Random thoughts / planning to buy a car

[davester]

space-time wrote:
in my experience, snow tires are just as important, if not even more important that AWD.

That's kind of a duh! It's pointless to have an AWD vehicle without snow tires. I can assure you that an AWD vehicle with snow tires will get you many more places more safely than a 2WD vehicle with snow tires.

[space-time]

davester wrote:
[quote=space-time]
in my experience, snow tires are just as important, if not even more important that AWD.

That's kind of a duh! It's pointless to have an AWD vehicle without snow tires. I can assure you that an AWD vehicle with snow tires will get you many more places more safely than a 2WD vehicle with snow tires.
yet you wouldn't believe how many AWD drivers have all season tires.

[Forrest]

Enjoying my RAV4 Hybrid that I bought last July. It's got 10,000 miles on it now. Drives great. 34 mpg in cold weather and 36 mpg in warm weather. My original post link

[Octave Doctor]

My last car was a Subaru Outback with snow tires, it would go pretty much anywhere in the snow, even the steep alley along my building up to the driveway.

The Altima I drive now is FWD, but the previous owners put snow tires all the way around. That's a big help, with braking if nothing else. Also helps that it's an older one, so not as overpowered and more manageable. It also makes it up the alley.

[C(-)ris]

space-time wrote:
[quote=davester]
[quote=space-time]
in my experience, snow tires are just as important, if not even more important that AWD.

That's kind of a duh! It's pointless to have an AWD vehicle without snow tires. I can assure you that an AWD vehicle with snow tires will get you many more places more safely than a 2WD vehicle with snow tires.
yet you wouldn't believe how many AWD drivers have all season tires.
But an AWD with all Seasons is better than a 2WD with all seasons. It is all about what you need it to do. I had All Seasons on my Forester till the factory set wore out. Then I switched to these: https://www.tirerack.com/survey/SurveyComments.jsp?&category=tire&additionalComments=y&commentStatus=P&tireMake=Pirelli&tireModel=P4+Four+Seasons&fromTireDetail=true&tirePageLocQty=

[davester]

space-time wrote:
[quote=davester]
[quote=space-time]
in my experience, snow tires are just as important, if not even more important that AWD.

That's kind of a duh! It's pointless to have an AWD vehicle without snow tires. I can assure you that an AWD vehicle with snow tires will get you many more places more safely than a 2WD vehicle with snow tires.
yet you wouldn't believe how many AWD drivers have all season tires.
Actually, I should have said that it's pointless to have an AWD vehicle in the snow without snow tires. They can be useful in other limited traction conditions (e.g. loose sand, etc) without snow tires.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Cars with all season (M+S) tires on AWD/4WD vehicles are allowed in every place that cars with chains on one axle can go.

I wouldn't buy a large SUV before deciding on a house/apartment. It's a little frustrating having a vehicle that won't fit in your garage.

[S. Pupp]

In upstate NY, most of the vehicles I saw sitting in a snowy ditch were SUV's. Over-confidence of the drivers and high momentum seemed to play a role. I did fine with my front wheel drive VW Jetta equipped with Blizzaks. My wife did even better in her Blizzak-equipped 2004 Honda Civic.

Subaru Outback is a good vehicle - multiple friends said it handles more like a car than an SUV (in a good way), and it has AWD. Equip it with snow tires and drive carefully, and you should be OK in winter.

[SteveO]

1. The smallest thing you can fit your kid, wife and associated gear into
2. The smallest thing you can fit your bike into
3. The smallest thing you can fit bike, gear, wife and kid into

(note emphasis on bike) :jest:

Honda Fit has great stowage, as does HR-V and both are FWD and probably light enough to get around pretty well in snow. Honda and Toyota are pretty legendary in used car durability/longevity. Also, I'd suspect Madison has excellent snow removal capability so that may negate some of the need for a "must have AWD" attitude.

Plus consider global warming. It's been 50+ here in KC for most of the damn winter. Been on my bike a lot but normal this aint and it has me concerned for all of us. When I was a kid it was cold and snowy 95% of the winter. I've shoveled once this year...and didn't really need to.

Those Subie Crosstreks are also pretty cool for all this stuff and standard AWD if it's a mandatory.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

S. Pupp wrote:
Subaru Outback is a good vehicle - multiple friends said it handles more like a car than an SUV (in a good way)

That's because it is a station wagon, not an SUV.