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Comment by justinph | Hacker News Reader

In real life, in most situations, ground clearance, good tires, traction control and ABS make more difference than driving all four wheels, most of the time. Personally, I'm more concerned with stopping than starting, and that's where ABS and good tires matter and what kind of transmission you have doesn't.

This is a sales pitch video, but it is interesting to illustrate the differences in AWD approaches, with different vehicles on rollers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cuZYTQLfA0

I spent a lot of time looking at this several years ago when my family was planning on taking a vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where you have to drive on the sand. We ended up renting a Ford Explorer that had a "sand mode" in it's electronically controlled awd setup. Worked great.

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Something I've learned is that snow tires make a big difference during the winter, and I've read that they make a bigger difference than AWD.

Absolutely. Have owned a Prius and a Subaru. The Prius with good snow tires was phenomenal in the snow, better than the Subaru with all-seasons.

Have been a driver for only 2 years but I can confirm that. I live in Eastern Europe where we tend to have at least one or two snow storms per winter, and, indeed, having winter tires and ABS makes a ton of difference, even on a 1.4-liter FWD vehicle like mine.

And, even more important, you have to keep a level head when you see that there's snow on the road and not try to do anything crazy, like making sudden left or right wheel movements. Also try to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you, and, before you venture on a trip outside of the city, just check the weather forecasts: if there's a "red code" storm announced you'd better postpone your journey, only a tank can get you out from something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frf2lV77fl0

Bah, you can still see the road in that video. :-)Not to one-up you, but rather to point out what's possible, your video is a not-uncommon regular winter storm in the midwestern U. S. I grew up driving 2WD RWD vehicles in that stuff, usually got home just fine. I did land my parent's full-sized van in the ditch once. Should have put 25kg bags of salt in the back end to add weight, but might have used said for the water softener, don't recall.

So you don't need 4WD (let alone a tank) if you have some sense. Which is why a lot of people buy 4WD vehicles, I guess.

It really depends on the amount of snow and type of snow. Where I live in Canada, we get enough snow that AWD > snow tires. Given enough snow, or conditions, even snow tires will get stuck. Having power on all 4 wheels really does give superior traction in those situations.

Definitely a good point. For reference, I should have mentioned that I'm in the middle of Wisconsin. We actually had very little snow over the past two years, and I'm hoping for more this winter.

There's a good reason snow tires are legally mandated in Sweden during the winter. They work.

Learning to drive in New England, I was taught "four wheel drive is not four wheel stop", so I definitely agree.

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