British Expats - Help me pick a car please.....

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Re: Help me pick a car please.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuabroad (Post 10747809)

Plainly you've never tried to accelerate on an icy road with two-wheel front drive. Plainly that might lead you to understand that it can be rather dangerous with traffic behind you waiting to turn, but can't, as you take three minutes to get around the corner. Or even move forward in a straight line. Go read up your data. Or go talk to a traffic cop, fire brigade, the AMA, or perhaps the local guy at Canadian Tyre. Plainly they might be able to help you. What's offroading got to do with driving on the road? As for your stats, AWD is a premium feature and automakers charge for it. Some folks can't afford it. Some people don't care, maybe they grew up their whole lives and never drove an AWD and don't know the difference.

Point is, i've driven all makes and models extensively and there is no way i would CHOOSE NOT to have an AWD in this climate. Especially if i was driving kids around. But mostly it's just common sense. And stop trolling from the other thread.

Plainly my experience of 9 winters here driving fwd cars with winter tires, living rurally with no accidents and never having got stuck counts for nothing? In the parking lot I use at work, I'd say 20% of vehicles are SUV's with AWD, the remainder are a mix of front and rear wheel drive. Winter tires are more important than a tall, heavy AWD vehicle that's less nimble and takes far further to stop. I choose to commute in a fwd car, despite having 4wd and AWD at my disposal.

Re: Help me pick a car please.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuabroad (Post 10747809)

Plainly you've never tried to accelerate on an icy road with two-wheel front drive.

Many times a day actually, all winter long.

Re: Help me pick a car please.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuabroad (Post 10747809)

Are all police and emergency vehicles in Alberta AWD or 4x4?

Re: Help me pick a car please.....

I drive both in winter so feel qualified to say it is not essential to have AWD. A FWD with good snow tires is fine. Saying that - the AWD is the easiest to drive in the conditions so if not comfortable with your driving skills then it is the obvious choice. You do sometimes get traction issues off the line but you learn how to manage that and drive accordingly. You learn begter winter driving skills from driving the FWD wheras i think AWD can give you fakse confidence.

There are a hell of a lot of FWD cars on road getting through winter fine each year.