Discussion
This is a semi-similar thread to what I've just posed on Car Buying, asking the viability of an MX5 Daily. However, this is not a car buying thread!
What's everyone's experience driving RWD everyday? Including throughout winter with snow (live in Scotland, snow does happen every year)
What's everyone's experience driving RWD everyday? Including throughout winter with snow (live in Scotland, snow does happen every year)
In all conditions other than snow it doesn't make a blind bit of difference if you're driving normally. Where snow is concerned... On the few occasions I've driven in the snow I've been fine, but it hardly ever snows in my neck of the woods so it's not something I really have to learn to deal with. I just stay at home, as much because you're only going as far as the point where the road is blocked by a car that's crap in snow, however good yours may be. If you live somwehere that snow is frequent enough to have to be dealt with then the right tyres are more important than avoiding RWD.
RWD with the right tyres can be better than FWD, you can increase the weight on the drive axle on a RWD by shoving some slabs or sandbags in the boot.
A decent set of winter rated all season tyres and a couple of clean slabs ready for weighting purposes you'll be better winter road prepared than almost everyone else.
Get some decent anti rust products applied, winter grip is the least of your worries its the salt that will kill it.
A decent set of winter rated all season tyres and a couple of clean slabs ready for weighting purposes you'll be better winter road prepared than almost everyone else.
Get some decent anti rust products applied, winter grip is the least of your worries its the salt that will kill it.
Edited by Smint on Saturday 1st March 15:42
I drove a Merc E350cdi night shift taxi as a student in Aberdeen so have plenty of experience.
On summers absolutely useless, but with good winters and a bit of enthusiasm it would go almost anywhere the ground clearance allowed. I ended up down farm tracks and all over Aberdeenshire in the early hours and only ever really got stuck or needed to dig myself out when it started drifting. Great fun too!
On summers absolutely useless, but with good winters and a bit of enthusiasm it would go almost anywhere the ground clearance allowed. I ended up down farm tracks and all over Aberdeenshire in the early hours and only ever really got stuck or needed to dig myself out when it started drifting. Great fun too!
Having grown up with RWD cars, I much prefer them in all weather conditions. FWD in snow or ice - you lose steering first and understeer off into the bushes. With RWD, you can still steer which means you can control a slide and keep going in the right direction, sometimes with a dab of power or brakes according to slide. There is also a matter of traction - I used to work at a garage which had quite a steep slope down to a yard at the rear. In winter, RWD cars would drive straight up the slope, but FWD cars had to be reversed up so that the driving wheels were at the rear. In my mind, the reason FWD became popular was one of cost to build. It must be cheaper to build the power and drive unit as one and install at one end of the car, rather than having a propshaft and rear axle. In my late teens I ran an MGB GT - in the winter , this car would go anywhere. I even stopped on a hill once to push the postman in his FWD Escort van out of the way , then back into my car and simply carried on, much to the postmans amazement. Skinny tyres helped hugely with that car. For me, its RWD always, although the choice these days is limited. My current Mercedes is pretty useless in the snow, but this is down to having fairly wide , low profile tyres. Same problem with BMW's, which also struggle.
normalbloke said:
brillomaster said:
Get winter tyres, then you'll be fine.
Don't attempt to drive a rwd car on snow without them. You won't get very far.
Err,yes, but no.Don't attempt to drive a rwd car on snow without them. You won't get very far.
I've lived in Germany and Scandinavia and with my RWD BMW 330Ci and it was fine in a very long and harsh winter. Yes, you do have to make allowances for the difference in the way RWD handles on snow, but I don't think it's inherently worse than FWD. But I'd strongly advise going to an empty car park in the snow and learning how your car really handles in snow and ice by testing acceleration, braking and sliding turns. That's what I did, and after a while I became proficient at sliding around. It's a shame that isn't taught in the UK where it is elsewhere.
Winter of 2010 was epic in Germany and there was snow on the ground for months, so I invested in a set of winter wheels with proper winter tyres and it made driving that much easier and meant that I could tackle some serious hills in the snow. As others have said, an RWD car on winter tyres will walk all over an AWD car with summer tyres. Remember that all cars have all wheel braking - it's just that with 2WD you have to be more gentle with acceleration in very slippery conditions.
I don't know what conditions you'll have to deal with in Scotland, but I'd suggest that if you've learned how your car handles as described above and the conditions are still too bad for your car/skills to handle, then they are probably too bad to handle in a FWD car too.
Winter of 2010 was epic in Germany and there was snow on the ground for months, so I invested in a set of winter wheels with proper winter tyres and it made driving that much easier and meant that I could tackle some serious hills in the snow. As others have said, an RWD car on winter tyres will walk all over an AWD car with summer tyres. Remember that all cars have all wheel braking - it's just that with 2WD you have to be more gentle with acceleration in very slippery conditions.
I don't know what conditions you'll have to deal with in Scotland, but I'd suggest that if you've learned how your car handles as described above and the conditions are still too bad for your car/skills to handle, then they are probably too bad to handle in a FWD car too.
RSstuff said:
How many drivers south of Yorkshire fit winter tyres on RWD cars? I've owned RWD cars that were stranded on summer tyres on snow, but only for a few days a year. Haldex awd cars give the best of both worlds when it comes to winter driving.
They just drive like an shopping trolley with 100 cans of cat food in the front half the other 364 days a year 
There seems to be a collective ineptitude around car choice and winter driving ability now. SUVs both real 4x4 and faux 2wd are so ubiquitous that it almost seems that by driving something low, rwd (and mid engined in my case) you are some rebellious and fool hardy freak.
My last trip out in snow (on full winters) earnt some very disapproving looks from soft roaders. It was almost like "we are the only people allowed out on snow because the marketing department had snowy photos in the brochure". Perhaps I should have checked to see if they had M&S rated tyres and if they were on Chinese summer ditchfinders then I should have curled my lip back....
Ps. I was really annoyed that my new Gen 6 Subaru Outback came with OEM summer tyres despite all the skiing photos in the brochure. At least Land Rover walk the talk and their vehicles are sold with M+S rated tyres.
Sorry - off piste rant there
My last trip out in snow (on full winters) earnt some very disapproving looks from soft roaders. It was almost like "we are the only people allowed out on snow because the marketing department had snowy photos in the brochure". Perhaps I should have checked to see if they had M&S rated tyres and if they were on Chinese summer ditchfinders then I should have curled my lip back....
Ps. I was really annoyed that my new Gen 6 Subaru Outback came with OEM summer tyres despite all the skiing photos in the brochure. At least Land Rover walk the talk and their vehicles are sold with M+S rated tyres.
Sorry - off piste rant there
Edited by TVRBRZ on Saturday 1st March 18:01
GeniusOfLove said:
Any RWD cars on all season / winter tyres will dominate the staircase of even the ruftiest tuftiest 4wd car on summers.
I took my MX5 up a 15% gradient in compacted snow with no issue on Goodyear Vector 4 seasons when all the faux SUVs were scattered around like leaves
This ^^^. I took my MX5 up a 15% gradient in compacted snow with no issue on Goodyear Vector 4 seasons when all the faux SUVs were scattered around like leaves
My 5-series couldn’t get out of the road without them. With winters it was far better than the Touareg MrsLT had on summer tyres at the time.
Of course, they don’t stop the roads getting blocked by other drivers struggling to move/doing 5mph…
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