I live near Buffalo NY, the wind here last week hit 74 mph. I suppose rain is inclement weather. Around here we are hammer down as long as the rain or slush can be heard hitting the bottom of the vehicle. If it suddenly gets very quiet, look out, the temp had dropped low enough that the road has flashed to Ice and in the next few seconds you will see cars spinning. Try not to do anything abruptly and good luck.
The OP seems to be a completely inexperienced driver and wants to buy a new pony car. If she lives anyplace with winter weather, that is the last thing I would advise. My son in law commuted to work on a motorcycle through two Buffalo winters, He is a superb rider and used to race them, that doesn’t mean I would advise a poster to do the same. Anyone who is a gearhead and raced or even used to engage in spirited driving and has a lot of cold weather experience can probably handle any car in the snow. That is not the audience I was addressing.
When I was a little kid, my family had a 1981 Caprice and a 1981 Chevette. Both of those cars were gone by the time I was old enough to drive. They were replaced by a 1988 Toyota Corolla and 1991 Toyota Camry. We lived in Illinois, and the front-wheel drive cars were great during snow, ice, and rain. I have heard that rear-wheel drive cars can be more difficult to control in icy conditions, but I never owned one when I lived there.
Now, I live in Arizona, and I have driven many rear-wheel drive work trucks, but never owned a RWD personal vehicle. We don’t get snow and ice here, however since I have driven 4-cylinder FWD cars for so long, and am happy with them, I see no reason to change.
One thing I can tell you is that for a young person–especially if you are a man, insurance on ANY car will be expensive, and insurance on a performance car will be outlandish. A 10-year old Toyota Corolla would likely be plenty fast for your needs, offer much more usable space, and cost way less to buy and own.
I think my friend Mackey took a picture of him riding in Buffalo winter weather and posted on Facebook. I figured the guy would have to be nuts to ride in that weather in a town with half decent mass transit. I know the light rail system they built in the early ‘80s was never expanded upon, but you can get just about anywhere in Buffalo by bus.
That reminded me that years ago when I worked at an airport in the north where winters are pretty brutal a young man was hired to be on our crew. He had just come from England and lived in a apartment with his mother.
His winter commuting vehicle of choice? A BSA 441 (I think it was) or whatever was a 450 single cylinder “thumper” road bike in that era. He was definitely the only every day winter motorcycle for that area.
How he managed that I don’t know. And he never said a word about any commute. Apparently, I cannot imagine how, they were rather uneventful . CSA
A friend in the mid 60s was in college and at Christmas break it snowed in Oxford Mississippi and he left for home. At the east bound outskirt of town was a long steep hill and with a running start his Mustang would get half way up and then spin out and as he would try to turn around for another try a Volkswagen would pass him. He made several tries and at some point in his run up the hill another VW would pass him and continue over the hill. At some point he went back to campus and waited for the sun to come out but he had a lot more respect for the VW.
To all inexperienced drivers. Go out and get the biggest ugliest Imperial Battle Cruiser you can get your hands on to practice your docking maneuvers. If you get into an accident you’ll have all that metal wrapped around you. If you put a minor dent in it, so what. For the boys, later you’ll appreciate the wisdom of having a big back seat. Trust me!
I hope you were being sarcastic, because that’s terrible advice.
First, the old thinking about having a solid body of metal around you to protect you has been proven wrong by the effectiveness of momentum-absorbing crumple zones. I’d much rather have a car that can absorb an impact than one that maintains its integrity at the expense of my body.
Second, it’s easier to lose control of a big cruiser than it is a small maneuverable car. The first time you jerk the wheel at highway speed to avoid someone pulling out in front of you (like an inexperienced driver would), you’ll lose control of a larger car, and you might or might not regain control before hitting something. Do the same maneuver in a small nimble car, and you just keep on driving.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather avoid a collision than survive one.
So, a $30,000 Mustang interior is not as nice as $75,000 Euro-Lux? Imagine that.
Might as well compare an India built Royal Enfield with a Harley.
Obviously you have not driven a Mustang with an automatic, or any modern V8 Pony car.
I had a 1985 Mustang LX 5.0 5 speed. It was fun to drive, when it was dry. It was terribly unreliable, during the 4 years I had it, the computer was replaced twice, and the clutch twice (OK, I drove it hard, but I own a 1993 Miata with the original clutch still in it at 187000 miles, and I drive that hard as well.) Perhaps they have gotten better since then, I can’t say, I haven’t even looked at buying a Ford product since.
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