn't even get out of my neighborhood in similar conditions. I have the cheap Douglas all seasons on the Fit from Wal Mart and traction got better.

 

New snows? Maybe. El Niņo? Definitely.

 

You are so right.

Years ago, I was driving a Willys Jeep CJ-6 with AWD and 4 wheel chains on my job at a Shell station. The Jeep hit a slippery spot and went into a snowbank.

Luckily, it had a snowplow fitted and pulled itself out.

AWD is not as great as it sounds in tough conditions.

 

Will keep this in mind! My '08 Sport is OK but not great in snow -- just for comparison, I had an '88 Hyundai Excel, which I drove for 12 years, and it was the most sure-footed 2WD car I've ever had, regardless of what kind of tires I had on it. I bought my Fit used from a dealer -- the tires looked new, but they're some sort of Doral (a Sumitomo off-brand, from what I can Google), and although I get around decently in snow, it's not as good as the Hyundai. (I hasten to add that in most other respects, the Fit is a much better car, although the Excel gave me 160K nearly-trouble-free miles, belying its reputation as a throwaway car.)

A friend of mine notes that Tire Rack will send you four tires with wheels for pretty reasonable $, so all you have to do is jack up the car and swap them out for winter. Anyone tried that?

Urb

 

I would not trust Sumitomo on my car, let alone an off brand from them. Get proper tires stat.

 

My wife opts to use my Honda Fit instead of her BMW when it snows. I haven't had any significant problems with the car in the snow.