New and Used Car Talk Reviews Hot Cars Comparison Automotive Community

The Largest Car Forum in the Philippines

Results 1 to 7 of 7
  1. Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Posts
    9,720
    #1
    in places na merong snow, is it really necessary -- as in life and death necessary -- to get an AWD ride?

  2. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    9,894
    #2
    i wouldn't say life or death...but it certainly helps. a lot of people in the northern US have non-awd cars and do ok - there's always public transpo, fwd, and really, really careful driving using rwd :D during the winter months.

  3. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    13,415
    #3
    Good snow tires play a much bigger role than AWD/4WD. When I was up in the northeast, a lot of accidents (well, not major but inner city) accidents involve 4x4's. There's this false sense of security that 4x4 give them more control. Yes, that's true only when you're moving or trying to get out of something slippery, but not during braking.

    When I was using my 4x4 Cherokee Chief back then, my regular tires were a bit worn and when I was trying to brake on a declining slope near our apartment, the tires just didn't grip the road, it just slid for about 5-10 meters. I had to roll the tires again and take another route to enter our apartment since the car was just not gripping the road. After changing to winter tires, i never even used my 4H anymore. Went through snowfields with no prob...

  4. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    4,801
    #4
    Originally posted by badkuk
    in places na merong snow, is it really necessary -- as in life and death necessary -- to get an AWD ride?
    life n death? If that was the case, AWD should have been standard with all the automobiles in the US of A. Would have been nice tho. FWD is enough and a good set of winter tires and or snow-belt.

  5. Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    659
    #5
    All-wheel drive has been really helpful not only during snow but also when it rains really hard. I live in Boston for almost 15 years now. Nobody really suggested about getting an SUV when I first came here. In the early 90's, SUV's were not as popular because of the gas consumption. I didn't want to spend so much either especially when I was just starting here.
    My first car was an american car, a brand new buick. It looked good during that time. But when the bad weather came, I can't beleive how easy to get into an accident. Thank God I never had one because the first bad experience I had was when I was the only vehicle on the road. It was snowing for about 6 hrs, left for work(night shift). I was going on about 35 miles/hr, then suddenly, I lost control of the car. I was going downhill over slippery road, and I thought I was going to hit another car parked on the street. Thank God I didn't!! But I almost did. The back of the car just went out of control. It swung like hell. I didn't know how to control it. For years, I had to drive very carefully to avoid such incident to happen again until SUBARU cars became popular in the late 90's. Subaru cars did not look good at first, then out of curiosity, when I needed to replace my five-year old BUick, I had to look for another vehicle that would still be a car but with a good handling on bad weather. With the advent of the internet, I learned all about all-wheel drive. That's how I decided to get a SUBARU IMPREZA SPORT. Ever since, I never had any complaints driving on heavy snow or rain. I even brought the car with my friends to Ski in Vermont and in the middle of a snow storm(Why go in the middle of a snow storm? Because after that storm, its a very good time to ski over several inches of fresh snow). I beat some SUVs that were stranded at the road side. So, I have a pretty good experience with all-wheel drive.
    When I had to replace my aging 1997 Subaru Impreza Sport Sedan, I got the 2005 Chevrolet Equinox on April this year, which is still AWD but a little bigger and stands like SUV.

  6. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    13,415
    #6
    Hehe remember the snowstorm back in 95 december, dyoskopo, 30mph lang takbo sa I93 nun, from Manchester to Logan inabot ako ng 2hrs halos hehe.

    AWD really helps while the car is moving, madami lang mga AWD users na iniisip it'll also help them stop... especially mga large SUVs like Expe/Tahoe/Suburban... lagi sila kulang sa pag tancha sa brake.

  7. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    787
    #7
    I had a FWD a while back living here in the New England area. I survived winter time but spun out the first few times when driving on ice.
    I would have loved having an AWD though

AWD for snow?