Snow, Seattle, and the AWD/4WD Debate
Posted 01-25-2015 at 02:14 PM by Blondebaerde
About that in my home: Seattle is weird, in any number of ways, both endearing and annoying. The weather is a hot topic because it can be...wildly unpredictable. Yes, it rains in Seattle. There are also windstorms, and rare nasty snowstorms. So what kind of vehicle, exactly, should one purchase?
Decade and a half later, I'm still trying to puzzle it out.
Some years we get essentially zero snow (trace, or less). Last season, 2013-4, was that way. Year before, same (I think). Then there were the great storms (two) of Christmas 2008. Then, this place mostly shut-down. It stuck for 10 days or so. Awful, and even walking sucked because there was little plowing, little shoveling of sidewalks, little anything like they'd do in, say, the Midwest. I spent a lot of time walking in that snow, which btw is exhausting, hot work for no rational purpose.
I went nowhere but via foot-power and mass transit in the aftermath of those storms. There were people out with 4WD (great), AWD Subarus (not bad at all) and hardy 2WD (didn't work out well for them). With 300lbs of sand, my 2WD sport pickup was barely tolerable: after a few days, the snow was at least tamped down on the roadways.
The plowing here is poor. Can you blame them, it's freakishly rarely needed. The governments (city) come unglued when they really have to plow, and don't do it well in any case. And the finger-pointing starts...and...blah blah blah.
My 4WD truck, owned two years, was essentially worthless, or rather of less-than-zero useful to me most of the time. I had it in 4WD out of necessity maybe a half-dozen times only. Rest of the time it was a liability. I'm mostly a city-slicker. Know thyself!
Now: about AWD. These days I have an AWD sports car. In the rain...not snow...it actually does stick to the road better. It just does. Also when things are just a tad icy, one extra set of drive wheels DOES claw it back in-line better. I've done enough performance driving, street and track, to understand the difference. In fact, in the snow, the rear engine holds it to the ground pretty well, too. Wonky icy roads will come out of nowhere here, even when it appears clear, during the winter. That can be deceptive. AWD does NOT "solve" that, in terms of absolute traction, but might...and does...make it less of a problem.
Guys drive 911s in the snow in Germany, and here in the U.S., and in fact Porsche has a winter driving school in Canada on a controlled snowy track with nothing but AWD 911s, Cayennes, and anything else in their lineup that qualifies. With snow tires mounted, of course.
Do I "need" AWD: no. Did I pay "extra" for it: maybe. I wanted it, for snow driving and more safety in the rain. And, that I may take up snowshoeing at some point, if I get snow tires and wheels too one of these years and head up to the mountain passes.
But then again I survived decades of driving without it, too, in Michigan, California, and Washington. "Nice to have," but yes probably over-sold HERE. Skiers and off-roaders excepted.
Decade and a half later, I'm still trying to puzzle it out.
Some years we get essentially zero snow (trace, or less). Last season, 2013-4, was that way. Year before, same (I think). Then there were the great storms (two) of Christmas 2008. Then, this place mostly shut-down. It stuck for 10 days or so. Awful, and even walking sucked because there was little plowing, little shoveling of sidewalks, little anything like they'd do in, say, the Midwest. I spent a lot of time walking in that snow, which btw is exhausting, hot work for no rational purpose.
I went nowhere but via foot-power and mass transit in the aftermath of those storms. There were people out with 4WD (great), AWD Subarus (not bad at all) and hardy 2WD (didn't work out well for them). With 300lbs of sand, my 2WD sport pickup was barely tolerable: after a few days, the snow was at least tamped down on the roadways.
The plowing here is poor. Can you blame them, it's freakishly rarely needed. The governments (city) come unglued when they really have to plow, and don't do it well in any case. And the finger-pointing starts...and...blah blah blah.
My 4WD truck, owned two years, was essentially worthless, or rather of less-than-zero useful to me most of the time. I had it in 4WD out of necessity maybe a half-dozen times only. Rest of the time it was a liability. I'm mostly a city-slicker. Know thyself!
Now: about AWD. These days I have an AWD sports car. In the rain...not snow...it actually does stick to the road better. It just does. Also when things are just a tad icy, one extra set of drive wheels DOES claw it back in-line better. I've done enough performance driving, street and track, to understand the difference. In fact, in the snow, the rear engine holds it to the ground pretty well, too. Wonky icy roads will come out of nowhere here, even when it appears clear, during the winter. That can be deceptive. AWD does NOT "solve" that, in terms of absolute traction, but might...and does...make it less of a problem.
Guys drive 911s in the snow in Germany, and here in the U.S., and in fact Porsche has a winter driving school in Canada on a controlled snowy track with nothing but AWD 911s, Cayennes, and anything else in their lineup that qualifies. With snow tires mounted, of course.
Do I "need" AWD: no. Did I pay "extra" for it: maybe. I wanted it, for snow driving and more safety in the rain. And, that I may take up snowshoeing at some point, if I get snow tires and wheels too one of these years and head up to the mountain passes.
But then again I survived decades of driving without it, too, in Michigan, California, and Washington. "Nice to have," but yes probably over-sold HERE. Skiers and off-roaders excepted.
