Art of Gears
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Winter Cars: 5 rides for that crazy Midwestern weather

By Andrew Hulse

IOWA CITY, IA - FEBRUARY 03: A car sits abandoned in the median of I-380 February 3, 2011 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa. A massive winter storm smashed into a third of the country, from Texas to Wisconsin, on February 1st and 2nd, making travel treacherous. Major highways are now open but a cold snap behind the storm is keeping temperatures hovering around zero degrees in southwest Iowa. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IA - FEBRUARY 03: A car sits abandoned in the median of I-380 February 3, 2011 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa. A massive winter storm smashed into a third of the country, from Texas to Wisconsin, on February 1st and 2nd, making travel treacherous. Major highways are now open but a cold snap behind the storm is keeping temperatures hovering around zero degrees in southwest Iowa. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) /

All Wheel Drive isn’t necessary, good winter tires are.

Whether you are talking about winter cars or summer cars, front wheel drive tends to get a hard time for not being as good as rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive but there is a ton of fun to be had in a front-wheel drive vehicle.

The trick to keeping a front wheel drive car fun is remembering all the steering and throttle is at the same two contact patches, once you adjust accordingly a great time can still be had. I want to at least address front-wheel drive as most of the cars and sedans on the road are equipped as such.

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I didn’t want to choose a single car for this portion because in all cases good tires make the car when it comes to winter driving.  This is especially true when it comes to front driven cars, the difference even from a good all season tire and a good winter tire completely transforms the nature of the car.

One thing to be aware of, dry pavement eats snow tires up so make sure to not leave them on too long after spring.

I had evidence of this when I had a 2006 Civic SI Coupe, the thing was a pig on ice even after swapping the summer tires for all season.  Upon the first snow of the season, I couldn’t even get rolling.

I caved and bought some snow tires and out of the blue the car did better than my Mom’s all-wheel drive SUV and I didn’t have a single other problem.

While I won’t say there is one particular front-wheel car I can call better than all others in the snow, most of them will be just fine in a snowy climate with the right tires.  If it is so bad out that even with snow tires you can’t get going, it probably isn’t safe to go.  When the ground thaws, swap back to summer tires for a rip-roaring fun time.

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