What makes a car good in the snow?

Ok, let's learn about cars in the snow. Obviously having all wheel drive would be helpful. In my experience, if you have a FWD car, having a mechanical LSD is also helpful. But what if all of the cars in question are FWD cars with an open differential? If all of the cars were on snow tires, is there any reason that one would be better (or worse) than the others in the snow? Lets throw a few cars out there just as examples for this discussion: Toyota Prius vs. Mini Cooper vs. Mazda3 vs. Honda Accord. If all of the above cars are automatics and have snow tires mounted, would some be better or worse in the snow than others? Why?

A good nut behind the wheel.

What makes a car good in the snow? The tires and the driver.

The narrower the tire in real snow, the better. A fat tire tends to float up on the snow. A narrow tire tends to cut into the snow better. Of the cars you have listed, it is likely that the Prius has a narrower tire than a Cooper S.

I also like "underpowered", "slow" cars in the snow. A torquey car on slippy surfaces oft results in spinning and difficulty. A naturally slowly accelerating car works well in the situations.

Seriously though, I think that the diff would matter less than the wheel base and weight distribution. I want more weight over the drive wheels. I want more weight at the front to keep it pointing the direction it is moving. The longer the wheelbase, the less chance it has of the ass end coming around on me. Best car I've ever driven in the snow? SAAB 9-5. Long(ish) wheelbase, front wheel drive, very much a front weighted car.

But I drive a Miata in the snow, so I don't apparently care about any of that.

JohnRW1621 wrote: What makes a car good in the snow? The tires and the driver.

X1,000 I'd add that a manual is much better for me in snow. Much of saving a slide has to do with throttle, not brakes. Having your foot connected to the rear tires helps a ton. And disconnecting power immediate by depressing the clutch rules.

This is a great question. I can comment on the Mazda3, because I've owned one for almost 7 years now. The OEM Goodyear Eagle RSAs were crap in snow (not excellent on wet or dry pavement either). After throwing a set of Blizzak WS-60s on the car, there was a night and day difference.

I used to have a 1996 Nissan 200SX SE-R, with a viscous limited slip. I could very much tell a difference between it and other FWD cars I had driven on snow and ice. Even something like a viscous LSD is helpful. I found it particularly useful in parking situations where one drive wheel was on ice and the other was on bare pavement.

Ground clearance is a major factor as well. Without much of it, you end up getting stuck pretty easily on unplowed roads.

Aside from proper winter tires and ground clearance, the thing that makes the biggest difference in the snow seems to be weight distribution. The Fiat 124 Spider I had as a teenager was pretty fantastic in the snow. A 53% front 47% rear weight distribution really helped, especially on a RWD car.

For your comparison, I would guess that the Prius would do best in snow, the Mini Cooper and Mazda3 would be about equal, and the Accord would be slightly below them.

Over the years I've found that while AWD gives you better straight-line traction and stability, FWD and RWD both allow you to turn much easier.

And yes, snow tires, mechanical diff, and the nut behind the wheel are all the most important factors.

Personally, I'd love to find a cast-off AWD production-class rally car in need of some TLC for cheap. Spend some $$$ for a fly-off hydraulic handbrake and electronic center diff that would disengage when you pull the lever, put the ride height about 1"-2" above stock, and smile every time the snow flies.

Best car I ever had in the snow? 1st gen Hyundai Excel. Light weight, all the mass over the front axles, 5 speed, and skinny tyres. I was driving that car around on days when 4x4s feared to go out. I got stuck once, when I got highcentred on some plow leavings.

In reply to mad_machine:
For me, '83 Rabbit (not GTI) on 175/70/13's
I remember one particular trip that had me in N. Mi, in whiteout conditions. I had a Suburban in front of me but the snow had covered his tail lights completely. I did not know where he was or if he was slowing. We were coming to a known bend in the road where the road comes right up to Walloon Lake, separated by only a guard rail. Scary conditions but I had no fear of my cars ability.

I can comment on the ms3/mazda3 and the Cooper S- the ms3 is probably 2nd as far as the winter goes, second only to the cooper S. that short little bugger's a lot lighter, and with snow tires on both, the MCS had enough less torque that it moved out like AWD. It was actually BETTER in the winter than my DSM, IMO.

For a car, mine was a 94 Maxima. It had the VLSD and a 5 speed. It would always move and get out of snow banks that the city of chicago always liked to put it in.

For vehicles overall, 1977 cherokee with a 401 and quadratrac. It just worked. As long as you were smart with the speed, it would just go and go and go. Made it through more than one blizzard with that jeep.

Ride height doesnt matter with enough thrust and a lack of berkeleys given.

The MX6 is an incredible winter car wearing 195/60-15s and low enough to highside on speed bumps.

Of course, it helps that it has something like a 65/35 weight bias.

Best was a Rabbit and an old rear drive 90 Mercury-----

Most all FWD cars have 60%+- weight on the front wheels. Good snow tires and driver experience are the keys. Being gentle in all movements, throttle, brake, steering are the things that keep you moving.

On FWD cars, there can be such a thing as too much forward weight distribution. Some cars that are understeering pigs in the dry, become oversteer loons in the snow. Early 90's V6 Camry's come to mind.

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is visibility. My Alfa Milano was great in snow, but I hated it because of the pathetic heater that struggled to keep a tiny part of the windshield defrosted. The new Mini's are a bit like that. Plus when you drive in the slushy calcium rich roads, their side windows become dirty enough not to see out, amazingly fast.

I drove panther bodies for about 10 years doing between 60 and 100K a year in them, two years ago I went to the manual Elantra.

