Everyone knows the east coast is being owned by snow/sleet/rain storm. my friend drives a 93 Volvo 940 turbo wagon and swears up and down that his car is better than my 94 gxe in the snow. both are auto. mines FWD and his is RWD obviously. I have 4 almost brand new, all season tires. he has 4 pirelli snow tires. So according to him his tires make his car 100 x better in the snow than mine... which in my mind isn't registering... please clear this up

 

Drive his car
Drive your car

see which one you crash first

there's your answer


PS: tyres mean everything in the snow.

 

Weight has nothing to do with traction...it's all about the tires...

 

truth. i was refering to rwd wagon vs frd sedan.

 

Again, tires are everything in snow. All seasons are no replacement for real snow tires. The difference is really night and day. Honestly I doubt I'll ever own another vehicle without a dedicated set of snow tires.

SOo, vote to the volvo!

However my max with LSD and four winter slaloms would make that car look like a swedish meatball.

 

I am going to say on the tires being the most important factor.

Equal tires, I would give a slight edge to the Maxima.

I have studded snow tires for my Maxima and studded snow tires for my QX4. The Maxima is far better in the snow than the QX4 in 2wd (rwd only). The Maxima with studded tires is probably better than or equal to the QX4 in 4wd with all season tires. Of course, the QX4 with the studded tires is damn near unstoppable in ice or snow. I have only had one problem and that was on a very steep private one lane road that was totally iced over. I still made it up the hill, but it was very scary.

 

I also agree about owning snow tires. I have sets mounted and balanced, ready to put on. I have said this before, but once you drive with them, you will kick yourself for the whole "white knuckle" experience of all seasons, even on a 4wd. 4wd does not equal any advantage in "4 wheel stop" or "4 wheel turn."

 

And we have told you.../fwd/vs/rwd has nothing to do with how a car drives in snow...Again,it's all about the tires....


I have driven both in snow with good/bad tires,it makes no difference...A rwd car/truck grips just as well as fwd in snow with the right tires ...

 

What I'm getting out of this is......IT"S ALL ABOUT THE TIRES
does bias ply make a difference?



I'm going with the Maxima just because I'm a Maxima type of fella.

 

Yet your trying to sell it like a ****???

 

hmmm....You see , if I get what I'm asking I'll sell to get
the 05 SER Altima,but I know chances are I wont sell.

 

That would not be a maxima type fellahish...







J/K Do whatcha want dude...

 

were not allowed studded snow tires up here :C apparently cuz they think that it ruins the pavement.

all seasons suck in EVERY SEASON, so winters on the Swedish Brick FTW

 

GXE all the way. Especially when you coming out a parking spot full of snow. That front wheel drive helps.

 

the most important thing in driving is


































THE DRIVER
I don't care if you got a 4wd arctic cat with studs 12" long. If you can't drive worth a squat you are fuked!
OTOH halfway bald tires on a car with a good driver who knows what he's doing will get where they are going.

 

the best way to get through a field with 6" of snow is just floor it and dont let up until you get out........

 

It's definately about the tires, and the driver. Volvo's do remarkably well in the snow even in RWD form (except ones with larger motors like mine, those take a little bit of concentration to drive).

S

 

Good way to kill your car and get seriously stuck

 

Well, I live in Quebec and we have alot of snow here in the winter time. I know for a fact that a rwd car is not very good in the snow compared to a fwd. It is much more harder to handle than a fwd. Moreover, correct me if I am wrong but the Volvo is a wagon style which make it considerably longer than the maxima hence harder to handle in the corners. As for the tires, 4 brand new all season tires will probably be the same as 4 normal snow tires. The difference between the two kind of tires is the rubber material, one stays softer in heavy cold than the other. But since you live in an area where it is not that cold it does not make a good diffrence.

Anyhow, I would rather drive a maxima fwd with 4 brand new all season tires than a long vovlo station wagon with 4 snow tires.

That's my opinion.

 

I might be getting a turbo brick for a back up. I used to live in Vt, I've learned you can drive anything in the snow if your careful.

But studded snows are awesome in a hardcore storm.

I'd rather be driving a vovlo in snow. Just because I'd shatter my dreams with the first snow bank.

 

It's the tires...

When I lived in Colorado, I drove an old RWD Celica with snow tires (and wasn't even studded). I had no problem getting around. My wife's Accord with all-season tires spun its front tires a lot and actually handled worse.

