My Subaru Outback is a '96 Legacy, and I’m extremely happy with the way it handled this winter.
Don’t know a thing about stereotypes in this area, though…
Quoting this one 'cause it was nice and convenient near the bottom of the thread, but several other people have come up with the same sort of wisdom, and I’ll say it again: there is absolutely no need for a SUV or other large car if one otherwise wouldn’t fit your driving needs. If you have other reasons to get one, sure, it can help a little bit, but don’t think that just because you get a $16k compact instead of a $30k SUV you’re dooming yourself and your loved ones to an icy death. I have spent most of my driving life in suburban-or-less-plowed New England, and all of it with small cars: Saturn SL2, Toyota Yaris, and my wife’s Corolla. I’ve had one minor weather related issue, and the root cause wasn’t the tiny car, it was “seventeen years old and driving like an idiot”.
Drive slowly, make sure you have at an absolute minimum all-seasons with healthy treads (and winter tires are a definite plus, and as others have mentioned, not much more expensive), let the plows do their job before you get in their way, and drive slowly. Anecdotally I would say that overconfidence is what causes the most accidents, whether that’s because someone has lived with the snow their whole life and believes they’re skilled enough that the rules don’t apply to them, or whether someone thinks that driving whichever new SUV is approaching the size of a M1 Abrams will let them ignore the laws of physics.
New England drivers are just as terrible as drivers everywhere else, and millions of us make it through each winter unharmed. That you’re even thinking to ask about it and will consider the responses means you’ll be fine!
I’d kill for a Subaru in these conditions – up here it’s just part of the LLBean Merrill NorthFace skiing biking rich but make it look casual stereotype.
How do you spot someone from Colorado?
They are driving a $3,000 Subaru with a $5,000 mountain bike on the roof.
I live in a Utah ski town and can reccomend a Subaru Outback, I have all season M+S rated tyres ( so not snow specific tyres thet need to be changed in spring) and they work fine in the storms we get. The CVT seams reliable and gets 30+ on the highways. The increased ground clearance that came with the 2012 model is also good.
Living in interior Alaska, I can vouch for the winter reliability of Subarus. Here, aside from pickup trucks and larger truck-style SUVs, Subarus are probably the most common car on the roads.
But whatever car you buy, get good tires, learn to drive on ice, and SLOW DOWN.
I’ll just add that if you look, many cars now have an all wheel drive version that didn’t use to.
For examples:
Honda Accord (Crossover)
Ford Taurus
And this;
kbb.com top-10-winter-cars-2013/
Having just driven in a snowstorm last night I can fully say do not get a Lincoln Town Car. They are RWD, which means they get no traction. I couldn’t even drive up a hill. Minivans and economy cars were passing me while I was stuck, so the car does matter. I don’t have winter tires.
You’ve identified the problem, and it’s not the car. Lincoln Town Cars work fine in the snow with the proper tires. You can drive in the snow with RWD, a Town Car is plenty heavy enough to have traction on the drive wheels with good tires.
It can’t be emphasized enough. Tires, tires, tires. My Honda Fit with Nokians performs better in ice and snow than my previous ride - a Subaru Legacy with all seasons.
But, but, but, I want a Subaru so I can be different like all those other people.
I don’t get it. people will sit there and obsess over a multi-thousand-dollar car because one might be “better in snow” yet balk at a few hundred bucks for proper winter tires. talk about “penny wise, dollar fucking stupid.”
So what I am taking away from this thread is that the vehicle doesn’t matter much, given the proper tires and AWD type stuff, but that Subaru seems to be a popular choice in snowy areas for a reason. Good to know!
No, that doesn’t explain why many other cars, the majority of which likely had all season tires like I did, were able to climb a hill and I wasn’t. While I was stranded a long list of cars was able to go around me, and I doubt many of them had winter tires. The fact that they were FWD is likely a big part of why.
