In February '07 I bought an '05 Honda Civic EX. It’s a zippy little car, but the tires spin from time to time in dry or rainy conditions on city streets. I’m nervous about taking it off a paved road or driving it in the snow.
Can anyone tell me if this is simply the nature of this car and FWD, or is there something I can do to correct it. Such as a different kind of tire? I’m told the tires are fine, everything is fine.
My old car, a great '93 Suburu sedan with 4-wheel drive was stolen last December. No problem with spinning tires there. Is spinning tires what I must expect with front-wheel-drive?
Thanks
Yeah, it’s a torquie little motor with a zippy first gear ratio on a light front end sitting on 185x65/15 tires. It’ll have a tendency to spin at startup in wet weather and spots with less than optimal traction, like those white panted lines at the stop lights.
Different tires can make a huge difference, even though yours may have plenty of tread left. A Honda Civic forum or research of the consumer reviews on the www.Tirerack.com site may help get a better tire. You could start by looking up your current tires on Tirerack and seeing what others have to say. You may find that better tires are available out there.
Yup!
When I drive my own car, an Outback 6-cylinder, I never get wheel-spin because of the nature of the AWD. However, when I drive my friend’s 4-cylinder Accord (with significantly less power), I frequently spin the front wheels when accelerating. Unfortunately, this is what will happen with any 2 wheel drive car with a decent amount of torque, and that applies to RWD as well as FWD vehicles.
So you don’t want to be able to spin the tires? Waaaaah? 
You should not be nervous about taking the car off the pavement or in to winter conditions. FWD cars usually have better mud and snow traction than their RWD counterparts.
When it comes to starting from a dead stop, FWD cars have a little bit working against them in the physics department. Weight is transferred off of the front and on to the rear of the car (nose up, rear down) and that works against initial traction. But once the car’s suspension settles back in to its normal stance, you’re going to find that you have very good off-pavement traction.
I have yet to spin my tires any of my Subaru’s, yes AWD takes care of that.
If the tires are OEM they are awful esp wet pavement on the Civic all years from 1992-present.
If snow is a concern Nokian WR is one great tire, the only all-season also rated as a winter tire. Otherwise check out tirerack.com for ratings of tires that fit your car.
As noted the torque of the engine is the “problem” It has enough power to spin the tyres that most other cars could not.
For winter I would suggest looking into getting four real winter tyres, not all weather tyres. I suggest putting them on a set of steel rims to make the change over next spring easier and cheaper.