Deleted member 1634
Agreed. My last vehicle was AWD (Subaru), and it was amazing in any and all adverse conditions. I personally, would much prefer AWD for the majority of winter driving conditions. But alas, we don't have that option.I have to disagree with those who say AWD is not advantageous over 4 wheel drive. You really need to have experience of driving on roads with varying conditions, as @shred5 described. We get that crap here too. It can be completely clean and dry one minute, then glaze ice the next. AWD is a HUGE advantage over 4x4 in this case where you don't need to worry nearly as much about which wheels are powering the vehicle down the road. You don't really want to drive in those conditions in 4x4 because it is partially dry, but you don't want to drive in 2wd either because you risk the rear tires spinning and throwing you sideways.
Earlier this week on the way to work in the morning I damn near lost it on the highway in my Ranger. Temps were like -10 so all the chemicals they spray on the roads don't work well to melt the ice/snow, but they pretty much create ice. I got slowed up by a slower car so I switched lanes, accelerated (lightly) back up to speed because I figured the road could have been icy, and it was. Rear tires spun and Ranger started going partially sideways at 60mph. Between the Ranger's skid control and myself, it was quickly corrected and on down the highway I went. The moral of the story is that if I would have been locked in 4 wheel drive (or had AWD) this would never have happened.
I will say this though, switching between 2 hi and 4 hi in the Ranger is ultra smooth. I've never heard or felt a clunk or anything, which is the complete opposite from my previous 2 Toyotas.
Also, I've experienced pretty much the same occurrence multiple times this past week. We got a good amount of snow Monday morning, then the temps plummeted well below 0F and stayed that way until late yesterday, freezing everything in it's place. Like you were saying, the road treatment doesn't work in temps that low, and after plowing away all the nice (relatively) grippy snow, the hot plow blades leave behind a nice shiny ice rink in their wake. The Ranger's rear end is all over the place just trying to maintain 30-35mph, not even accelerating. Part of that is because I have stock Hankooks on though. But the stability and traction control are a life saver in conditions like these. Hopefully it warms up enough this weekend where they can work on it before the next cold snap early next week. It's getting old going 35-40 in a 55 the whole commute.
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