Pretty impressive what pros can do with a RWD Volvo in the snow!
http://www…r_embedded
Did you watch the video??? I did!!
Please note that 90% of the time they’re going DOWN hill…Never once did I see them going up any type of grade.
Second…that wasn’t much snow at all…They were on groomed snow trails…maybe 3" of snow.
Those older Volvo’s were pretty good in the snow with 4 snow tires on them. But that video isn’t anything special.
I agree with “Mike”. Definitely staged and I assume “texases” is a little tongue in cheek with the comment.
Otherwise, it’s what I call the “arrogance of the flatlander”. The guy who may live in snow country but on perpetually plowed hot top roads and/or areas with few hills and/or the ability to stay at home if it snows at all. I have yet to see any 2wd car or truck start from a dead stop on the hill just outside my house when it’s snow covered. They “love” that half mile back down to the bottom with white knuckles, just to get another run.
No hills, no snow…sounds like “Texas”.
Some of us do need “steenken” awd !
Check this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbuDRA4zNbw
Grew up in Ohio. From 55 through 72.
Dad had snow tires on his Bel Aire station wagons.
The city did some plowing but NOT down to the blacktop, we were driving on packed snow.
and never…
NEVER
did we ever wonder about that industrial pickup truck feature called “four wheel drive” nor was “all wheel drive” even an option then…
-and -
----> it wasn’t ever needed !
we didn’t even wonder, didn’t have to. Got all the driving done that he ever needed to including trips to grandma’s in Chagrin Falls.
The older we are, the better we were. :=) I remember the same years growing up in Maine and constantly helping one another when stuck. When it stormed, we didn’t go anywhere as often or as safely as we do today with awd/4wd.
Im must be a professional
Heh. Funny. I used to live 9 thousand feet up in the southern Rockies. The only times we were forced to stay home, the neighbors with the Eagle (back when they were 4wd rock crawlers, not Eclipse clones) and the other neighbors with the Land Rover couldn’t go anywhere either. Ordinarily we made it down our steep, twisting mountain road just fine, and we had a 2wd full sized van, and a 2wd Tercel.
I’m sure I could make it “down” too w/o awd.
Well, the implication was that we went back home, which would require going “up.”
I think these guys passed me on the highway last year during a blizzard…
I’ve driven on snow and ice since I learned how to drive at 16. I grew up in CT and Boston then moved here to Colorado 34 years ago. My RWD BMW 328i with four real winter tires would outperform my ex’s AWD Audi with “all” (read “three”) season tires in winter. AWD will accelerate quicker in snow and get up a steeper grade than RWD, but not stop or turn any quicker.
Proper winter tires are 95% of driving on snow and ice.
I always find it humorous when I guy says, “I grew up in Connecticut (or Ohio or Wisconsin or Maine) and we never had four wheel drive.” Yeah, and you also didn’t leave the house in a blizzard! In my Subaru, I have driven by DOZENS of BMW 3-series, stuck in ditches-- not to mention all the Crown Vics and Ford Vans, spinning their tires on Eskimo Hill grade-- that nowadays, I ignore all the “all you need is snow tires” propaganda!
To each his own. Personally, the very few days per year that snow kept us in (btw, the road to my neighborhood climbed about 1800 feet, so the grade was not exactly shallow) having AWD/4WD just wasn’t worth it. If it was really bad, the chains came out and I got up the hill just fine. The only time we ever got stuck at the bottom was when someone else got stuck and was blocking the road. For the maintenance hassle and the requirement to replace all 4 tires even if only 2 need it, AWD is more trouble and expense than it’s worth in most cases. Your mileage may vary.
BTW, now that I live in flatland MN, it’s amusing to see what people think can get through deep snow. My favorite was in the 11-17" dumping we got a couple weekends back. I was getting through OK in my TL (even though a Lexus SUV was stuck), but the guy that decided to drive his new-ish Porsche 911 wasn’t so lucky. 
Remember what Garrison Keillor said about 4WD vehicles in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota: all they do is let you get stuck farther from home!
OK, now, don’t jump all over me. That was just a wisecrack. I have AWD for the first time in my life, and it’s the best invention since sliced bread. Nevertheless, I did survive 40+ winters without it.
"My RWD BMW 328i with four real winter tires would outperform my ex’s AWD Audi with “all” (read “three”) season tires in winter. "
If I put better tires on my car than my wife’s, she’d soon be my ex too.:=)
I grew up in the snow belt around the Great Lakes. We never had 4WD, and a good set of snow tires and a sandbag in the trunk enabled us to to pretty well everywhere. I only remember being snowed-in 2 or 3 times, December 1951 was a very nasty month with snow plowed up to the telephone wires beside the raods.
The secret in driving in snow is to keep up the MOMENTUM; don’t slow down if you can help it and blast through those 2 foot snowbanks like a speedboat.
Those Volvos probably had 4 studded snow tires and the driving did not reveal any eztraordinary skills.
Was that Baugh and Leuk and Dazeee, the Dukes of Hassleholm.
Hmmm…gotta see you and your buddies driving in formation…
Just to throw a little water on this discussion of how “great it was”; I have to give credit to the narrow tires and the common practice of actually using snow tires along with higher ground clearances. Narrow high profile tires of yesterday are infinitely better in snow than the “normal” low profile of today. All of the advanced rubber compounds and unique tread design on performance tires can still pale in performance in many conditions to a studded, narrow high profile snow of yesterday on a car with decent ground clearance.
Point loading has its place.