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Comment by el-dude-arino | Hacker News Reader

Well I an tell you right now you don't need 4wd, it snows like a MF where I live and if you have FWD with proper snow tires (which you should regardless), you will drive circles around 4WD/AWD cars with just all season tires on in winter.

Just buy a mid-2010's honda civic or a toyota camry.

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I've driven in blizzards with FWD and snow tires successfully many times. However, after having driven AWD for many years now, I greatly prefer the traction it provides and I'd rather not downgrade.

Snow tires help you decelerate, and provide a bit of extra traction to accelerate from a dead stop.

4wd will get you moving from a dead stop as long as you aren't bottomed out. I've gotten several cars un-stuck with both a pickup truck and a UTV in 4wd, neither of which were bothered by the snow that had left the cars marooned.

AWD is better than FWD with snow tires if and only if it also has snow tires.

For moving from a dead stop, why is 4WD better than AWD (assuming equal tires)? Does it have to do with the locking differential, or something else...?

My understanding is that AWD systems generally allocate power to a wheel under certain conditions where it's detected that traction is lost. 4WD sends power to all wheels all the time, except perhaps when traction is lost to one wheel and there is no locking differential. I imagine 4WD feels more powerful at getting unstuck because all the power is there right away and you're not depending on a system / sensor to recognize the need for more traction before it's delivered.

The main disadvantage of FWD is that sometimes you'll be legally required to put chains on in circumstances where the AWD/4WD is exempt.

I can't speak to snow tires, but statistics clearly show 4WD/AWD significantly reduces fatality rates for a given car model.

Confounders ruled out?

Honestly I did fine with FWD and no snow tires on my 97 Ford escort in college in the snow belt (200+ inches of snow a year). People love to waste money on AWD/4WD.

Not having snow tires is illegal and dangerous in Norway.

Good for Norway I guess? Like I said, it was never an issue, and I drove on roads that were consistently snow covered. Just drive slower. I used to pass a lot of vehicles stuck in snow banks off the highway after they had passed me at high speed, cars, trucks, SUVs, didn't matter. The primary risk factor in snow driving is speed.

Also depends on how flat the terrain is

Yes, Norway has good road safety numbers despite the weather.

Not having enough grip is an issue. Summer tires become useless when the road is very cold, or snowy, or icy. It’s physics and while driving slow helps, it’s still unsafe.

It’s not uncommon to see cars with summer tires struggling to climb the tiniest uphill roads with the first ice in October because some people forget that it gets cold every year. Good for you that you never got stuck or crashed, but it doesn’t mean it’s safe.

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