December 26, 2009
Get the right ride for ski country
by Tony Chamberlain/
When the question of car quality is at hand, nothing is more important that where you’re driving. This may seem obvious enough, but why did I find myself years ago headed north in a rear-wheel-drive sports car so light in the rear end that, once we hit the broken snow, we’d skid about every 10 feet?
The answer is necessity. It was the only car available to me and I had to get back to my mid-winter college exams.
At the same time, I was puzzled a few weeks ago to see a Volvo S80 and a Subaru Forester in Naples Fla., with Florida plates. Natives, I thought, though perhaps they do some driving into the high country north, or maybe even ski trips up to the Rockies. Unlikely, although beach use came to mind.
But for people who drive regularly in ski country, the choices become pretty clear, though I must admit to a few prejudices.
For starters, large, four-wheel-drive SUVs are not my vehicle of choice for snow country. This is based party subjectively after renting several cars to drive from the Denver Airport west into the Rockies.
And partly objectively: When a four-wheel drive is not in 4-W mode, it is a rear-wheel-drive car, and coming over Vail Pass that is not the best answer. Four-wheel drive is fine to chew through deep snow and mud season, but for highway driving on a plowed but mixed surface, 4-W is not for cruising.
Front-wheel drive is preferable, though it doesn’t have the digging power to get through drifts. And with front-wheel drive, snow tires on all four wheels is a necessity.
Several cars offer some version of all-wheel drive, a system that lets the vehicle demand its own four-wheel control when it senses the need, based on a sensor that reads one or more wheels is slipping.
I have driven Saabs and Volvos in the Northeast, and now have settled on my own choice — a six-cylinder Subaru Outback, a car that gives driving in snow a kind of recreational caste. My own test is, when driving on a highway around 60, changing lanes over a slush berm, the car should not stumble in the least, and the Outbacks I have owned pass that test with flying colors.
There are a number of good all-wheels out there, Volvo S80, BMW, some Toyota models and even some domestics from Chevy and Ford.
But whatever the brand, a complete snow car inventory should include the following list of items:
► All-wheel-drive train.
► ABS brakes. These are standard on most cars, and improve on the last generation of brakes immeasurably.
► Stability control. This is achieved by various engineering models in different ways, but the importance is pretty obvious in all phases of driving, winter or not.
► Remote start. This seems a mere luxury item at first, but in freezing weather, staying inside to warm up the car seems more than that.
► Heated seats. No explanation needed.
► Heated windshield wipers and washer nozzles. We’ve all tried to de-ice, by hand, when our windshield wipers and nozzles get caked in so they don’t work.
► GPS navigational aid. This is not necessarily winter gear, but falling snow can obscure roadside landmarks, making these chattering electronic companions indispensible.
► Heated side-view mirrors.
This all may seem like pretty obvious stuff. But it’s always pretty amazing how many ill-equipped vehicles wind up in the deep white country of the northern mountains. When making your next purchase, if you are planning on significant winter driving, take in this simple checklist to your dealer.
