I don’t disagree that it is better but my point was more good tires and fwd is better than people probably realize. And also that awd doesn’t make you corner or brake better, that’s all tires, unless you are going full Scandanavian flick, special stage style. 😆
not true. awd makes you over confident and you forget that it helps only with acceleration, not with turning and braking. its better to just have good winter tires rather than awd
Listen, I lived in the PA Appalachians all my life. There's some really nasty steep, long, windy hills around here and we get more ice then almost anywhere in the country. I drive Camaros and 2WD S10 trucks all thru the winter with minimal problems. Four wheel drive isn't necessary, but experience definitely is. My Silverado 1500 was 4×4 but I converted it to two wheel drive to save a lot of weight and make it more reliable and drive nicer. All you need is good tires and common sense. I never used snow tires either, always all-season tires.
2 weeks ago i witnessed new Skoda (fwd) that couldn't get through snowy hill on the way to the ski resort. They had to stop about 600 metres below. I drive Subaru and there are times I doubt the necessity of awd, especially in the summer but the fact is the car is overall safer and more reliable in bad weather
I know lots of people who lost the control of the car on slippery corner. It never happened to me and i don't consider myself particularly good or safe driver
Acceleration and steep slippery climbs are definitely an advantage to awd. Especially with fwd, the steeper the incline, the more weight transfer to the rear and less traction up front.
Here in the Netherlands we don't really get much snow anymore, rarely at least because of climate change. Really missed this. Assume these harsh winters every winter aren't as fun as they look. But it's very beautiful! would love to just drive there.
It has definitely become milder and less severe here for the winters. We are experiencing El Nińo this year so it’s really bad. Our average snowfall here is over 200” of snow. We have had only a couple of measurable snow falls so far. I really enjoyed the Netherlands when I was there, I actually skied at an indoor ski area there.
Nice! A 460 on snows has to be pretty damn good. We ran a hundred series Land Cruiser with studded snows and it was just effortless. Was wondering if the snows were going to be needed at all this year. 😆
Nice video. I never had a problem in my RWD BMW in the snow with summer tyres (I live in the UK so snow is rare), maybe 50:50 weight distribution helped a bit. The throttle was nice and progressive so easy to modulate power. It did have big fat tyres on the rear but still did quite well, I had Michelins so that may have helped a bit too.
Having a nice linear throttle makes it a ton easier for sure. In the mid ‘90’s I lived in a mountain town in Colorado and my only car was a Porsche 944. I didn’t even have winter tyres, just all seasons and I drove that thing daily through some of the worst weather and took me up daily to the ski area plus winter drives all over the state to other ski towns over the high alpine passes. So many great memories and I am sure I was having a ton more fun than the people lugging up the passes in their slow, ‘90’s SUV’s. 😆 But there is a stark contrast to European drivers and American, frankly you are way better drivers than the average person here. I travelled Europe a lot for work, mostly the Alps but also Scandinavia and the majority of the vehicles were 2wd cars, just with good snow tires and for Norway and Sweden, definitely studded snows. Our company’s European fleet was mostly Audi’s but we had a bunch of vans that were typically fwd or rwd and we took them everywhere going to ski race competitions. Anyway, cheers!
Enjoyable stories, thanks. I think the Scandinavians (and Germans) are probably a tier above in their driving skills compared to the UK to be honest, but the driving test in the UK is quite tough so I guess we're not too bad. Still some really poor driving disipline over here - do you get middle lane hoggers? I digress. I think RWD can still be tricky in some circumstances, especially with no traction control and drivers who don't understand tyre grip and the balance of a car, but on the whole I think the stigma is not deserved. Maybe some of the older RWDs in the 70s with a very skewed weight distribution were much worse. The only cars that has ever caused me to oversteer uncontrollably were Vauxhall Cavaliers (a GM company), which ares a FWD mid sized hatchback with basic suspension and no steering feel. I owned three of them from two generations and all of them did the same thing, two near misses and one crash. Owned lots of other FWD cars and luckily they didn't do that. @@Kristian_Saile
@@timk3939 agree, the balance is so important, especially at low speeds where you don’t get wait transfer happening. A fwd typically is better in that regard purely for just having a lump of iron over the drive tires. The 944’s I had had great balance, mostly due to the transaxle layout so not only did they get good initial traction but you could really steer them well with the throttle or trailing braking. I had a ‘69 911 for awhile and it had great traction for acceleration on snow but the front end was so light that it wound push really bad. That car needed to be driven really hard in order to get the weight transfer up to the front for turn in. That was easier on dry pavement but I never really felt that great pushing it in snow. I have a VW thing, and grew up with one in the snow and ironically it handles alot better than that old 911 did on snow, despite being the same vintage. That was before long hood 911’s became valuable, I do g think I would drive one in winter now. 😆
Yeah no problem assuming you have good tires. And I would add a good understanding of he rear wheel drive handles in low traction. The biggest thing that catches people off, and especially on older rwd cars with no traction control is how if you are going downhill or decelerating without the brakes, the rear tires can lose traction just from the engine breaking and cause it to loop out pretty easy. I learned this in a rwd Celica GTS as a teenager. But rwd in the snow can be really fun. I lived in Crested Butte, Colorado in the mid ‘90’s and my sole transportation was a Porsche 944 that I drove in the absolute worst weather conditions. It got me over all the worst passes in winter weather and ne er had issues. Just really great memories looking back.