I have never been stuck, never slid off the road and have always driven the car within its limitations.

I used to pull cars out of ditches with the Lincolns.

That said the best thing you can do to ANY car in snow conditions is SNOW tires.

Remembering until 13 years ago I had never seen snow on a roadway.

Our Prius, even with the low rolling resistance all-seasons, is quite good in the snow. It keeps surprising me with how capable it is.

X 1000 on The driver and the tires. Ever watch a pro rally in the snow and wonder how they get the car down a road at 100 mph when its almost impossible to walk on cause its so slick?

As to the 4wd and lsd, keep in mind that those options only help you accelerate. Steering and stopping are different Newtonian considerations that will come into play soon after.

An open diff on black ice might save your butt; you will see the speedo shoot up and the engine rev as one tire loses traction. If you had posi, both tires would break lose and good chance you become a spinning top at the mercy of the crown in the road.

weight over drive tires helps too.

i'm fond of b body wagons with snow tires. second choice if must be a car would be a 3800 powered anything in FWD. that giant cast iron lump mostly in front of the wheels puts a ton of weight on the front wheels, which in turn provides excellent traction. even with all seasons, my FIL's lesabre was a tank, and got us home safe in a very nasty white-out storm with so much snow coming down the plows couldn't keep up.

my crown vic was a death trap with all season tires, once i put snows on it got much better.

my avalanche is beautiful in the really nasty stuff. honestly i leave it in 2wd unless the road just flat out sucks and it's hard to get moving

most importantly though, it's all about the person in control of the vehicle. any time the road looks like i'm coming up to an icy patch, or a snow covered bridge that might have ice, i lift. no foot near the gas or brake. i'd much rather coast across a bridge than hit ice with my foot on the gas and spin right around.

My Buick century is an oversteering pig in the snow. It was actually worse than the few times I took the ACR out with Konis turned all the way up and the auto-x alignment.

Jeep XJ was by far the best, when the roads were covered. Absolutely horrible in 2wd. Too much play in the steering made for quite a few white-knuckle commutes to college during my ownership. But when the roads were covered and I could go into 4wd, the thing was absolutely unstoppable. As a bonus, the heater was so damn good I usually had to crack the window.

Remember, an open differential is effectively one wheel drive and will power the wheel with the least grip. Therefore, when you switch to a limited slip differential, you can expect around twice as much forward traction. Additionally, tire size and aspect ratio can also make a difference. For example, a 195/55R17 would have a wider but "shorter" footprint than a 195/60R16. Thus, it would be worse in the snow; avoid wide a low profile tires.

In more modern cars, the stability control/ traction control also makes a big difference. Some can mimick an LSD an others just shut the power down.

Of the cars listed, my money would be on the Mini. Even without the LSD (it is the only one you listed with it) it has a three stage stability/ traction control system that allows much more wheel spin and mimics a limited slip differential. On a Mazda 3 you can turn the traction control off seperately from the stability control but I doubt that this would be particularly useful. On an Accord, it can be either fully on or fully off. On a Prius, the stability control is very limiting (typical Toyota) and cannot be defeated without pulling the fuse. From what I hear, it is a total dud in the snow, even with snow tires.

It also depends how comfortable you are driving in the snow. Some people measure a car's snow capability by the lack of slipping and others measure it by how capable it is when driven balls to the wall.

'73 Super Beetle with very skinny tires was by far the best in snow I've ever driven. Utter lack of defrost and heat notwithstanding!

We have a MINI, a Miata and an xB. Our subdivision will be the last road the county plows after a storm. If I want to get out of here 1st choice will be the xB. It has the narrowest tires and the least power (to John's point) and happens to be an automatic. Next, I'd try the MINI but the first thing I do is turn off the ASC/traction control if I'm trying to have any fun at all. After the roads are plowed,but still snow covered the Miata is the most fun. What I'd really like would be a light car with AWD, something like a Subaru but lighter.

ebonyandivory wrote: '73 Super Beetle with very skinny tires was by far the best in snow I've ever driven. Utter lack of defrost and heat notwithstanding!

I used to do TSD rallies years ago. This was NW of Montreal.One of the club members had a VW Beetle on four snows. I'd be scrambling up hills in my Datsun 510 , on snows, with my co-driver hanging off the trunk, and that Beetle would just chug up the hills, often having to pull over into deeper snow to get past us. I swear it could climb trees if it had to.

Driver first,

Tires second,

Weight over the drive tires third,

Weight over the steering tires fourth.

Snow tires make it all so much easier. I listed this as second to the driver, but it's the most important thing on the car itself. And I don't mean mud or all terrain tires, I mean snow tires. A hundred zillion sipes on the tread to dig in.

Pickup trucks suck in the snow because the tail is light so the tires spin. Even with great snow tires. That's why you see people piling snow in the bed, so they can get some traction. It's not so much an actual poundage issue, it's a balance issue.

Old VW Beetles also sucked in the snow, not because you couldn't get them to move, but because you couldn't steer them once they were moving. A car with a nose light enough to be picked up by hand doesn't have good directional control. Cutting brakes were almost a winter time necessity with old beetles.

One of the best snow cars I ever had was an early fox body Mustang with a 4 cylinder and automatic. The balance was pretty good, and with that weak engine and a slush box, I could ooze along without breaking traction. Equipped with snow tires, that thing was virtually unstoppable in the snow. Only when it would belly up in a deep drift would it finally stop moving. Similar an old Falcon I had. The mighty 4x4 will get stuck in snow with relative ease because those A/T tires are actually not very good in snow.