Last month when Western Washington was hit with a snow storm, I was having a terrible time in the snow (I have M+S rated all-seasaon tires) in my Maxima going up even some of the more gentle hills and stopping. It took very long to come home taking the flattest least hilly route possible.

Next day, I mounted the studded snow tires on the car. I was actually taking all the hilly short cuts through town becuase only a few dared to take them...

 

3rd Gen > Volvo 940

 

I have driven a VG auto in light snow with Yokohama AVS dBs on it and lived to tell the tale. Those are high performance all season tires. It sucked though. Car kept trying to drive off the side of the road and didn't like to stop.

I have also driven my Trailblazer in light snow with Winterforce tires on it. RWD, then AWD, then 4-HI. The 4800lbs truck was controllable, stopped in a straight line without drama. Only thing was that it spun a little in RWD on acceleratoin b/c it has open diffs.

So my vote is for the Volvo. Real snow tires > * in actual snow.

 

I mom use to have a 92 Volvo 940 Turbo 4 Door which surprisingly drove great in snow. As for my maxima it is horrible in the snow but it doesn’t help that I have 225/45/17 summer only tires on it.

 

My friend has a 93' 940T and I have a 94' SE, he crashed on the first day of snow we had..of course he's kinda dumb when it comes to driving in general though

 

Nothing???

Come on, our family had a fair share of both FWD and RWD cars, and most of the RWD cars had trouble moving even on perfectly flat streets when covered in snow/ice... My sisters old RWD Volvo you would put the thing in drive and the wheels would just spin indefinitely while the car didn't move foward at all... And this is with absolutely no throttle applied!

I can't recall ever getting hopelessly stuck in the snow with the Max, and believe me, over here in NY it's been through all the conditions. I never had any special tires either, just basic and affordable Bridgestone's.

IMO (though really a fact), given the same exact tires on both a FWD and RWD car, the FWD will always be much better in the snow, and have much less of a chance of becoming immobile.

 

I take it back. Test drove a 940T today... I'm scared to drive it without snow...

 

Put some weight over the rear wheels of the the Volvo and with the snows and a good driver say good night to the Maxima.

 

I was actually suprised how quick the 940T sedan was the first time I drove it. Pretty fun car with just the factory set up

 

thats why i have been through 4 or 5 trannys....

 

The 940T was the last of the original Volvo's and was/is a great car.New Volvo's today are nothing but expensive Fords.

 

While living and driving in Chicago, I would place about 200lbs of sand (in 50lb bags) in the trunk of my '93 GXE. I found this helped during stoping, because the rear felt from time to time wanted to pass the front. The extra weight to me felt like it was helping the rear end to stick.

Also the sand helped for times when a little extra grip on icy parking lot was needed.

 

I bought my maxima on a snowy ,icy day.I had no choice my other car was hit and totaled I have good tires and never had a problem as long as was careful, wich is the only way to drive in that stuff anyway.

 

you just needed better tires and possibly struts.
I ran 3rd gens for 4 chicago winters (all 92 VEs ) never had an issue with any of them. that includes the VE5 that was BURIED in snow, I dug it out (mostly) jumped it, and Pulled it out with no major problems (and I can't drive stick either)

 

I drove my 240sx on all seasons in 6+ in of show that Chicago got last week. Not a problem. Only a 1/4 of gas and I didn't have an issue.

I did go fill up and put another temp tire in the trunk because my luck sucks. But yes the driver has more effect then tires. I drove on bald rear tires until January, but that was Columbus, they usually don't have real winters lol.

Oh its also lowered 2 inches and got high centered on some snow. Just made me slower didn't stop me. A little more throttle and bam I'm through.

cliffs driver > tires

~Alex

 

I'm gonna have to say the same thing most people have said. Tires are super important but the driver is even more important.

I've got a 93 GXE with no ABS and it'll PWN snow like no other 2 wheel drive car I've driven. Everyone saying that All Season tires suck is because they've had/driven crappy ones, of course snow tires are better but there are some good all season tires out there. My tires are great even in the rain and snow and they're all season. Yes there a pic of em in my sig

 

i just sleep in because there's nothing in town and the closest city with anything worth going to is 45 minutes away and if its snowing bad enough that i'd worry about driving i just wouldn't do it. though... i did buy a 4wd truck so that i can drive in it but still end up not.

so... sleeping in > good driver > snow tires

 

So did you hibernate?

 

I wish I could hibernate, that would be awesome.

 

A good driver will know when he can't make it. At the end of the day, tyres are the deciding factor of if you make it.