Winter is coming up. I hear you guys offhandedly talk about snow and winter beaters, but I can't really get a picture of what it's really like. Is the reality of driving in snow really this bad? How would you even commute to work in a timely manner every day?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDY5wLayYU0



Also, from this and many other videos, I don't understand why people will pay all this money to buy an SUV for snow, but won't pay any money for winter tires.

 

I haven't seen any road around here get as bad as that video, but something like that is definitely hard to maneuver on no matter what tires you have (excluding studded.)



My winter commute takes at most 5 minutes longer in snow than on a dry day, not really that bad if you have the right tires and understand your limits.

 

It depends. That video was taken of drivers in West Virginia. Anything in that area (Mid-Atlantic) and down south, will create havoc for many drivers when a lot of snow falls because they are not accustomed to it. They dont have road plows or salt trucks to handle it, and many people do not buy proper winter tires because it's not needed too often.



However, in the Northeast and up into Canada, it can get VERY bad during the winter months. Blizzards, black ice, 4+ FEET of snow in one night, etc. Generally speaking though, most people usually learn how to cope with it and how to properly drive through bad conditions. Having proper tires, not slamming on the brakes when you skid or fish tail, and just generally taking your time. My Jeep has off road tires and it's 4 wheel drive. I still usually take it easy when the weather is pretty bad, because there's ALWAYS that one idiot with a 4 wheel drive vehicle that goes flying pass everyone on the roads because they think they're invincible, and a few miles down the road you see them in a ditch. lol



But to answer your question..yes...winter sucks balls, it lasts too long, and it's a b*tch to deal with at times. But it's nice to wake up on Christmas morning and see a nice blanket of white fluff on the ground and trees. And it's nice to snowboard and ski on in December. But after that, winter can die.

 

I hope we get some snow again this winter. The tires I had last time around were a blast on the frozen abandoned country roads, I can't wait to see how much worse the R888s are for the couple of house we get real weather.





For the record though, I know what winter is really like and grew up accustomed to snow. Hell, when we were in Michigan for x-mas last year the rural-ass area we drove had no salt or prep. But still we got around despite the FWD American loaner. People down here (as that video proves) just drive like a**holes in the snow. The problem isn't the weather, it's the idiots. And sadly, they amass a majority percentile of the populous

 

the absolute WORST snow drivers are the ones that act super scared about the snow and on edge. For some reason even the smallest slightest bit of sliding requires a drastic over-correction and slamming on the brakes.



So far from my travels ive found that the WORST snow drivers come from Texas. a**holes with 4wd pickup trucks who think that'll help em stop faster.

 

Winter here gets a lot like that video.



We don't have enough bad winter weather to have the required road clearing equipment to deal with it, but we usually get one storm with a foot or so of snow a winter, and once in a while we will get 2 feet. Last time that we had a big storm it was 22 inches at work and I was the first person to get to work on the mix of plowed and unplowed roads in my stock Accent with studded snow tires. I'm very comfortable with winter driving, but most of the drivers here lose 50 IQ points whenever the weather changes.



I just go do this:

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHnzXOoF31I[/media]

 

It only gets as bad as the video 1 or 2 times during the winter. Atleast around here.



Road crews do a pretty good job keeping up with the snowfall, last year there were a couple days here during big storms where the plow trucks were running 12hr shifts, 24hrs a day.



Western NY gets hammered quite frequently being by the lake, but they're used to it. 2 or 3ft of snow won't even close schools there lol.



Here a foot will delay/close schools which means kids are home, which means parents and school employees are home which takes a good chunk of commuters off the roads, making it a little easier to travel.



The shittest situations are when it starts snowing heavily in the later afternoon during work, the ride home is terrible cause the plows haven't gotten to all the roads yet.