Winter tyres or 4 wheel drive

Loganfire

Which is best to drive in snow 4 wheel driver with summer tyres on or a two normal small hatch with winter tyres

vikingaero

In Scandinavian countries the mantra is: winter tyres first, 4WD second.

It's always better to have 4 winter tires on a FWD/RWD car rather than summer tyres on a 4WD car. The best solution is 4WD with winter tyres.

Valli

Unless your name's Gilbert;)

(see another thread)

agrinnall

As in the 12 million other threads on this, winter tyres win.

epninety

First, skid pan course or winter driving course... then tyres, then 4WD.

Lum

I have a 4WD car, it's still crap in the snow until I put winter tyres on it.

My GF has an RWD car, it's crap in the snow, but fine now that she has winter tyres on it.

The only combination I haven't tried is an FWD car with winter tyres on, but plenty of others here have done so and report the same thing.

The only advantage 4WD offers you over 2WD on an otherwise identical vehicle is it's slightly easier to move off if you're a bit stuck. 4WD offers no advantage for braking or steering and so will not prevent you from crashing.

Small hatchbacks would be good anyway, less weight and narrower tyres is what you want for driving in snow. A big heavy barge is going to be harder to stop and more likely to break traction under braking.

The exception to this would be the people in proper Land Rovers with gigantic nobbly tractor tyres on them, which are pretty good in mud and snow anyway.

StrongWork

Winters.

No point in having 4WD is you can't get going/stop.

Strider590

My mate bought a Subaru Impeza 6 months after we had that really bad snow (2009/10?). He kept harping on about how the only way forward was to go 4x4/4wd.

When he got the car we all knew it was because he thought it'd be good in snow, he even boasted about how all the rest of us would get stuck next time it snowed. I pointed out that the skinny sports/summer tyres where not going to work in the snow, but he was adamant that 4x4 would save him......

Guess where he is today? That's right, stuck at the bottom of his road, unable to get up the small hill that even his mums Peugeot 307 can get up.

Paperbird

Why would you buy a 4x4 and only have summer tyres on it ?
It doesn't matter if you have 2 wheel drive or 4, if you want to keep moving in winter you need a minimum of all season tyres and preferably two sets of wheels one with summer tyres and one with winter tyres.

What you question should be is what is best a 2wd on winter tyres or a 4x4 on all seasons and the answer would be if you want to get up a hill the 4x4 but not by much and if you want to stop the 2wd

gregg1

Valli wrote: »

Unless your name's Gilbert;)

(see another thread)

That made me spit my tea out laughing.

Skulls

I have a Citroen C1 with Goodyear Ultragrip 8 tyres (winter tyres) I've yet to get stuck in snow. Last winter, I past 2 4x4 cars stuck and you should have seen the drivers faces when I past them on a smallish hill. I even had to stop to leave one of them go back down the hill, I then did a hill start and carried on up the hill!

The tyres were cheaper than the Michelins I use during the summer. £43 each plus £10 for fitting to wheels I bought off e-bay for £10 each. Left them on for 4-5 months and measured them before refitting them this winter and they measured about 7mm all over.

The only problem I have is the clearance of the snow i.e. height of the car.