Can RWD be as good as FWD in Winter - Crown Vic, Marquis, Marauder cars

In article , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com says... |Is this possible? Has anyone driven both one of these RWD big blocks |and a FWD and compared them?

I have both RWD and FWD cars, live in New York State. The RWD car, a 95 4.6 v8 T-Bird, benefits from real snow tires and some extra weight in the trunk. It also has ABS and electronic traction control.

The best RWD snow car I had was a 65 Pontiac Grand Prix 389 v8. This full frame car with old Firestone town and country snow tires would get thru anything I threw at it, including getting up a steep hill towards Congers off the Lake Deforest causeway in significant snow.

I don't think they make cars that heavy or snow tires with that type of aggressive tread, great in snow but poor at highway speeds.

The FWD cars with ABS do fairly well in the snow with all season tires (whatever "all season" means today).

I was thinking of getting a Marauder, but two things would bug me: winter driving and no more rear wiper (i'm used to it on my Taurus wagon now).

I drive my 4WD ranger in snow covered streets all the time in gas saving 2WD mode most of the time.

For general driving I'd still prefer the old rear wheel drive with no ABS and snows on all 4 up here in southern Ontario. You can throttle steer a RWD car. Impossible with FWD. That said, the 2.5 Mystique with all speed traction control and front wheel drive is not a BAD handling car in snow (with a set of 4 Graspics)

In my humble experience.... no. The FWD offers superior traction and, driven properly, superior performance in these conditions.

If you want to win a drag race on dry pavement... RWD is the place to be. But FWD has benefits that many don't get to experience.

"Why you ask, grasshopper?".

old geezers (like me) will say that we got where we had to go with RWD......we learned to drive with RWD and knew how to handle situations. didn't always have snow tires, but very much needed on smaller cars. I had a Volvo 144 that was like a mountain goat........a Checker with studded tires that was a locomotive.......and even got thru everything in a Chevette with snows.

But someone who has only driven FWD might have problems adjusting. I'm not impressed with FWD.....and know from experience that it won't go up the hill to my house like the old RWD (weight transfer?).

Have just completed my first week of winter driving in a Taurus AWD.....wow! It's no Jeep, but completely seamless: I can't even tell the road is slick, until I notice that other cars (FWD and RWD) can't get going!

I agree 100%. I drive a ranger for work, and a 3/4tonne silverado for my personal use, and today i took the wifes car out (civic) and the front end just takes loose on it at will it seems to me... it has brand new this year goodyear nordic's all around... the back end doesn't get squirley like a RWD, but the front end does!

I'm just used to the rwd again and prefer this...

My first car was a rwd crown vic, then an f150, while in school i had a fwd nissan sentra, and thought they were the cats ass in the snow... then back to rwd trucks...

Anyway, my opinion is both are good in the snow as long as you know how to drive them.

I too prefer RWD with no antilock, it is broken on my ranger anyway, and i disconnected it on my silverado.

the ranger has Kelly Safari MSA's Studded on it, and the truck has goodyear workhorse extra grips non-studed.

Uhhm, gas saving and ranger don't work well in the same sentence ;P

You don't need a rear wiper on that car...

and i drive my crown vic all the time in the winter, its fine with winter tires on it...

any car needs winter tires

disconnected it on my silverado.

I just use the "ABS" as a warning vibration that my front wheels are locked & remind me to pump the pedal. Driving in the snow does take some practice & a lot of patience.

In 4WD, I can see the gas gauge needle slowly creep from F to E.

My truck does fairly good on gas but I only drive about 3500 miles a year & even though it is a 2004, I only have 13,600 miles on the odometer.

| |Have just completed my first week of winter driving in a Taurus |AWD.....wow! It's no Jeep, but completely seamless: I can't even tell |the road is slick, until I notice that other cars (FWD and RWD) can't |get going! | |

AWD / 4WD is great in the winter until you have to hit the brakes.

Then you are at the mercy of physics like all us poor slobs in FWD and RWD vehicles.

disconnected it on my silverado.

and ABS doesn't help stopping in snow

I thought ABS is helpful in light, slippery snow, but worse in deep snow.

Jeff

disconnected it on my silverado.

Ice is the driver's worst nightmare. Imagine driving on Teflon coated roads.

amen

haha, nice