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Comment by yyyuutt | Hacker News Reader

Not sure what you mean about you need big cars in winter. Scandanavia, Russia, Ukraine, Japan etc do just fine with regular size cars.

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I grew up in Northern Michigan, 6+ foot snow piles from drifts were the norm. Growing up, all we could ever afford were tiny sedans. Can you do it, sure, absolutely. The problem is a sedan not capable for all winter tasks, even minor inclines on ice create a major impediment to getting to work. My mother recently chose to spend a little extra on here quality of life and purchased her first SUV. The effect is that you forget ice even exists, it's incredible!

To me, this entire problem can be solved by having a market with varying options for varying situations in life. If you don't want to spend the extra money on a big SUV, you don't have to, and one can use their own reasoning to decide what's right for them. If some person in Russia is happy with driving a crappy little car, all the more power to them. If they want to spend more on a vehicle that more adequately handles the conditions, I would be happy to sell them a big SUV!

I've lived in both rural areas in secluded towns of less than 3000 people in the wintery north and in cities with 1 million+ metros that hardly get a few inches of rain, let alone snow. Different situations call for different tools and if one doesn't like their current mode of transport, they are always free to either move somewhere that fits with their lifestyle more adequately or simply change modes of transportation.

I'm all about the right tool for the job for your life. Personally, I hate snow and love walking so I choose a city that is both walkable has relatively short winter months (Ann Arbor, MI). I'm able to walk or bike to work for most of the year, but I choose to own a vehicle to handle snowy days and Costco visits. Could I get rid of my car? Absolutely. Uber, Lyft, and good neighbors to the rescue... but the cost of ownership is so low compared to the value I get in return. By keeping my car and paying a small amount for gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.., I get to travel anywhere in the continental united states whenever I damn well please without talking to another person, why would I want to get rid of that? If my neighbor hates to travel, hates driving, and is fine with walking a few blocks or waiting on the bus/train to get groceries every few days, all the more power to them. Been there, done that, I'll take my car.

> The problem is a sedan not capable for all winter tasks, even minor inclines on ice create a major impediment to getting to work.

this is some very weird bullshit. i would (and always do) chose a smaller/lighter vehicle over the heavier one any time i need to go through the ice/snow.

the only explanation i can think of is that they tried it on summer tires? but itd be too stupid, wouldnt it?

Honestly not sure, someone with more of a physics background should chime in! We always had winter tires and were quite religious about checking treads, pressure, etc.. as we had to be.

If you equal SUV with AWD then it may be true. However if your sedan had a proper AWD, locking differential(as some Ladas, Subarus, Suzukis, .. have) and slim tires with or without spikes it will beat every now so called SUV with ease.

Finland deals with this issue with snow plowing and winter tires. Small cars work very well in ice and snow.

We always kept our drive free of snow through copious amount of snow blowing and shoveling and if you look at the private roads/driveways up there, that is typically the solution. For the private roads that people didn't shovel or snow plow, they would either ski, snowshoe, or drive a snowmobile. In my view, the issue up there was that government was doing an awful job and the public didn't care enough to change it so it never changed.

> I grew up in Northern Michigan, 6+ foot snow piles from drifts were the norm. Growing up, all we could ever afford were tiny sedans.

Could you not have afforded skis? For 6 feet of snow, they're much better than any car.

> If some person in Russia is happy with driving a crappy little car, all the more power to them. If they want to spend more on a vehicle that more adequately handles the conditions, I would be happy to sell them a big SUV!

Many people in Russia driving crappy little cars often aren't doing that because they prefer it.

> Could you not have afforded skis? For 6 feet of snow, they're much better than any car.

Snowmobiles were extremely common, absolutely! But as someone who doesn't like be cold and wet, they're not exactly the thing I want to ride before sitting down at my desk. As I mentioned in another comment, a lot of my fellow classmates would drive their snowmobiles to school because they either wouldn't get plowed out before noon or they would simply prefer it over the alternatives.

> Many people in Russia driving crappy little cars often aren't doing that because they prefer it.

Well yes, Russia has had it's own problems with creating opportunity and wealth in their country (I assume this is what you are getting at anyway). Policy aside, I disagree with you that they don't prefer it. If that were the case, those people would be walking or doing something else instead of driving those cars. If you are saying those people are not choosing their preferred option due to say, someone forcing them to do something else by gun point, well then I would say we are discussing very different things and I'll leave it at that.

Edit: I should also note, I loved to ski! It's roller-blades with snow and when I could, I would!

>Could you not have afforded skis?

I’m not sure if this was intended as a joke, but when I spent time in northern MI using snowmobiles instead of commutes wasn’t uncommon

Exactly right, a fair number of my fellow students would ride to school on a snowmobile!

The real difference is not AWD/4WD, it's tire quality. Any car will do great on snow and ice with good winter tires, the key to all winter driving is to be smooth on all inputs you give the car.

Remember that your AWD car may put power to the ground through all four tires, but it has the same braking capabilities as any other car. Please don't over-speed your braking distance.

The best vehicle I’ve ever had in the snow was pretty small - a (2001?) Mercury Cougar. I live in Minnesota and I remember staying at a girlfriend’s apartment overnight during a snow storm. The next day we had someplace to be and she was really worried we weren’t going to be able to get out of the parking lot because people were needing to shovel out their big trucks.

I told her it wasn’t a problem and just rocked my way out of the space and on we went. Snow tires are amazing, and it’s incredible to me how few people get them here.

Soviet Russia even created the Lada Niva (which is still build), a precursor to modern SUVs in that it features a self-supporting chassis. It's small enough to put on the side for changing tyres.

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