I drive my Camaro and 2WD S10 thru snow and ice in the PA Appalachians with minimal problems. Snow tires help but I get by just fine with all-seasons and a couple hundred pounds of weight over the rear wheels. I also have posi rear on both my vehicles and it's a game changer as far as traction goes if you know how to handle the vehicle. Otherwise, you'll do a donut do fast it's not even funny. As for going down hills, I slow down to the speed I want before I hit the hill, slap it into neutral so your rear diff isn't pushing you and then it's a matter of keeping just enough steady pressure on the brakes to hold you at a steady speed.
@@Whats-It-To-Ya any tips for an open differential? I think the only problem here would be the side streets being tricky but the main roads should be good so it should be okay?
@@coleb4323 open diffs are easier to control than posi diffs, just a little less traction but it's not really a problem. Throw a couple hundred pounds of weight in the trunk, it makes a world of difference. I use bags of sand from Lowe's because they're cheap but you can use anything that won't roll around. Cinder blocks work good too. Other than all that, take your time, don't tailgate, don't jerk your steering wheel and don't hit your brakes too hard. Invest in two snow tires for the rear also, they help a lot of you aren't experienced with driving in snow, they're a real game changer. Just pay attention and be sensible and you'll be fine. The way I look at it, my dad and all my uncles drove Chevelles and Hemi Cudas thru snow back in the day and tires were awful back then and they got around just fine.
Do you need AWD? No. But, it sure as hell helps.
Yep, agreed.
NEED? Maybe not. Is it preferable in just about every way? Yes.
I don’t disagree that it is better but my point was more good tires and fwd is better than people probably realize. And also that awd doesn’t make you corner or brake better, that’s all tires, unless you are going full Scandanavian flick, special stage style. 😆
not true. awd makes you over confident and you forget that it helps only with acceleration, not with turning and braking. its better to just have good winter tires rather than awd
I have a rwd 4.0L manual Ranger. Thing is surprisingly pretty good in the snow.
Listen, I lived in the PA Appalachians all my life. There's some really nasty steep, long, windy hills around here and we get more ice then almost anywhere in the country. I drive Camaros and 2WD S10 trucks all thru the winter with minimal problems. Four wheel drive isn't necessary, but experience definitely is. My Silverado 1500 was 4×4 but I converted it to two wheel drive to save a lot of weight and make it more reliable and drive nicer. All you need is good tires and common sense. I never used snow tires either, always all-season tires.
So it's fwd or rwd? Recent tyre reviews video did a test on it and proved rwd is much better at climbing hills
2 weeks ago i witnessed new Skoda (fwd) that couldn't get through snowy hill on the way to the ski resort. They had to stop about 600 metres below. I drive Subaru and there are times I doubt the necessity of awd, especially in the summer but the fact is the car is overall safer and more reliable in bad weather
I know lots of people who lost the control of the car on slippery corner. It never happened to me and i don't consider myself particularly good or safe driver
Acceleration and steep slippery climbs are definitely an advantage to awd. Especially with fwd, the steeper the incline, the more weight transfer to the rear and less traction up front.
Here in the Netherlands we don't really get much snow anymore, rarely at least because of climate change. Really missed this. Assume these harsh winters every winter aren't as fun as they look. But it's very beautiful! would love to just drive there.
It has definitely become milder and less severe here for the winters. We are experiencing El Nińo this year so it’s really bad. Our average snowfall here is over 200” of snow. We have had only a couple of measurable snow falls so far. I really enjoyed the Netherlands when I was there, I actually skied at an indoor ski area there.
AWD= best FWD= next best thing unless its a hill weight will transfer off the front causing traction loss RWD= better for hills when compared to FWD
Just took the all seasons off the gx460 we got, and put better tires on it for snow and mud. Hello from the Trolls (Im near the Mac though).
Nice! A 460 on snows has to be pretty damn good. We ran a hundred series Land Cruiser with studded snows and it was just effortless. Was wondering if the snows were going to be needed at all this year. 😆
Nice video. I never had a problem in my RWD BMW in the snow with summer tyres (I live in the UK so snow is rare), maybe 50:50 weight distribution helped a bit. The throttle was nice and progressive so easy to modulate power. It did have big fat tyres on the rear but still did quite well, I had Michelins so that may have helped a bit too.