Also when driving in bad weather a RWD car is more prone to sliding in my experience. I have owned a smaller FWD vehicle and it didn’t skid out nearly as easy.
all that means is one “all-season” tire is not the same as a different “all-season” tire.
you want to come in here with an anecdote, I’ll give you a counter-anecdote. at my last job, the office car was a Mazda 3 with “all-season, M+S (mud & snow)” rated tires. So one late winter day I was driving down a highway and the light turned yellow. Those “all season, mud & snow” tires had me sliding through the intersection with the ABS chattering away impotently.
You, like most everyone in this thread, are missing the big picture. FWD/AWD/4WD might help you get moving, but they absolutely WILL NOT HELP YOU STOP. NOT ONE GODDAMN BIT. NOT NO WAY, NOT NO HOW. WINTER TIRES WILL.
Yes, snow tires are a good investment and if I was planning on keeping the car I would buy a set. But that doesn’t change the fact that RWD cars are inferior to FWD or AWD cars to handling in bad weather conditions.
something isn’t a fact just because you assert it is. Weight distribution matters more than drive wheels, and tires matter more than both.
Not all all-season tires are equal, and ones with little tread are nearly useless. A big RWD car with good tires can do very well in snow. The skill of the driver can also be a factor - slow and steady up hills. The Town Car, being heavy, is much better than a RWD sports car or pickup which has much less weight over the drive wheels.
All cars will skid if pushed to the limit, it’s just that FWD and RWD skid differently. While most folks are used to understeer in FWD cars (push, or the car continues straight ahead when you want to turn) compared to oversteer in RWD cars (spinning out). Understeer is generally safer since it keeps the front of the car facing forward but for those of us who learned on RWD can handle both.
There are bad snow cars though. I moved from Louisiana to Vermont in an '89 Mazda pickup truck in 1996 right before a winter of historical proportions. It was about the worst handling snow vehicle you could have. I lived in an isolated farmhouse on the side of a mountain and absolutely could not get home on at least 20 separate occasions. I just parked at the base and walked a half mile uphill in the snow. The one time I got pissed off and tried to make it up, it turned into a reverse sled halfway up. My choices were to jump out or intentionally wreck it in a 360 spin because I was building up speed fast and there was a large stream at the bottom of the road that I was going to end up in. I opted for the spin and somehow lucked out by ending up in a snowbank without any damage. In true Vermont style, some guys in a big truck came by a few minutes later and lowered me and my truck to the bottom of the hill. I had two hundred pounds of weight in the bed and that helped but no snow tires because I couldn’t even think about affording them at the time. I am not sure how much they could have done but proabably not that much on a RWD vehicle that was so light in the back.
I had fun that year. I hit ice and sailed right through a T-bone intersection with no hope of stopping and ended up in a pasture on the other side. I also slid down the hill by my farmhouse again (this time forwards) and almost ended up in the creek at the bottom of the hill except I put it into a spin again and a small tree stopped the fall. All that was with little damage done but it could have a disaster.
Old pickup trucks suck in the snow. My next car was a 3-series BMW and I had some snow and ice adventures in that one as well. I came across the top of a bridge once once and saw a mass of collisions at the bottom including a jack-knifed 18-wheeler. I hot my brakes and nothing happened. I put my car into 360 degree spin intentionally again just to minimize the impact forces. I went around a lot more than that and somehow ended up stopped short of the wrecks at the bottom with no damage.
My Rav4 4wd is the first vehicle I have ever had that can actually handle snow well but I know there are others too. It isn’t always about the driver or the tires. Some vehicles (especially older ones) are deadly in those situations.
nothing in your post suggests that it isn’t about the driver or the tires. you moved from Louisiana (a place which gets practically no snow to speak of) to Vermont (a place which gets a shitload of snow) and seem to be trying to blame your vehicle for your inability to adapt.
It’s definitely about the driver. A good driver in a Mazda Miata will do better than a bad driver in a 4X4 in the snow.
While this may be true, people are down-playing the extent to which a light-assed rear wheel drive vehicle is bad in ice and snow. My work vehicle, an E150 cargo van, is like a freaking 3-month old puppy in the snow. Just aching to wag its tail all over the place. Need to add several hundred pounds in the back, I guess.
To the OP - don’t get a full-sized cargo van. 