[sethammons]

> All wheel drive helps zero with winter conditions, except for going uphill or some other acceleration-equivalent action

What are you on about? Living in Montana, AWD is dramatically better than 4WD. And winter tires are great. We never used them on one of our AWDs because the AWD is so dang good. Snow tires were absolutely required on our 4WD and 2WD cars. AWD or snow tires, I am mindful of stopping distance.

I will always choose AWD for the snow. Then add snow tires if needed.

[sandworm101]

Winter driving cover a broad range of conditions, from "I see snowflakes" to "are we still on a road?" Alleged "snow tires" that are good enough in the former can be next to useless in the later.

I helped an AWD SUV/crossover thing ten feet off the road a couple weeks ago. It was in very deep fluffy/dry snow, half on its side, sitting its weight on the snow rather than the tires. Only one wheel actually turned (front left). The AWD/TC system was literally out of its depth. 4WD, potentially with locking diffs, would not have had that problem. Once we pulled it enough to get some weight on the wheels, the AWD system kicked in and helped drive it back onto the road.

The guy had what he thought were snow tires (snowflake mountain symbol) but looking at the treads myself I didn't see the small grooves that imho are typical of proper snow tires. They looked like all seasons perhaps with some extra silicon to qualify for the badge.

[krupan]

If the weight of the vehicle is not on the wheels then locking diffs or snow tires won't help. If you are high centered you are high centered and you have to solve that problem first.

[sandworm101]

Typically, when you go off the road with some speed you will be high on the front but less so on the back. In this case we couldn't really tell as the rear wheels were not turning (AWD likely defaults to FWD for most driving conditions). In these cases I don't like digging around too much for fear that the car will settle/shift onto someone. We grabbed at the front bumper tow point, rotating the car 45* counterclockwise. At some point during this the rear axel decided to start helping and it half drove itself back onto the road.

[zamadatix]

Summer < summer + awd < good all season < good all season + awd < winter < winter + awd

Is my opinion from living in Michigan i.e. AWD is always a step up but rarely better than having the right tires. It depends a bit on the conditions too - are you looking out the window and wondering if your car will get stuck/make it up an incline or are you looking out the window wondering if your car is going to slide into a into a ditch/the car in front of you or is it an equal mix? AWD adds the most value when there was a heavy snow, unplowed roads, and relatively low traffic since. In any other case it’s really not all that helpful, except maybe a slippery uphill intersection but even then good tires help there and the inverse situation whereas AWD only helps in the one direction.

[evancox100]

AWD or 4WD does nothing for you if you’re braking and trying to stop.

[brookst]

And snow tires do nothing if your two drive wheels are in an icy rut. Different solutions to different problems.