RWD Jeep in Rhode Island

mklee176
Fri, 06 Dec 2013 18:22:19 +0000
Driving/Drivers

Hi everyone!
My wife and I recently relocated from sunny Southern California to Providence, RI for work, and we are getting ready for our first NE winter.
While we’ve been enjoying our time here for the past few months, we are getting nervous about the winter here in NE, Rhode Island in particular.

Coming from California, having a 4WD/AWD is not a common thing unless you find yourself going off-road or skiing up North often. Other than that, having a 2wd is all you need. Now that we’ve been in Providence for a few months, 80% of the cars (SUVs as well) on the road are AWD/4WD, we’ve never seen that many the whole 20 years we’ve been in California. We have a 2007 Jeep Liberty 2wd (RWD) and a 2008 Ford Edge 2wd (FWD). Both cars are equipped with ABS, traction control, and electronic stability program. We’ve been told that the Jeep will do horrible in the winter as it’s a RWD and while my wife’s Edge should be okay since it’s FWD. We can’t afford to trade in my car for a FWD or 4WD/AWD and take on another 5 years of car payment (we are planning on buying a house), and buying a 3rd “beater” Winter car is also out of the question. Our daily commute is less than 5 miles, so we don’t have a long way to go everyday. We are thinking about maybe getting dedicated winter tires, but we do lack a place to store them after Winter.

According to the weather reports we’ve been watching these past few days, there is snow in the forecast, but less than 2 inches. And I’ve been told the streets get plowed pretty quickly after it snows.

I guess I just want to ask everyone for their opinions/experiences are on what the most economical, efficient, and smart route we should take here. Try to find a way to sell my RWD Jeep and get an used 4WD/AWD, get dedicated snow tires, or just keep the all-season we have now and drive defensively?

Thanks!

36 posts - 14 participants