Having a nice linear throttle makes it a ton easier for sure. In the mid ‘90’s I lived in a mountain town in Colorado and my only car was a Porsche 944. I didn’t even have winter tyres, just all seasons and I drove that thing daily through some of the worst weather and took me up daily to the ski area plus winter drives all over the state to other ski towns over the high alpine passes. So many great memories and I am sure I was having a ton more fun than the people lugging up the passes in their slow, ‘90’s SUV’s. 😆 But there is a stark contrast to European drivers and American, frankly you are way better drivers than the average person here. I travelled Europe a lot for work, mostly the Alps but also Scandinavia and the majority of the vehicles were 2wd cars, just with good snow tires and for Norway and Sweden, definitely studded snows. Our company’s European fleet was mostly Audi’s but we had a bunch of vans that were typically fwd or rwd and we took them everywhere going to ski race competitions. Anyway, cheers!
Enjoyable stories, thanks. I think the Scandinavians (and Germans) are probably a tier above in their driving skills compared to the UK to be honest, but the driving test in the UK is quite tough so I guess we're not too bad. Still some really poor driving disipline over here - do you get middle lane hoggers? I digress. I think RWD can still be tricky in some circumstances, especially with no traction control and drivers who don't understand tyre grip and the balance of a car, but on the whole I think the stigma is not deserved. Maybe some of the older RWDs in the 70s with a very skewed weight distribution were much worse. The only cars that has ever caused me to oversteer uncontrollably were Vauxhall Cavaliers (a GM company), which ares a FWD mid sized hatchback with basic suspension and no steering feel. I owned three of them from two generations and all of them did the same thing, two near misses and one crash. Owned lots of other FWD cars and luckily they didn't do that. @@Kristian_Saile
@@timk3939 agree, the balance is so important, especially at low speeds where you don’t get wait transfer happening. A fwd typically is better in that regard purely for just having a lump of iron over the drive tires. The 944’s I had had great balance, mostly due to the transaxle layout so not only did they get good initial traction but you could really steer them well with the throttle or trailing braking. I had a ‘69 911 for awhile and it had great traction for acceleration on snow but the front end was so light that it wound push really bad. That car needed to be driven really hard in order to get the weight transfer up to the front for turn in. That was easier on dry pavement but I never really felt that great pushing it in snow. I have a VW thing, and grew up with one in the snow and ironically it handles alot better than that old 911 did on snow, despite being the same vintage. That was before long hood 911’s became valuable, I do g think I would drive one in winter now. 😆
Good thoughts. Yes I can imagine the 911 was a bit tricky, I don't think many people would attempt to drive it! @@Kristian_Saile
Liar. Summer tires in the snow is useless and you would have no business driving in snow with summer tires.
very relaxing trip
Opinion on a rwd car with around 4 thousand pounds and a open diff for the northern area snow?
Yeah no problem assuming you have good tires. And I would add a good understanding of he rear wheel drive handles in low traction. The biggest thing that catches people off, and especially on older rwd cars with no traction control is how if you are going downhill or decelerating without the brakes, the rear tires can lose traction just from the engine breaking and cause it to loop out pretty easy. I learned this in a rwd Celica GTS as a teenager. But rwd in the snow can be really fun. I lived in Crested Butte, Colorado in the mid ‘90’s and my sole transportation was a Porsche 944 that I drove in the absolute worst weather conditions. It got me over all the worst passes in winter weather and ne er had issues. Just really great memories looking back.
I drive my Camaro and 2WD S10 thru snow and ice in the PA Appalachians with minimal problems. Snow tires help but I get by just fine with all-seasons and a couple hundred pounds of weight over the rear wheels. I also have posi rear on both my vehicles and it's a game changer as far as traction goes if you know how to handle the vehicle. Otherwise, you'll do a donut do fast it's not even funny. As for going down hills, I slow down to the speed I want before I hit the hill, slap it into neutral so your rear diff isn't pushing you and then it's a matter of keeping just enough steady pressure on the brakes to hold you at a steady speed.
@@Whats-It-To-Ya any tips for an open differential? I think the only problem here would be the side streets being tricky but the main roads should be good so it should be okay?
@@coleb4323 open diffs are easier to control than posi diffs, just a little less traction but it's not really a problem. Throw a couple hundred pounds of weight in the trunk, it makes a world of difference. I use bags of sand from Lowe's because they're cheap but you can use anything that won't roll around. Cinder blocks work good too. Other than all that, take your time, don't tailgate, don't jerk your steering wheel and don't hit your brakes too hard. Invest in two snow tires for the rear also, they help a lot of you aren't experienced with driving in snow, they're a real game changer. Just pay attention and be sensible and you'll be fine. The way I look at it, my dad and all my uncles drove Chevelles and Hemi Cudas thru snow back in the day and tires were awful back then and they got around just fine.